Worthless Necessity
by Kirityu Ryukaro
Summary: Quirks aren't everything in this world, nor is your family status. Animals with quirks are pushed away, merely because they're animals. Nezu? Heck, he's so smart, everyone's scared of what would happen if they got on his bad side. Half the society, at the very least, still think that he's just an animal. Warning: This fic contains depression, suicide, self harm, etc. ShinDeku Fic
1. Chapter 1 - You change the world?

All men are not made equal.

That was a commonly known phrase in his home. His father, a powerful hero, with a fire breathing quirk. His mother, a loving woman, with a weak telekenesis quirk. Anf then there was him, a weak, scrawny boy, with no quirk at all.

Midoriya couldn't even remember his parents that well. He remembered that they had gone with him for his quirk examination, only to realise that he had two toe joints, and no quirk at all.

He remembered some villains breaking into his house in the middle of the night. He remembered his mother's screams as they burnt her alive. He remembered that gloved hand, clutching at his neck, rendering his father's power useless as he was cut down.

He remembered fire.

He loved fire.

_He hated fire._

He was sent to a foster home at the age of seven.

Midoriya didn't have any friends. And he didn't want to make any. All he had was, a kitten he had adopted when he was ten and...

He didn't want to remember.

_The yowls, the sound of glass breaking, that horrible feeling in his heart as he watched, his limbs were frozen in place, rain pelting against the window and thunder roared._

He felt horrible.

_And people called animals savage?_

Animals kill to survive.

Humans kill for fun and entertainment.

And Midoriya hated it. He hated his new "family". He hated his classmates. He hated how everyone was judged for their quirks, some stupid genetic thing that ancient people didn't have.

People could make things explode. People can become human generators. People could bring buildings down. People can hurt and cause so much more harm, so much more easily!

_Yay._

After all, there's no such thing as friendship. People aren't selfless saints. With minds that only aim to make life better for themselves, humans will step over others, and make use of whatever resources they have at their disposal.

Humans won't do things if it doesn't benefit them. Humans were smarter than most animals, but their way of life was certainly crueler than any wild animal that roamed free.

Or so he thought.

_Heroes?_ They were jokes.

Todoroki Enji, otherwise known as Endeavor? He probably didn't give a shit as to who he killed as long as he caught the villain, and that defeated the entire purpose of being a hero in the first place.

There were a few heroes he did actual like though, and that knowledge pushed him forward.

Some like Nezu. The poor animal with a quirk had been experimented on, but still ended up being a hero, and using his massive intelligence to help others. But Midoriya knew that some people were still not accepting of him being a hero despite his intelligence, saying that he was an animal and wasn't on the same tiers as a human.

_What utter bullcrap. Nezu was easily smarter than at least ninety five percent of the human population._

And Aizawa. Midoriya loved underground heroes, because they chose to stay out of the limelight so they could better help people. They actively made the choice to stay away from the attention and media. They won't be praised by everyone as they walked along the streets, the only credit they got was from the police, their agencies, and their paycheck.

But Midoriya didn't want to be an underground hero. Not because he didn't want to save people, but just because they weren't influential enough. No one knew them, who cares about what they may have to say about controversial matters?

He wanted to rip this world apart from the inside out, this world that only cared about quirks, about what family you came from, your genetics, your heritage, your blood line.

Quirks have done nothing for the society but be a hindrance. Technological advancements have all but stilled, except for building technology to enhance quirks. Quirks are everything now.

No one cares about who you are. Just your genetics and status.

And Midoriya Izuku wanted to change the world for the better.

He wanted to show that quirks weren't what made a person, that their background didn't make them who they were. He wanted to be an influential hero. A hero like All Might, who gave everyone a sense of peace just because he smiled.

He wanted to prove that a failure of a person with a useless quirk like him could be a hero.


	2. Chapter 2 - You're so far gone

Midoriya hopped along the rooftops, before he slid down a pip and landed firmly on the ground. A faint meow rang out from inside his hoodie, and Midoriya sighed.

"Rei, I told you already. A few more minutes and then we'll be there."

Reiko, or Rei, as Midoriya called her, was a five year old kitten. She had all the traits of a Maine Coon, but with her small size, there was no way she was a pure breed. His foster mother didn't allow pets in her house, as after what she did to Reiko's mother? There was no way Midoriya was going to let Reiko stay in his room without him.

Reiko was smart. She always knew when Midoriya's foster mother was about to barge into his room. That was one of the rules imposed on him. Midoriya was not allowed to lock his door. Reiko always knew when to hide under Midoriya's bed, to prevent his foster mother finding her.

Midoriya often brought her out whenever he went out doing his vigilante stuff. She often helped him with reconnaissance, alerting him when people were nearby, or just sniffing out trails whenever possible.

He didn't exactly want to bring her into his dangerous life, tangled with fighting villains and avoiding cameras, but it was a much better fate than if his foster mother found her. All his hoodies had a compartment sewn into it, which Reiko stayed in as he rushed and jumped around, and his school bag also had another secret compartment where she would stay in as he went to school.

"Hey! Look what I found here! The animal!"

Midoriya scowled, and made his way towards the sound. He hated it when people were biased against animals simply for being animals. It was the genetics thing all over again.

He peered down the rooftop, and found five men surrounding what looked to be a bear? A large dog? He couldn't tell in the absence of light, but he just watched. Maybe they were just tracking down a lost pet, or a wild animal? Midoriya thought it was unlikely, hearing the tone they spoke with, but it was possible that they were just tired and snappy.

One of the men brought up a knife, "An animal with a quirk, huh? What utter bullshit!"

"You're not a human, you don't deserve to be treated like one."

With that, they struck, and the bear swerved to the side, letting one man crash into the wall, and dodged a slash of a knife. Midoriya hopped down from the rooftop, smashing into a villain, knocking him out, before he proceeded to knock out the remaining four men.

He realised that the bear, wasn't just a bear.

It was Nezu, the principal of U.A. High School, an extremely rare case of an animal who manifested a Quirk.

He promptly took out his phone, and texted Tsukauchi. The detective knew him, as a vigilante, and he was probably too exasperated with him to figure out how to catch him. His phone was also untraceable, so they couldn't trace him anyways.

He had come close a few times, but Reiko was a huge help in letting him escape.

He put his phone back, and turned to Nezu.

"Are you okay?"

"I am fine, thank you very much." Nezu nodded, "And you are? I don't think I know a hero with your appearance and size."

"Void." Midoriya replied. That was the name he usually went by, and all the heroes he had encountered knew him by that name. He didn't want to hold a conversation with Nezu, as much as he liked and admired the animal hero, and leapt up a ladder, climbing up onto the roof.

He made his way to the park to take a breather. He often stopped by the park in the dead of night. Reiko liked the fresh air, and Midoriya just enjoyed the peace and quiet.

He hopped off the roof, landing in a crouch, before he looked around, feeling someone following him but not noticing anything amiss. He jogged to the park, and sighed, before finding the bench he usually sat on and plopped down.

_His mother used to bring him to this park when he was younger, and they used to have picnics there and -_

Midoriya shook his head. No more bad memories. He didn't want to break that mask that he had spent so hard making, the metaphorical mask that made him apathetic to everything around him. Nothing matters anymore, humans were scum, and those who weren't were not influential enough to do anything.

Reiko popped out of his hoodie, looked around, before mewling and hiding back into his hoodie.

Someone was there, and Midoriya tried to look around without appearing to be looking out for someone, and found that someone was walking towards him.

Nezu, to be exact. The hero wasn't exactly the most discreet, and he was easily recognizable a mile away when he was wearing clothes and walked on his hind legs. Midoriya had no idea how he didn't recognise him before he jumped into the fray.

"Hello, Void. I wasn't expecting to see you here." Nezu greeted.

"I am pretty sure you knew I would be here." Midoriya snorted.

"Well, if you don't mind, may I sit here?"

Midoriya raised his eyebrow at Nezu's question, "Why are you asking? Of course you can sit here. I don't own the bench, I literally can't stop you from sitting down."

Nezu gave him a small smile, as he climbed up onto the bench to sit next to Midoriya. "Most people don't approve, even if they aren't vocal about it. You're one of the very few who seem completely fine with it."

It was silent for some time, until Midoriya spoke up, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Ask away."

"You were experimented on before, weren't you? How can you tolerate humans? Work with them, ignore the discrimination, make your way to the top despite everyone being against you?"

Nezu looked at the boy in surprise. Not many people nowadays didn't really know about that, he's been the principal of UA for a pretty long time, even when Aizawa and Yamada were students.

"Aren't you a human yourself?"

Nezu watched as the vigilante's form slumped, and he leaned against the back of the bench. The principal of UA was good at reading people, but he found that he could barely read Void at all. He could tell he wasn't malicious ... but that was about it.

"Unfortunately. Humans are scum. They lie, they cheat, they'll do anything in order to make them feel better about their pathetic selves and they're completely okay with using others as stepping stones for them. They take advantage of others for their own gain. They're selfish, and they cause everything around them to suffer. They destroy so much and yet they complain that they don't have enough. It's a pity that they're the dominating species when they're even more savage and monstrous than even the worst carnivores. At least animals just do it for survival. Humans make animals, and even other humans suffer just because they're sick bastards and get a kick out of it."

Nezu noted how Midoriya used the word they to describe humans, almost as if he's not a part of them. Then again, if he does have that kind of mindset, it's no wonder why he didn't want to be associated with them.

Void had always been described as a mysterious person, appearing to enter a fight, win, and disappearing without a trace. Several heroes have encountered the vigilante, such as Nishiya, Yamada, and Kamihara, and one thing in common that they mentioned was that the vigilante seemed to have an analysis quirk of some sort, easily being able to figure out what their quirk is and how exactly they work.

Void would usually give them tips on how to better use their quirks, and then mentioning something about learning not to be reliant on their quirks before he disappeared. None of the other heroes have ever seen him for more than five minutes, and never more than once. And Void was the one that tipped Yamada off about a case from five or six years back, which ended up in Aizawa busting in to rescue, and end up adopting a kid with a brainwashing quirk who was being abused and bullied.

Aizawa did mention once in a meeting that Void didn't seem to have a quirk, since he always claims that he fights quirkless and there is no trace of quirk usage whenever the police came to pick the criminals up other that the obvious ones that the villains used, but it seemed unlikely given how quickly the vigilante appeared and disappeared, and the insight he gave on their quirks.

Most of the heroes found Void slightly annoying. He wasn't vicious, his methods used to take criminals down had to be questioned slightly, but to Nezu, Midoriya just looked like a kid who was tired of the world, broken from everything thrown at him. And his voice, gods, Nezu swore that he was barely thirteen, fourteen at the maximum. Why was the vigilante so young?

Hissing, Midoriya replied, "I thought about it… All they care about is quirks. You have a powerful quirk and you're a hero? You can do whatever you want and literally no one would bat an eyelash. That's all they care about. And if you don't have a quirk… are you even considered human when eighty percent of the population have a quirk and most that don't are from the older generations?"

Nezu stared at him blankly.

"That's… some interesting insight there. You don't seem to think that quirks are just that important?"

"They're not. Just look at Eraser Head, or Aizawa Shouta. You probably know him, he works in your school as a homeroom teacher. His quirk lets him erase quirks, and he can't erase mutant quirks. Yet he is still a decent underground pro hero. And then look at freaking Endeavor. He has a strong quirk, one that people all over Japan praises as a heroic, powerful quirk, but that guy is the literary definition of an abusive asshole."

Nezu really had no idea how to react, or more like he wasn't sure how to react. This was something that clearly upset Midoriya, and while he wanted to pry, he didn't want to say something wrong by accident that would set him off.

_Maybe he was abused too. That's why he says this about Endeavor._

"Mind explaining?"

Midoriya growled, "Endeavor is an asshole to people, he causes more property damage than the rest of the top ten heroes combined, he has the highest villain kill count, and his wife is in a psychiatric ward. The news states that she poured hot water on Todoroki Shouto's face, but based off other people's comments, she's a loving and caring person, and would not do something like that to her youngest son. While Rei was being escorted out of their house to the psychiatric ward, the pictures in the article also show that the kids, namely Shouto, were afraid of Endeavor, and you can see in one of the pictures that Todoroki Fuyumi and Todoroki Natsuo were running after their mother while Endeavor held them back. Endeavor has four kids, Todoroki Touya, who ran away quite some time ago, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shouto. Based on their hair colour, Touya has a fire quirk, Fuyumi and Natsuo have ice quirks, and only Todoroki Shouto has a balance between both quirks. Based on most of the pictures on their social media pages, Endeavor ignores Fuyumi and Natsuo, and has been training Touya and Shouto, presumably because of their fire quirks. Touya ran away, even before Rei poured boiling water on Shouto. If Endeavor was a good father, there's no way that he would ignore two of his kids, make Touya run away, and make Shouto fear him so much."

Nezu hummed. He had suspected that something was off, but at the time, Enji had been so insistent that Rei was at fault, and he couldn't investigate at all. Most of the police and detectives didn't want to work with him, and he didn't want to work with other heroes he was familiar with in case this entire matter was publicised and they got into trouble with the number two hero.

Now? He really wanted to go investigate. He needed to. The fact that a teenager was able to deduce all this from a few social media posts and newspaper clippings shows that this is a huge problem. Even if Enji wasn't abusive, he could give people the wrong idea about everything.

"Hm. Thank you for the insight. I did suspect that something was wrong… I'm surprised that no one else saw the signs."

Midoriya sighed, and leaned back on the bench.

"They won't let you investigate?"

MIdoriya took Nezu's silence as a yes.

They sat there in silence, until Nezu sighed, and looked at his watch, "Well, it's rather late, or early, in this case."

"You never did answer my earlier question."

Nezu glanced at Midoriya, who was looking at him out of the corner of his eye, before replying, "There's not much you can do when you're different. I'm smart, yes, but it's not enough to change the world. I can't change how people perceive me, I just have to deal with it. If I had a choice, I definitely wouldn't choose to work with most humans that I have to interact with. That's why I plan to change the rules to let quirkless students enter UA's hero course. I want to teach the future generation to not be biased just purely based off someone's quirk."

Midoriya stayed quiet, before responding, "Really?"

Nezu turned to the boy and waited for him to clarify.

Midoriya spoke with disbelief lacing his voice, "You're willing to let someone quirkless enter the hero course? Even if they have no powers? Even if they're unable to stand up for themselves? Even if everyone considers them useless and an utter waste of space? Even if they're better off dead?"

Nezu frowned, "I didn't think you would be one to say that after what you just said. The quirkless aren't useless. If they try, I'm sure they can accomplish what they set out to do."

".. Thank you…. That's the first time anyone has ever said that to me…"

Nezu blinked, "What?"

Midoriya gave a dry, humourless laugh, "I have two pinky toe joints."

He was taken aback. He wasn't expecting Midoriya to actually say something like that. The quirkless had always been discriminated against, and the suicide rate for the quirkless population was increasing. No wonder he was so angry and upset.

Nezu was glad this boy hadn't decided to try take his life yet.

_He didn't know how wrong he was._

Midoriya stood up.

"You're recording this, aren't you?"

Nezu chuckled, "Worried I'm going to do something with it?"

"No. I didn't break any rules, I never used a quirk against anyone, you can't turn me in or use this against me."

"True."

Midoriya stood up, and started to make his way out of the park.

"Thanks for... letting me talk. It's nice to finally be able to interact with someone who isn't human."

"Void."

Midoriya stopped walking, and turned around when he heard Nezu call his name.

"Would you like to meet again? Next week, same day, same time?"

Nezu swore he caught a small smile on the vigilante's face, and maybe some faint mewing, but that could just be a stray cat.

"If it's no bother to you."


	3. Chapter 3 - They don't know my heart

Aizawa huffed quietly as he jumped down from the building, landing in a crouch in the alleyway. He quickly knocked out the villains, wrapped their wrists in cable ties, and dialed the police, keeping an eye on them as he waited for the police to come collect the criminals.

Shinsou was at home, and Yamada was taking care of him, so he didn't have to worry. He was concerned on fridays, since he had patrol and Yamada had his radio show at night, but Shinsou was a good kid, and if he needed to, he could always call Kayama for help, and Yamada was always willing to rush back home in case Shinsou needed him for something since they didn't live too far away.

The police came, and took the criminals away, letting Aizawa finally leave his current location to seek out more villains.

Aizawa walked out of the alley, before ducking into another alley after he caught sight of another D-ranked villain. He knocked him out before the villain could do anything, tying him up, before he heard a voice from above.

"So, Eraser Head?"

Aizawa whirled around, activating his quirk on instinct, and was surprised to see a boy wearing a black hoodie perched on a rooftop. No one had ever snuck up on him before when he was on patrols, and he was pretty damned sure there wasn't anyone on the rooftop. The fact that it was the damned vigilante proved that he knew what he was doing.

This was the kid that Yamada was talking about. The one that tipped him off about their son's former abusive household almost four years ago. Aizawa supposed he should thank Midoriya for handling that situation delicately, sending an underground hero to check before taking action, but at this point, he was just so annoyed from all the reports by other heroes about this vigilante, he just wanted to catch the damned kid.

Aizawa grasped his capture weapon firmly and released his quirk. Midoriya blinked, seemingly confused, but Aizawa couldn't really tell from his position.

"Void, I presume. What do you want?"

"Bold of you to assume I want something." Midoriya replied in with zero hints of emotion, and Aizawa frowned as Midoriya hopped down. He swore he heard a meow from somewhere, but there were no cats in sight.

"Why do you keep your hair long? It rises when you used your quirk. That's a dead giveaway if those villains actually use their brains."

Aizawa grumbled, "And you care, why?"

Midoriya shrugged, "You kinda fight quirkless? Nice to know there's a hero out there who can actually do something without a stupid flashy quirk."

_Makes sense…_ Aizawa thought _… I can't sense a quirk on him._

"Anyway, what do you want? You're clearly just a kid. You're too young to be jumping around like that."

"Does it matter?" Midoriya asked.

"It's dangerous to be out like this. How old are you? Fifteen? Sixteen?"

Midoriya just shrugged, opting to remain silent.

"Villains don't care if you're just a kid. They'll kill you all the same."

"Good. Let them try." Midoriya retorted, and Aizawa was taken aback from the harshness of his tone, "Not like they'll succeed anyway. I'm not a useless kid."

"I never said you were useless. I'm just saying they won't go easy on you, and there's a chance that you won't ever see the light of day again. I may not be able to arrest you because you're not using a quirk, but I am going to try and stop you."

No, Aizawa didn't care about the vigilante. Nezu just talked a lot about him in the staff room, his possible motives, what he's possibly after, why he went after heroes who seemed popular, how he knew who they were out of costume. Aizawa did not know why Nezu was so invested in Void, but Nezu seemed to be happier, so Aizawa didn't mind him. Nezu's sadistic tendencies also seemed to be going down, so really, no one was worried. Nezu was a grown… animal..?... after all, as well as a pro hero, so he's allowed to be invested in anything, or in this case, anyone he liked.

Aizawa was going to say something, before Midoriya looked away, and stuck out his hand in a gesture to tell him to stop.

"Shh. I hear something."

Aizawa paused, and strained to listen to whatever Midoriya had heard, but he couldn't hear anything besides from something getting whacked a few times.

_I must be getting old._

"There's a mugging. Two alleyways down." Midoriya stated, before he leapt up the ladder and made his way to the rooftop. Aizawa lashed one of the railings with his capture weapon, pulling himself up onto the rooftop

He ran after Midoriya as he jumped over an alleyway, rolling when he hit the roof, before swiftly dropping down into the next alleyway. To his surprise, Midoriya was spot on, and there was a man swinging a bat down on another man. Midoriya growled, and dropped down on the man with the bat, knocking him out immediately.

"Ah.. thank you…" The other man was bleeding, but was thanking Midoriya profusely.

Midoriya didn't even respond, and just ran into the darkness, before climbing back onto the roof so quietly that if you didn't know he was there, you wouldn't even notice him.

Aizawa sighed as his phone buzzed. He fished it out of his pocket, and groaned as he was sent a location for a gang fight.

"Hey, brat. There's a gang fight. Wanna come with?"

"Never thought you would be one for hospitality."

"Tch." Aizawa grumbled, "I just want to make sure you're still alive and where I can keep an eye on you. If you can sneak up on heroes, then a petty gang fight shouldn't be of much trouble."

The gang fight wasn't even that far away. Just a few blocks down from where they were. Aizawa and Midoriya just dropped down on them, catching them by surprise. There were roughly ten members in each group, but it didn't take too long for Aizawa and Midoriya to finish each gang off.

Aizawa would have finished his fight faster, but he was trying to keep an eye on Midoriya. He wasn't just trying to keep the vigilante safe, but he was also trying to analyse the kid, figure out how he fought, what were his motivations, why he didn't seem to care for his own life, why he seemed to be so emotionless save for anger and hatred.

He realised one thing about the kid.

Midoriya fought like an animal. Aizawa couldn't see a pattern to how he fought. He kicked and punched, and while he had decent power behind his blows, there was no rhyme or reason as to why he did each action. There was no fighting style, and he seemed to just lash out at the closest person who posed a threat to him. Heck, the kid even bit down on a man's arm when he got too close, and judging by the screams of pain, and since it was that painful even through a layer of clothes, he had a powerful jaw and his teeth were pretty damn sharp.

Aizawa thought he had screwed up as he saw that Midoriya's arms were occupied wrangling a villain. Ten enemies per person was too many for Midoriya, and another man rushed at Midoriya, a knife aimed at his face.

Aizawa was going to jump in to save Midoriya when Midoriya glared at him, his eyes burning under the hood, almost as if he was telepathically telling him not to get involved.

Much to his surprise, Midoriya pulled his head back, dodging the blow, before clamping his teeth down hard on the knife and jerked it out of his grasp, pulling the man off balance. He kicked the man into the wall, before flipping the guy he was originally grappling with into the ground.

Aizawa just hoped that the kid brushed his teeth daily.

After that, the fight went smoothly, and it wasn't long before all twenty gang members from both sides were lying on the ground, knocked out.

"You okay, kid?"

"Worry about yourself. One of them came close to realising that your hair floats when you activate your quirk. The only reason he hasn't taken advantage of it was probably because he wasn't sure and his buddies were getting thrown around like ragdolls. Also, go put your eye drops on. I'm not gonna bother you."

Aizawa blinked as Midoriya clambered up the ladder, and hopped back on to the rooftop. He tried to follow him, but by the time he made his way up, Midoriya was already gone. He huffed, and pulled his goggles off the drop the saline liquid in it.

_Why did Nezu have to take a liking to this problem child?_

Unknown to him, Midoriya stood in a nearby alleyway, pretty sure that Aizawa wouldn't chase after him. He remained quiet, as Reiko poked her head into the alleyway. She had escaped the gang fight after Midoriya placed her on the rooftop after Aizawa jumped down, and Midoriya picked her up and gently placed her in his hoodie.

She gave a small purr, but Midoriya was staring darkly at his gloved hand, scowling.

"So, I have a quirk, huh?"

He was quickly shaken out of his thoughts when his phone vibrated in his pants pocket.

He had a rat to meet.

* * *

The meeting with Nezu had gone… as well as anyone had expected. It's been five months since he had first encountered Nezu, and he was still trying to crack down Enji's case, compile enough evidence against him that he could actually be convicted, and they had a lengthy conversation about quirk marriages, and everything that he could have possibly done wrong as well as trying to find as much about this case as possible.

But it wasn't enough to quell that burning feeling in Midoriya's stomach.

_I have a quirk._

Midoriya was positive that he didn't have a quirk. If you asked him about it before he met Aizawa, he would have told you that you were crazy.

But knowing Aizawa's quirk, knowing he activated it in his direction, at him, there was no doubt about it.

When Aizawa activated his quirk, his heart suddenly felt lighter. He didn't feel as depressed as he used to feel, and he was pretty sure he felt something disappear. A quirk, to be precise.

He had a quirk. A quirk he wasn't supposed to have.

He didn't know how he got it, but he needed to figure out what it was first.

Midoriya had done his research. He had two joints in pinky toe, and that was one of the preliminary tests to see if a person had a quirk or not. His father, trying not to get his hopes up, had brought him to a specialist to check whether he had the capacity to develop a quirk, since there had been those odd cases where a person with two joints in their pinky toe developed a quirk.

He wasn't one of those lucky ones. He had no chance of having a quirk.

And yet, he had one.

_There had also been documented cases on this as well, and they were called trauma induced quirks. Quirks that developed when the body underwent extreme amounts of stress, quirks that were somehow related to the cause of trauma in a desperate attempt at self preservation._

Midoriya cursed to himself, as he sat on his room, a knife in hand.

A trauma induced quirk.

Now that he knew he had a quirk. He had his suspicions, from those times he were to the beach, the times he went to tall, abandoned buildings, that one time he crept into the kitchen to find painkillers.

_Maybe someone had saved him._

_Maybe the building wasn't tall enough._

_Maybe he didn't take enough aspirin._

He didn't want a quirk. He lived so long without one, and as much as he hated it, he needed to test it. He needed to figure out what it was, so he could avoid using it as much as possible.

The entrance exam was in two month's time. He didn't have time to spare. He needed to find out as soon as possible.

Midoriya rolled up his sleeve, revealing a multitude of scars that littered his arms. He had done this to himself. It was normal. Nothing to do with a quirk, for sure.

Reiko leapt onto his table, hissing, trying to take Midoriya's attention off the knife. She had already tried to smack it off his desk before, but at a kitten, she couldn't really do anything.

"I'm sorry Reiko. But I need to know."

Midoriya grasped the knife firmly, before plunging it into his open palm, cutting right through the metacarpals on his left hand.

Blood dripped down the knife as it completely penetrated his hand, staining the towels underneath. Midoriya barely felt it, and sighed, roughly yanking the knife free from his hand.

He stared at the crimson liquid on the knife, before back at his hand.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Blood still leaked out of his wounds, and while it didn't hurt as much as Midoriya supposed it should hurt, he had taken beatings from all over, a stab through his non-dominant hand wasn't going to do much.

He needed to turn it up a notch.

Maybe next time he should break a slightly more important bone.

* * *

To be honest, when Nezu first proposed to meet Void the following week, he wasn't exactly expecting Void to agree to his proposal. Void seemed like the kind of person who liked his privacy, and less people knew about him, the better he could sneak around doing his vigilante stuff.

Then, Void actually showed up. He was on time, staring into space, but he had turned to look at Nezu when he got close. He spoke about things that most humans didn't think or care about, and Nezu even learnt some things about Void.

Void was quirkless, that he knew from their first meeting. He learnt that Void volunteered at an animal shelter after school. He learnt that Void seemed to like animals, and had even caught his cat peeking out of his hoodie on one occasion, but never brought it up. And Void detested humans, but he wasn't letting his bias against the human race stop him from doing the right thing.

_"Just because a majority of them are bad doesn't mean all of them are bad. There are exceptions."_

Void never disclosed his age, but he was in middle school, Nezu knew that for sure based off his stature. But he still didn't have a good read of Void. Void wasn't nervous around him like other humans were. Void was tense, yes, but he was tense all the time, as if he were expecting an attack at anytime from anywhere. He never expressed any emotion save for the occasional angry, upset comment.

Needless to say, Nezu didn't know Void as well as he would like to.

And for once, Void was late. For once, Nezu was the one waiting for Void.

_Did he run into something beforehand? Was he sick?_

Regardless, knowing how both of them liked sticking to their schedules, and how they would always take unexpected scenarios into account to add buffers between each event, the fact that Void was in fact, not early, or even on time worried Nezu.

In fact, while Nezu never outrightly admitted it to anyone, he had grown rather fond of Void, even though he didn't know much about the vigilante. Void reminded him of himself in a way, different, discriminated against, and was trying to find his own way in the world. And as a pro hero, Nezu knew he shouldn't be condoning this, but if it made Void happy, if it allowed him to feel like he could fit in, who was he to take it away from Void?

And it wasn't like Void was breaking any rules, barely. Most, if not all, of the assault laws involved quirks, and Void didn't have one.

Nezu sat there, and waited.

And waited.

And finally, Void showed up. He was only late by five minutes, but to Nezu, it felt like hours.

"Well, you finally showed up. I thought I'd have to enjoy my tea on my own." Nezu grinned, hiding his relief, and held up two flasks. It was starting to get chilly, and while Void had a hoodie, and a kitten, Nezu thought that he may like some tea to keep himself warm.

In the faint moonlight, Void's hoodie seemed to be stained with what looked like mud. Maybe he accidentally slipped and had to clean up.

But Nezu's sensitive nose screamed blood. Too much blood. It was too much for it to be an injury, Void would have bled out and died if that were the case.

Nezu's instincts were screaming that something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.

He swallowed those emotions. He was probably overthinking it. Void was fine. Maybe he just found a corpse or something.

Or something was wrong with his nose.

Midoriya didn't say a thing, and he sat down beside Nezu, taking a flask and mouthing a small thank you. He popped the flask open, and took a small sip.

"Chrysanthemum?"

"Yep. I wasn't sure what you liked, so I made something that is generally well liked by both animals and humans."

_Void is being oddly quiet,_ Nezu noted. Void wasn't talkative, by all means. Heck, most of their time was spent in silence. But Void, or himself, would bring up something, they would have a small conversation about it, and then sit back in silence for some time to think.

"Well, I would have to apologise in advance." Nezu started, "I'm sure you are aware of my position as UA's principal. And the UA entrance exams are taking place in a month's time…"

"Paperwork." Midoriya quietly replied, "I understand."

Something was clearly wrong with Void.

"Are you okay?"

Usually, if with his colleagues or other heroes, he would lean over to pat them on the shoulder. But the first time Nezu did that to Void, the boy had flinched so violently that he almost fell off the bench, before glaring at him in anger and confusion.

It was almost as if he didn't know how to react to kindness and affection.

"Is there a way to remove quirks?"

Nezu shook his head, "At far as I know, no. Why?"

"I have a quirk." Midoriya faintly replied.

He sounded so sick, so angry, so upset. And Nezu thought he knew why.

He was quirkless. He was probably bullied for it, and suddenly realising that he had a quirk? It really makes one wonder, why did they have to suffer discrimination for being quirkless, when in reality, they had a quirk?

_What had they been bullied for this whole time? What were they suffering for? Why did they have to suffer this entire time?_

"Well, do you need quirk counselling? I can help?" Nezu offered.

"No. Not now. I can't ..." Midoriya shook his head. He was shaking, and was clearly affected by whatever his quirk was.

"Did you hurt anyone by accident?"

"No.. I didn't hurt anyone.."

Nezu have and internal sigh of relief. At least, his record was still clean, and he hadn't hurt anyone. But Nezu needed his to calm down. He couldn't help Void if he wasn't willing to accept help.

And if he didn't want help now, then Nezu couldn't do anything.

But things like this took time. Quirk counselling took months, maybe years, and for a teenaged, formerly quirkless boy, this was a delicate matter.

Nezu was willing to wait.

"Do you want to talk about it? Get it off your chest?"

Midoriya was completely silent, until he finally spoke up.

"... it's the difference between life and death…."

Nezu wasn't sure how to react to that. A quirk that important would no doubt be hard to handle. And Nezu was pretty sure Void did not want a quirk, let alone one that is related to mortality.

Nezu wasn't sure how to handle this situation. But Void looked exhausted based off his posture alone. Taking a rest would definitely help.

"Well…. Would you like to go rest first? You look like you've been through quite a bit today…"

"I would.. like that." Midoriya nodded, and stood up while holding his flask, unsure what to do with it.

"Keep it. I have many flasks." Nezu grinned, "Goodnight, Void!"

Midoriya walked out of the park, before he rubbed his neck, exactly where the vertebrae had shattered just an hour prior, when he had smashed face first into the ground and heard the resounding crack of his neck. His spine was also cracked and broken in several places, but it had almost healed completely. His ribs were busted, his lungs pieced, but even that was almost done healing.

Midoriya reached up to rub his head, where it had impacted the ground directly. All the blood had dried up, the large crack in his skull had already healed, and while Midoriya wasn't sure how he looked, he was pretty sure he had somehow survived a fall off a thirty story building.

His phone, however, wasn't so lucky.

Midoriya ambled out of the park. He wanted to go home and sleep. It was the closest thing to death he could get to.

* * *

"Excuse me, why are you covered in blood?"

Midoriya blinked, and turned, seeing a police officer standing there.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing." Midoriya replied.

"I'm sorry, this doesn't look like nothing." The police officer sighed. "Please, come with me."

Midoriya obliged, and followed the police officer into the nearby police station, and yelled, "Tsukauchi, we have a small situation."

Tsukauchi poked his out of a door, "What is it - why is there a kid covered in blood?"

Midoriya groaned internally.

"He said not to worry. I think you should question him."

"Alright." Tsukauchi nodded, and gestured Midoriya to follow him into the room. Midoriya just obeyed, not putting up a fuss. Reiko was starting to get uncomfortable, after everything that had happened, and he really just wanted to get back home, if he could even call that place a home.

"Name?"

"Midoriya Izuku."

"So, why are you out so late at night?"

"I was talking a walk with my cat."

Tsukauchi blinked, and before he could ask, Reiko popped out of Midoriya's hoodie, staring at Tsukauchi straight in the eye, before meowing.

"Alright. What happened?"

"There was a suicide. I was there. I didn't know what to feel, and went to the park to try and cool down, and I'm on my way home now."

"Oh… I'm sorry you had to see that. Do you remember where it occurred?"

Midoriya shook his head, "I do not. I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"My phone broke."

Tsukauchi frowned, and Midoriya pretended that he didn't know what the detective's quirk was, and fished his shattered phone out of his hoodie pocket.

"Wait, I forgot, what's your quirk?"

Midoriya gave a dry laugh, "I have two pinky toe joints. I don't think I'm supposed to have a quirk."

"Ah… well… okay. Thank you, Midoriya. You can go home now. Would you like to change into something… not covered in blood?"

"I'm fine. There's few people out now and I live nearby."

"Ok. Goodnight."

The interrogation with Midoriya gave him time to sort out his thoughts.

Those times he had tried to do the same thing, only to fail, resulting in his confusion at his failure and the resolve to try again. To finally end his cursed existence, to escape this painful reality.

Only for him to fail again and again, not knowing why, and turning to even more drastic methods to do so.

Only now, it made sense. Why he had failed again and again ever since his first suicide attempt at ten, not even needing treatment, unlike his first attempt. Why all the injuries he received when he tried to kill himself seem to just… heal.

But it didn't make sense. He had gotten involved in a hit and run accident when he was twelve. Reiko was in his bag, and he was pretty sure he was going to bleed out.

_He didn't want to die yet. He needed to make sure Reiko was okay. He had taken the brunt of the impact, but he needed to make sure his two year old kitten was safe._

_He was pretty sure he wasn't thinking straight, but one thing was certain. He had forced his bag open despite his abdomen screaming in pain, his broken ribs shrieking in agony, and blood spurted from his mouth. To his relief, Reiko was perfectly fine. She was confused, blinking from inside his bag, but she had suffered no injuries._

_He could finally go. Reiko would be lonely, but she would be able to survive on her own._

_He felt something weird, but he passed out and couldn't process it. It was a deserted road, and no one would find him for at least a couple hours. He was going to bleed out and die._

_He woke up approximately four hours later, at five in the morning, when an elderly man was shaking him awake._

Realisation hit him.

That was his quirk. The quirk that had come into existence when he regretted his initial suicide attempt, the quirk that chained the boy into this cycle of suffering and pain.


	4. Chapter 4 - You'll never know

"Alright, are all the applications in?" Nezu asked, as he sieved through the piles of papers on his desk. While he was supposed to dealing with the UA entrance examination stuff, he was working with Tsukauchi on Enji's case, mainly because Tsukauchi would be overseas for the next few days and Nezu was trying to shove as much stuff at him as possible before then.

The UA teachers were trying to put all the students into piles according to their quirks, before they could designate them to individual arenas so as to not have too many powerhouses in one arena by accident.

"One more batch. Ectoplasm's getting them." Aizawa grumbled, as he placed an application of a boy with an electric quirk in the pile for elemental emitter quirks.

"Oh, yes." Nezu looked up, "We have chosen six recommendation students this year for the hero course. Usually we only have four, but we've just hit the maximum of six so we're okay."

"Who got in?" Maijima asked, as he stared at an application of a girl with long pink hair and a quirk that let her see up to five kilometers.

"Uh, Yaoyorozu Momo, Todoroki Shoto, Yoarashi Inasa, Tokage Setsuna, Honenuki Juzo, and your purple brat!" Nezu grinned.

"Oh? He got in?" Snipe raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised. We had a lot of people which strong physical quirks that would easily overshadow Hitoshi's mental one, no offence Aizawa, Mic."

"There is a reason why he wants to be an underground hero." Aizawa snapped.

"No need to get so pissy." Yamada laughed, "He's growing up so fast!"

"Who's in whose class?" Kan asked.

"Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Hitoshi are in 1-A, Tokage, Honenuki and Yoarashi will be in your class, Vlad King." Nezu nodded, "Once we sort these out, I'll get to sending the invitations letters out. Aizawa, I'll leave it on your desk."

Aizawa grunted as he picked up the next form.

"Nezu?"

"Yes?"

"Where do I put a quirkless student?"

Silence enveloped the staffroom, as all the teachers look up.

"Quirkless?" Maijima asked.

"Yes. Midoriya Izuku, male, quirkless."

"Hmm. Put it aside first. We'll fit him in later." Nezu nodded.

"Midoriya Izuku?" Tsukauchi asked, "He's a… weird kid."

"How so?" Nezu frowned.

"I met him yesterday. He was all covered in blood, but he said not to worry about it. Said he saw a suicide around my office, went to that park, and was going home. We searched the backstreets, and we did find a large puddle of blood but no body, with some bloody shoe print tracks, but they eventually dried out, or was washed away by that drizzle this morning." Tsukauchi shrugged, "We did run a blood test, but it didn't match everyone in the database. Not to mention it matches the DNA of the blood that we have found almost all over Musutafu over the course of the past few years in what looked like to be suicides."

"So there's a guy who wants to die, but can't die?" Snipe asked, "Or maybe someone's just playing some kind of sick prank."

"Wait." Aizawa blinked, "Void is quirkless. Is it possible that Midoriya is Void?"

Nezu shook his head, "I doubt it. Void isn't quirkless."

Aizawa paused, trying to sort his thoughts out, before looking up, "I reported that I met Void around a month ago, right?"

Everyone in the staffroom nodded.

"I did use my quirk on him when he snuck up on me. I didn't sense a quirk."

"That's odd." Nezu mused, "I met him yesterday. He seemed shaken up, and asked me if there was a way to remove quirks, before revealing that he had one."

"Ok ... wait what?!" Kan paused, "You met him?"

"Yes, for quite some time already. I first met him after I was ambushed a few months ago. He's a pleasant child. We've been talking for quite some time already."

"Okay, that explains why you seem to like him so much, but why didn't you tell us?!" Kan shot back.

Nezu just had that shit-eating grin on his face, "You didn't ask."

Tsukauchi sighed, "I'm not sure if you know, but the fact that Midoriya is still alive and applying here is a miracle. Almost every single quirkless child in Japan has commited suicide, and regardless of whether they survived or not, it is pretty troubling. Quirk discrimination has gotten really bad. I did check up on Midoriya's records. He fell off a school building once."

"Uh… what?" Snipe asked, completely dumbfounded.

"It was in the newspapers five years ago." Tsukauchi frowned, "According to the article, he fell off the school roof. The school denied that there was any bullying taking place, and that it was an accident. Midoriya himself admitted that it was an accident, and went to the roof to get some fresh air. He claimed that he leaned forward too much and lost his balance."

"So, he isn't suicidal, right?" Yamada let out a sigh of relief, "That's good to hear."

"We'll just keep an eye on him." Nezu declared, "I think it is possible for him to get into UA, but he's definitely going to struggle against the robots, but… uh… Aizawa, hand me the application form."

Aizawa did as he was asked, and Nezu flipped it over, "Let's see, uh… he has a ton of college credits already. Online courses, for quite a lot of things. He doesn't even need to go to high school or university, he's already completed them. He also has perfect scores in the UA preliminary examination."

"Smart ass." Yamada grumbled.

"Yeah, we should keep an eye on him." Ishiyama nodded, "Even if he doesn't get into the hero course, he'll probably do well in the general education course."

"Uh, Nezu, can you access the security feeds?" Ectoplasm asked, as he carried a box under his arm as well as what looked like to be one of Nezu's flasks.

"Oh?"

"Uh, Void wrote a note. He said he's returning it, and he's thanking you for the tea? He also added that it was the first time anyone has made a drink for him out of the goodness of their heart."

"I do have to say, poor kid." Yamada sighed, as Ectoplasm tossed the flask over to Nezu, "He was the one that helped us save Hitoshi."

"Void is… a weird kid. Nothing about him makes sense." Aizawa mused, "Nezu, what do you know about Void?"

"He hates humans." Nezu spoke up, "In simple terms. He also has a cat."

"Why would he help humans if… he _hates_ humans?" Aizawa asked.

Nezu shrugged, "He says there are exceptions. Honestly, even I can't figure the kid out. Who knows?"

* * *

Enji growled, as he chased the kid in front of him.

It was that damned vigilante, the one that almost all the heroes are talking about. They called him Void, and that he usually popped out of nowhere before disappearing just as suddenly.

_Fucking villain. Vigilantes are just villains, opposing the law._

Enji raced forward. He would admit, the kid was fast, and he was nimble. The vigilante was racing through alleyways, climbing up ladders, jumping off roofs, trying to escape from him, but Enji was faster and a lot more resourceful than he looked.

Aizawa turned when he heard yelling, and to his shock, Void raced past him, Enji not to far behind him. Enji threw a fireball, and it missed Void by a hair, before Void made a turn and bolted down another road.

"Zashi, come on. He's gonna kill him."

Aizawa grabbed Yamada's arm, yanking him towards the chase, and with his capture weapon, he hauled the both of them to the rooftop.

"Why is he so slow?" Aizawa hissed. "He's faster than this."

"Maybe he's injured?" Yamada replied, as they continued to follow along. They had to save a few civilians who had accidentally gotten in Enji's way, and Aizawa, who already disliked Enji before, hated him. He didn't know if he could hate him even more.

Then, the chase stopped. Not because of Void, but because of Enji.

Enji had fired off a fireball, and it had almost hit a person if Void hadn't intercepted the fireball with his own body.

Yamada had to stifle a yell as Void slammed into the ground, rolling across the concrete harshly. He finally came to a stop, and Void attempted to push himself up.

_Key word: attempted._

He was promptly slammed into the ground, as Enji punched him in the back with a flaming fist, forcing his fist closer and closer to the ground with Void's body as the only barricade.

Midoriya stifled a cry of pain as he felt his back burning, his flesh on fire, his spine cracking and melting, as the fist hit his stomach and continued through, burning a hole straight through his body.

_Thank god there's fire and it's kinda cauterized. It would be a mess to clean up if there's blood._

Midoriya's head was spinning, and he could feel Enji remove his fist from his back.

"Stupid vigilantes. Just a bunch of fucking villains."

Midoriya heard Enji turn his back, and in a split second, ignoring the gaping hole in his torso that was starting to heal, he pushed himself to his feet and scampered into a nearby alleyway.

"You! How!?" Enji growled, whirling around and attempting to give chase, but in that split second he put down his guard, Void was already gone, disappeared into the inky black abyss of darkness.

Aizawa and Yamada gave chase, following the vigilante from the rooftops, until Void finally stopped, collapsing against a wall and pulling his hoodie up to examine the damage.

The two pro heroes gaped at the damage. They just thought that Enji had injured his back, not having burnt a hole through his body.

"Tch. Even that didn't kill me?"

Aizawa froze, and blinked.

_What?_

The two pro heros jumped down, careful not to make any sound, but Void still perked up, and pushed himself up despite the massive injury he had.

Aizawa tried to inch closer, to help the injured boy, but Void just snarled as the two heroes came closer, and ran off.

"Did we… Did I…. Did he…" Yamada babbled, trying to comprehend what he had just seen, what he had just heard.

"Shit." Aizawa hissed.

* * *

The next day, after Aizawa and Yamada dropped Shinsou off at school, and flung the door of the staff room open.

"So, the media has no idea who he is?" Ectoplasm asks.

"To be fair, he only tells heroes his name, and he always runs off after he rescues civilians." Ishiyama replied, "This is the first time he has been seen out in the open."

Aizawa stomped to Nezu's desk, and growled, "Nezu, what's Void's quirk?"

Nezu frowned, and asked, "He said something about it being the difference between life and death. Aizawa, what's going on?"

"Next time you see the kid, wrangle him back to UA."

"Why?" Snipe asked, as he looked up from his phone.

"He tried to get Endeavor to kill him!" Aizawa hissed. "I don't know if it's a one time, heat of the moment kind of thing, but that kid needs serious help."

Nezu frowned. It was obvious he was fond of the boy, there was no doubt about that, and the only reason that Nezu or the other heroes didn't catch him was mainly because the boy had claimed to not have a quirk, and therefore, he wasn't breaking any laws, technically.

There was also the fact that besides from Yamada and Aizawa, no hero has ever seen Void twice, and that was kind of embarrassing since Void takes down a lot of villains. Tsukauchi knows, he's the one having to handle all the vigilante paperwork as well.

"Well, I won't be meeting him until next week, when the exams are over." Nezu mumbled, "If you happen to see him, try to bring him in. Aizawa, how bad is his injuries?"

Yamada was being oddly quiet, and Aizawa hissed, "Endeavor's attack should have killed him. He burnt a hole through his torso, all the way through. Kid managed to get away, luckily, and his injury seemed to be healing on its own. We heard him lament that Endeavor was unable to kill him."

"Regeneration, huh?" Nezu mused, "At the very least, he should be fine. But I agree, we should try to find him before he does anything too drastic and could get himself killed for real."

* * *

Kirishima sighed, and looked up at the UA building.

"We're finally here, huh?"

"We still need to do the exam, dummy." Ashido laughed, "Come on, we need to register."

"Come on, I'm sentimental!" Kirishima grinned, "It's now or never! This is going to change our lives!"

They watched as a girl with brown hair ran into the school, before they heard a yell, "Ha ha ha! Deku, you seriously applying for UA?!"

They turned around, and saw three boys standing outside of UA, laughing at a green haired boy. The green haired boy stopped walking, his head lowered, almost like he was trying to avoid attention.

"You quirkless freak! There's no way you can even get into UA's general education course, useless Deku!"

"Hey, that's not very nice -" Ashido turned around to try and defend the green haired boy, before a menacing aura burst out of nowhere, engulfing everyone in the vicinity.

The green haired boy lifted his head, and Kirishima caught a glimpse of his eyes.

_They were terrifying. _

_Emerald, green glowing slits that pierced his soul, even if he wasn't being looked at directly._

The boy turned around, and growled.

"Fuck it, he's nuts!" A boy with wings yelled.

"Get away from him!" Another with an overly large nose screamed, as the three students scampered away.

Kirishima and Ashido gasped, inhaling a large gulp of air as they tried to calm their beating hearts.

_Gods, that kid was terrifying._

They flinched as the green haired boy suddenly squatted down, as a small white cat ran up to him. Much to their surprise, the boy reached out, and the cat nuzzled his hand as he pet it. The cat licked his hand, before it ran out of UA.

"Man… that was pretty cool, to be honest." Kirishima whispered, as the boy turned around and walked towards the UA building.

* * *

Aizawa shuddered.

Nezu had sent him to take a look at the quirkless student, Midoriya Izuku.

He hadn't expected some of the green haired boy's classmates to follow him, and mock him from outside UA's walls.

He hadn't expected the boy to scare them off with nothing but a terrifying, pressuring aura and a growl.

Aizawa sighed, until he felt a pair of eyes on him. He looked around, trying to figure out if maybe a bird landed on the tree he was in, before he found the source of the feeling.

_Midoriya Izuku._

He had stopped in the middle of the pathway, looking at him out of the corner of his eye, and Aizawa gulped as he felt those emerald slits were trained on him, eyeing him, like it was trying to find his weakness and tear him to pieces.

_How does he know I'm here?_

Much to his relief, Midoriya continued on his way, and Aizawa slipped out of the tree once all the students had entered UA to register for their exams, trying to calm his beating heart.

It wasn't just Void, no doubt that Midoriya was also going to be a problem child.

* * *

Aizawa was spooked by the boy before the exams even started.

Snipe was scared after the boy handed in his written paper in a third of the given time and left without saying a single word.

Thirteen was trembling as they graded Midoriya's paper as he read through page after page of neat handwriting, and as Midoriya scored full marks after full marks despite not even taking the full amount of time to write at least three times as much as the second person to write the most.

Nezu laughed as his colleagues suffered at the hands of the quirkless enigma.

And now, it was time for the practical exam.

Yamada was giving the introduction to the practical exam, until that Iida kid (Yamada swore that was Tensei's little brother, though he acted nothing like him) stood up, and pointed at Midoriya, "You, with the green hair! Stop tapping your nails against the arm rest, it's annoying everyone!"

Midoriya barely flinched at the accusation, and did comply to Iida's first request to stop tapping the armrest as the blue haired boy continued to rant, "Also, you left the written examination venue early! Do you think that the UA exams are a joke?! Why are you even here if I you aren't going to take this seriously and -"

Iida was promptly cut off as a sudden pressure filled the room. The tension was so thick, Yamada swore that even Tatsuma's powerful dragon claws wouldn't be able to slice through it easily.

And just as quickly as it appeared, the pressure dissipated, and Iida fell back into his seat in shock.

And Midoriya Izuku hadn't even moved a muscle.

"Ahem." Yamada coughed, trying to garner the attention from all the stunned students who had no idea where the pressure came from, "Uh, now, about the zero pointer…."

* * *

_Bakugou was doing pretty well, _Nezu noted. _His quirk is well suited to destroy the robots. Not to mention his maneuverability with his quirk is pretty impressive for such an explosive quirk. Shoji's formation of extra limbs allows him to scan the area for bots, and gives him the firepower to take them out. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's hardening quirks are great defence and offence against the robots._

Some of the other teachers were keeping an eye on Midoriya though. Midoriya was skinny, and honestly, he was short. He didn't look like he was able to put up a fight against anyone, and Snipe was honestly wondering if the kid was malnourished or something.

Poor Midoriya didn't seem to know how to deal with the robots, or more like, he wasn't dealing with the robot in the first place. He was evading their attacks pretty well, but all he wasn't attacking back.

What he was doing, on the other hand, was saving other examinees from falling debris. Tackling people out of the way of robot attacks, and accidental misses from other examinees, Midoriya seemed to care more about keeping the other examinees safe rather than stocking points up for himself.

"Honestly, I don't think Midoriya can do anything against the robots without a quirk. You saw the kind of pressure he is able to give off. If there were other opponents, like maybe humans, we could probably see him fight." Aizawa grumbled.

Yeah, Aizawa was pretty salty about it.

And then, Midoriya literally kicked the head off a three pointer and started pulling it apart.

And Nezu got bored and slammed his paw down on the button that released the zero pointer.

Uraraka had somehow gotten stuck under some debris, and while it wasn't really surprising that no one had tried to help her with the zero pointer towering behind, it was disheartening that they were willing to let her get crushed to save themselves.

Until Midoriya, of all people, ran towards the zero pointer.

Maijima leaned forward, his eyes open in alarm, "What is he doing!?"

Much to their surprise, Midoriya threw something at the zero pointer, causing it to stutter, before coming to a complete halt.

"Turn up the volume!" Nezu ordered, as Ectoplasm, who was closest, reached for the knob.

_"Come on, the EMP isn't going to last forever."_ Midoriya grumbled, as he heaved the block up just enough for Uraraka to climb out from under it, before scooping her up and running away as the zero pointer regained power.

"Damn, an EMP?" Maijima exclaimed, "He made it out of the robot parts?"

Nezu rubbed his paws together, grinning from ear to ear.

Midoriya Izuku was an interesting kid, for sure.

_Too bad that his score of __thirty three__ was only enough to net him thirty sixth place._

_But he still had a chance in the Sports Festival._

And Nezu wondered what kind of chaos would ensue if he introduced the formerly quirkless vigilante to the quirkless student.


	5. Chapter 5 - How far I will not go

It was the first day of school.

Shinsou took a deep breath, and tried to calm his nerves.

His first day in UA. Hopefully, the students here would be nicer than those in his previous schools. All his life, he had been called a villain. The horrible laughter and mocking that all he could be was a villain filled his mind, and Shinsou tried his best to shut them out.

He had a new life now. Much better parents, and a true friend in Iida Tenya, the younger brother of a friend of his parents. He had kept his original last name, as a reminder that things had changed, and he wasn't going to let anything from the first nine years of his life affect him now. Not to mention Aizawa was his homeroom teacher and Yamada was his english teacher, and they couldn't exactly call him by his first name without giving their connection away.

His life had gotten much better after he had met that hooded vigilante. He had run away from home after a particularly bad beating, to escape the pain for a little while, but had somehow ended up in a back alley and had almost gotten killed for running into someone by accident.

He didn't even get a hint of who the mysterious boy in a hoodie who saved his life. All he knew was that the boy called himself Void, which wasn't very helpful at all since it was probably his vigilante name and not his real name, and that he had no quirk. Heck, he didn't even know what colour eyes and hair the vigilante had; it had been too dark at the time so even make any features out. Plus, he could be lying about being quirkless, but Shinsou honestly doubted it.

Once he trusted his new parents enough, he had told them, only for Yamada to nod and say that the vigilante did say that he was quirkless.

The vigilante had helped him get back home, and even promised to help him out of the abusive hellhole he lived in. And true to his word, the very next day, he was saved by an underground hero by the name of Aizawa Shouta who ended up adopting him, and raised him with the help of Yamada Hizashi.

He hadn't even had the chance to thank the vigilante before he had run off that night. He really needed to find some way to seek him out and thank him for saving his life properly. Maybe someday he'll be able to find him again.

"Still thinking about Void?" Aizawa asked, as he stopped next to Shinsou, waiting for him so that they could make their way into school. Yamada had hopped off at a coffee shop and would be coming in later, and Aizawa wanted to make sure that his own kid wasn't late, even though they were there fifteen minutes before the first bell was even set to go off.

Shinsou sighed, and Aizawa just pat him on the back, "Don't worry about it, Hitoshi. Even most of the heroes have only seen him once."

"I never even got to say thank you."

Aizawa shrugged, "Void is a kid around your age. You'll probably have a chance to find him again. Now, shoo, get to class. I don't want to expel my kid on the first day."

Shinsou gave a mock gasp in shock and horror, "You wouldn't."

"I expelled everyone last year. I would." Aizawa rolled his eyes, and Shinsou just snorted as he ran into UA.

* * *

"I'm still surprised that Yoarashi kid rejected his invitation to UA." Kayama muttered, "He seemed pretty enthusiastic the last time we saw him."

"Who had Midoriya in their class?" Snipe asked, "I'm curious."

"I do." Yamada spoke up, "Why?"

"Dunno. He seems like an interesting kid." Snipe shrugged, picking up his stack of papers, "We should get going to our classes now."

Yamada laughed, "Shouta's probably gonna be barely on time for his class, but eh." He put his speaker around his neck, before he grabbed his attendance list and headed for the 1-C classroom. He threw himself onto his seat, and waited for homeroom to start.

There were five minutes left, and Midoriya had taken a seat right at the very back near a window, sleeping.

Yamada swore he saw something peek out of his bag, but it was probably his imagination. He hadn't gotten a new pair of glasses in ages.

He waited until everyone was in class, before he cleared his throat, "Alright, welcome to UA's general education course, listeners! I'm Present Mic, and I'm going to be your homeroom teacher as well as your english teacher! I would like everyone to do a small introduction about themselves, then we'll go down for orientation, so you, there, step right up and we'll get this show started!"

The boy sitting in the first row next to the door stood up, and made his way to the front, and introduced himself, and this carried on until it was the last person's turn.

Yamada was honestly curious as to how Midoriya may do his self introduction. Most of the kids would reveal their quirk, though it wasn't a requirement, and start doing into detail of how their quirks functioned.

Midoriya stood up slowly, before walking to the front of the classroom, his footsteps firm and precise. The entire room was tense, almost as if Midoriya himself was putting pressure on everyone as he moved.

He stood in front of the class, standing up straight, and said, "My name is Midoriya Izuku. I'm quirkless."

The class erupted into an uproar.

"Quirkless!? How the heck did you get into UA!?"

"I saw you at the hero course exam! Just give it up already!"

"Him!? In the hero course? That sounds like a joke!"

Yamada eyed Midoriya warily, but Midoriya didn't even seem to register that his new classmates were currently mocking him for his quirkless status, and was just standing at the front of the classroom cooly, seeming like he didn't even care.

"Hey, hey, listeners, quiet down!" Yamada ordered, but even then, it took some time for the noisy, surprised students of the General Education to quieten down; Yamada did not want to yell over his students, especially when his quirk was a voice quirk.

He didn't want to deafen them, even though they were being mean to Midoriya.

"Look, listeners, we take quirk discrimination very seriously here at UA. Midoriya's quirkless, but he earned his place here, so please treat him like any other student at UA." Yamada sighed, as the other students still shot looks at the supposedly quirkless student, "Midoriya, you can go back to your seat."

Midoriya gave a small nod, before returning to his seat, not making a single sound.

"Alright, listeners! Let's all go for orientation! We don't want to be late." Yamada yelled, and herded the students out of the classroom.

He was going to need to talk to Nezu about enforcing the anti quirk discrimination rules. Something told him that with Midoriya around, and talkative students, word was going to spread quickly.

* * *

Shinsou stretched, and yawned.

Aizawa had made them do a quirk apprehension test, and while he couldn't use his quirk at all in any of the tests, he had gotten twelfth place overall. The invisible girl had gotten last, but like him, her quirk couldn't be used during the test at all, and Aizawa hadn't expelled anyone at all….. Surprisingly. Even the perverted creep with grapes for hair wasn't expelled, and Shinsou was going to be honest when he said he really, really hated him.

Iida had somehow become friends with another girl called Uraraka Ochako, and while Shinsou hadn't been there, he was guessing it was because she had almost gotten crushed by a zero pointer and he was guilty he hadn't helped her.

Bakugou and Kirishima were with them, somehow. Bakugou was grumbling about them being more tolerable extras or something, and Kirishima had somehow decided that he wanted to be friends with the explosive potty mouth.

They turned a corner, and Uraraka exclaimed, "Oh!"

Shinsou looked up, and saw a green haired boy walking out of a classroom, looking at the ground.

Iida adjusted his glasses, "Ah, I believe that he is the one that saved you."

_He saved her from the zero pointer? Wouldn't that net a quite a bit of rescue points?_ Shinsou frowned. _Maybe he's in 1-B._

Bakugou promptly turned as white as a sheet, and grabbed onto Uraraka and Iida and covered their mouths before they could take a step towards the boy.

But that was all they needed to alert the boy to their presence. The green haired boy turned around, looking at them with a dead, emotionless gaze, before turning back around and walking down the hallway.

"Hey, Blasty, what the hell was that for!?" Uraraka demanded, as Bakugou loosened his grip and released the two students.

"Uraraka, his name is Bakugou, and while it may be rude of him to not call us by our real names, that does not mean we should do the same!" Iida butt in.

Bakugou was shaking, ever so slightly.

"Round Face, Legs, whatever you do, don't get near him."

That was enough to calm Iida and Uraraka, and they looked at Bakugou in confusion.

"He's dangerous."

"Wow, coming from you, that must be something." Shinsou snarked.

Bakugou shook his head, "You don't live in my area. There's these…. Rumours… surrounding him. Midoriya Izuku, they say that he can paralyze people with just his eyes alone."

"So, what's wrong with that?" Kirishima asked, "Could be his quirk."

"Not possible. He's quirkless."

Shinsou's words died on his tongue.

_"A brainwashing quirk isn't a bad quirk. I mean, I'm quirkless, and I'm still aiming to be a hero. I'm sure that you can too! You can save many people with that quirk without causing any damage!"_

Shinsou shoved that memory at the back of his head. He could figure out the connection between Void and Midoriya later. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

"He may be quirkless, but don't underestimate him. I saw him getting mugged around three years ago by one of the local gangs, it didn't take him more than five minutes to deal with ten opponents."

Kirishima whistled, "Damn, that means he's strong, then?"

Uraraka nodded, "Yeah. He made an EMP out of nowhere to knock the zero pointer out and helped me escape. But if he's quirkless, maybe he wasn't able to destroy robots to earn points."

Shinsou shook his head, "It's a hero school. As far as I know, as long as the robot is destroyed or restrained, you get the points. Mineta and Hagakure have the lowest score in our class, at thirty four. Hagakure's quirk doesn't let the robots see and detect her, and Mineta's sticky orbs can restrain them. There should be rescue points, and I honestly don't know how his score was so low. Maybe we can go ask Present Mic."

Bakugou snorted, "Whatever, extras, do as you please, just try not to aggravate the green little shit. I'm not saving your ass again if you piss him off."

Bakugou turned around and stomped away, and Uraraka sweatdropped, "I'm not sure if he respects him, or downright hates him."

"Probably both." Shinsou muttered.

But Midoriya Izuku had piqued his interest. And he was lucky that his parents were teachers in the school. Maybe he could get something out of them.

* * *

"Dad, who is Midoriya Izuku?"

Aizawa merely raised his eyebrow, as Yamada choked on his soda.

"Why… do you want to know?"

"Bakugou mentioned that he's dangerous, and quirkless."

"Oh…" Aizawa muttered, before he sighed, "You think he's connected to Void in some way?"

"Yeah?"

"Look, Hitoshi, I'm going to tell you something, but promise you can't tell anyone else, got it?" Aizawa hissed, and Yamada looked at him in alarm, "Are you sure we can tell him?"

"We saw it for ourselves, it's not like he's the only one that found out." Aizawa grumbled, and Shinsou sat up straight, trying to catch any details of his saviour that he could get.

"Void isn't quirkless. He was attacked, and nearly killed by Endeavor, and it appears that he has some kind of regeneration quirk that allows him to heal from his injuries."

* * *

Ishiyama sighed, and started grading the essays he had assigned the kids to do. It was the first official day of school, and they had to write about friendship and emotions, and while it may seem like a cheesy topic, it was also to assess their mental state, to give Inui a good sense of who may need help in the future.

The essays weren't bad, by any means, but they were very superficial. Most of the students wrote about what made them feel what kind of emotions, that kind of stuff.

And while it wasn't too bad... it wasn't fun. He taught five first years classes, and it was like reading a hundred essays of the same thing over and over. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's essays were horrifyingly similar, both talking about manliness and heroes. The similarity had earned a chuckle from Snipe, and while Shinsou never explicitly mentioned it in his essay, it was clear that he looked up to Yamada and Aizawa and they made him happy.

Then, he picked up the next essay, and started to read it.

_"Positive emotions are just a drug, something that people get addicted to. And when that feeling is gone, they crave it, wanting it more and more, until they snap, and give in to that urge. They will do anything to feel that way again, even if they have to resort to selfish means to get what they want."_

Ishiyama stared at the first paragraph. And then he reread it again.

He was starting to wonder which kid wrote this. Compared to all the other essays that were all happy and sunny, this one was downright depressing, and it was only the first paragraph.

His eyes shifted over to check the name written in the corner.

_Midoriya Izuku._

And while he had told the class to write a page or so, Midoriya had gone and written ten pages, and Ishiyama was not looking forward to finishing it. Not when his student seemed to have such a twisted outlook on something so essential.

He was going to have to talk to Nezu.


	6. Chapter 6 - I will not bury it

_Positive emotions are just a drug, something that people get addicted to. And when that feeling is gone, they crave it, wanting it more and more, until they snap, and give in to that urge. They will do anything to feel that way again, even if they have to resort to selfish means to get what they want._

_People hurt others to feel happy. People kill others to feel happy. Others have to suffer for one man's pleasure. Is it worth it?_

_No._

_Every death, every kill, they will lose a piece of themselves, until there is nothing left of them to save._

_In the grand scheme of things, emotions are worthless. Whether you laugh or you cry, no one cares. No one will bother you, unless you have something that they want. Then, they'll flock around, playing nice, pretending to be your friend until they get what they want, before they dig into your carcass like vultures._

_Friendship is a relationship that has many negative emotions attached to it. All you can do is wait for the eventual betrayal, but is it betrayal if you both agree on it, if you both agree that one person does not deserve anything, not friendship, not companionship, not anything at all?_

_In this world, you can't rely on anyone. Trust the wrong person, and they'll come and stab you in the back, figuratively or literally._

_Emotions only hold you back. Anger clouds your thoughts and cause you to make rash decisions. Sadness stops you from doing anything productive, and you waste time wallowing in self pity. Happiness makes one blind to what's going on around them by making them complacent, and it allows them to fall into obvious traps right in front of them._

_Combine them together, and all you have coming for you is the imminent pain and horror, that you made such a mistake, that the people you once thought to be friends are the ones causing the pain, that in reality, no one cares about you._

_There's so many people on this planet._

_So many people with problems worse than yours._

_Why should people waste their time on you?_

_They shouldn't._

_They only do so when there's something that benefits them. They don't do it for you, they do it for themselves._

_Humans are selfish creatures, and all they think about are themselves. They want to feel good, they want to be happy. To them, it's justified to step over others as long as it makes them happy, in extreme cases, killing others makes them happy._

_But there's a limit._

_Humans are like glass._

_You can hurt them, break them, make them crack._

_But once they shatter, no matter how hard you try, they're beyond repair._

_Even if you find every single glass fragment, and put all the pieces back together in the right place, all the weak points are still there. Weaknesses that can be exploited by others for their personal gain, weaknesses that still hurt no matter what._

_It's an injury that does not cause physical pain._

_An injury that cannot be truly healed._

_It lingers, deep at the back of their mind, and strikes when they least suspect it. When they think they're over it. When they think that they're no longer affected by it._

_It is a weakness that will always be there. It is a liability._

_Emotions are a liability._

_The ability to push emotions aside, to not let them affect you when you are doing things is important. The ability to not rely on others, no matter what you do, is essential. People will not help you out of the goodness of their heart. They'll only offer their assistance if you can offer something in return._

_Even heroes._

_Most heroes choose their profession for the fame and money. They don't choose to help people because they want to, they do it so they can get more famous, and as a result, a higher revenue._

_It is not in a human's nature to give without taking. Humans are selfish, and if they could, they would keep on taking, more and more, until there is nothing left for them to take._

_And after that, they're still not satisfied._

_Humans are greedy, they're never happy with what they have. They just want more and more, even things that do not exist. Their greed and desire fuels them, and their strong emotional need and want for these kinds of things results in absolute idiocy._

_Drinking mercury in an attempt to achieve immortality._

_Murdering millions of innocents under the assumption that they will continue to be catered to in the afterlife._

_Killing for territory and wealth._

_In the end, humanity's greed and desires just hurt people._

_It's one thing if they hurt themselves. It's another thing if other people are getting hurt for completely self centered reasons that don't amount to anything._

_Death is a normal part of life._

_Yet, people despise it, simply because they do not appreciate what they have. Life is not something everyone deserves to have, it is a gift that can be taken away at any time. People who think they deserve to live forever do not understand that living hurts a lot more than death._

_They get to see everyone they care about die, while not being able to do so to join them. They'll live with all their regrets, knowing that they chose to suffer. Eventually, everything will lose their meaning, and by that time, they will wish that they were not alive to witness it._

_And if they do not care about what they have lost, if they don't care that people close to them have died, do they even deserve to live in the first place?_

_Acting on emotions destroys lives, other people's and one's own._

_Creating relationships with others just creates more opportunities for their grasp on their emotions to slip, to let them, to act on their emotions._

_Humans claim that these are essential for the survival of humanity, that these are the main traits that separate them from animals, what makes them above animals. But they're no better than the beasts that they claim are mindless and bloodthirsty, vicious and savage._

_Animals care about each other. They only kill to eat, to survive._

_Humans do not. They kill for fun, for sport, just because it makes them feel something that they could not or never felt before._

_Humans are in no way above animals, and they will never be._

_They let their emotions take over, let themselves get controlled, and do stupid things. And then, they don't blame themselves for it. They blame others. They will never accept that they are in the wrong. They always think they're right, that their actions are justified, even if they are not._

_Humans are hard to understand._

_They actively try to sabotage others of their kind, for no reasons at all. They do things that hurt others, and themselves at the same time._

_Why would we do something to hurt ourselves on purpose?_

* * *

Ishiyama stared blankly at Nezu as the animal finished reading the entirety of the essay and placed it down. Midoriya didn't even seem to have finished his essay before time was up.

"I think he needs help. He thinks emotions and friendships are burdens, and can only hurt him. It's not healthy." Ishiyama said.

"I know that." Nezu sighed, "But given how he writes it, it didn't just come from nowhere. To him, it is justified. This isn't something that a couple of counselling sessions with Hound Dog can fix."

Kayama burst into the staff room alongside Yamada, complaining about some purple grape or something, before they noticed Nezu sitting on Ishiyama's chair as the cement quirk user stood behind him, peering over his shoulder.

"There is a possibility that he was just in a bad mood or someone made him upset." Nezu said.

"Who?" Yamada asked.

"Midoriya." Ishiyama replied.

"Oh. Poor kid. The others in 1-C mocked him on the first day. I told them that we don't tolerate quirk discrimination, but I'm pretty sure it's going on whenever we aren't there." Yamada sighed, "He didn't seem to care, either because he's hiding it or he's used to being mocked all the time, and neither of those possibilities are good for his mental health."

Kayama frowned, "He was real quiet today, but he's a decent kid." She peered at the papers in Nezu's paw, "Is that the cheesy essay that Cementoss makes everyone write in the beginning of the year."

"Hey, it's not cheesy. Well, it kinda is, but it also helps to assess their mental state and figure out who might need counselling." Ishiyama protested, "Also, it's helpful. Midoriya needs help, and sooner is better than later."

Kayama stretched her hand out, "He's a sweet kid. Real quiet though. Lemme see the essay."

Ishiyama shrugged as Nezu passed her the essay, "I'm warning you, it's pretty dark."

"It can't be that bad." Kayama took the essay from Nezu, and looked at it, and blanched almost immediately.

She hadn't even finished reading the first paragraph.

"You're right. It's really dark."

Nezu tapped his paw against his chin.

"I'm busy this week, but there should be time for me to see him next week. Next time you see him, tell him to go see Hound Dog. Or if he has lesson time, let him talk to him." Nezu said, "If he can't sort things out with Midoriya, I'll talk to him myself."

* * *

Ectoplasm stared at the paper in his hands.

He had started off by giving the kids a pop quiz, and he wasn't expecting to get a test paper back in thirty minutes when the entire test was supposed to take an hour and a half to finish.

He scanned through the paper. Nezu said that Midoriya had finished a lot of college credits, but even so, he wasn't expecting the kid to have finished it so quickly. All his answers looked right too, and he didn't really want Midoriya to waste an hour in lessons sitting there like a statue.

Ectoplasm walked up to Midoriya's desk and said, "Alright, Cementoss believes you should go talk to Hound Dog. You should know where his office is, it's upstairs. I'll tell him you're going to talk to him."

Midoriya blinked at him blankly, and Ectoplasm had this feeling of unease as he looked back into the emptiness of the boy's eyes.

_Why was he so inexpressive?!_

* * *

"How was it?" Nezu asked, as he typed on his laptop in the staff room. He usually liked to work in his office, but there were times he preferred having some company, and there was no way all the heroes could just squeeze into his office.

Saying that Inui looked mildly traumatised was an understatement.

"Horrible." Inui admitted, "He didn't say a single word. He just stared at me with that blank expression the entire time, and, oh gods ..."

"Did you ask him questions?" Kayama asked. She also had a lesson that day with him, and Midoriya had remained quiet the entire day. She swore he was signing to himself, but other than that, he was completely still.

"I did. I asked him if he was okay, and if he didn't want to answer any questions, he didn't have too. I hate to say it, but it's unnerving. His eyes looked completely empty, like a never ending void."

Nezu frowned, and opened up a program to view the security cameras.

They found Midoriya sleeping at his desk.

"He's not eating?" Kayama asked. "He's so skinny though."

Nezu sighed, and his eyes shifted to a photocopied version of the essay that was in his file. "I'll talk to him next week. All Might, you're going to see Tsukauchi today, right? Can you tell him I'm cancelling my monday lunch meeting with him?"

Yagi nodded.

"I hate to say this, but it might be a lost cause."

Nezu turned to face Inui so fast, he almost got whiplash.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm just warning you, Principal. We can't help him if he doesn't want help." Inui scratched his head, "Maybe we should get him a psychologist or a therapist."

"If he isn't willing to speak to a person who is part of the school, what makes you think he's going to speak to a complete stranger?" Nezu raised his eyebrow, "He has stated that he can't understand humans. Maybe he's just shy or uncomfortable."

* * *

The first week of the school had passed relatively quickly, and Midoriya found himself back in the comforting presence of the animal pro hero, sitting on the couch in his office opposite Nezu.

He still felt awkward, though. He prefered having his hood on.

"So, how's UA so far?"

Midoriya wasn't really sure how to reply. UA was pretty good, but his peers liked to mock him behind the teachers' backs. On the first day, he had gone to the cafeteria for some water, and he could hear whispering all around him, with mentions of "creepy" and "emotionless" and "green" popping up all the time.

There was a reason he preferred napping in the classroom with Reiko sleeping on his lap, out of view of the security cameras.

"It's been… okay." Midoriya said, "The syllabus is….. too simple… though."

Nezu hummed, "Hmm. You did complete a lot of online college courses, so it's no wonder you're not struggling. I'll work with the teachers to figure out something for you."

He saw Midoriya eyes widen slightly, "Really? You'd …. do that?"

_Why did he seem so surprised?_

Nezu put that in his mental file of "Things to note about Midoriya", and replied, "Yes. I believe Ectoplasm and Present Mic would want your help with some stuff since you pretty much aced their pop quizzes effortlessly."

The rest of the hour passed relatively quickly, and it wasn't long before Midoriya had to return back to lessons for class.

Nezu just deadpanned at all the heroes that were eavesdropping, hiding behind the door like idiots as Midoriya exited the staffroom.

"You are aware my room is soundproof, right?"

Kayama gave a nervous laugh, "Yeah… how did it go?"

"Are you sure he doesn't speak at all?" Nezu frowned, "We had a pleasant conversation. He was a bit awkward with his word choice, but he did speak."

"I knew it - WAIT WHAT!?" Yamada almost screeched, if Aizawa hadn't activated his quirk in time, "The only time I heard him speak was his self introduction on the first day of school!"

"I never even heard him say a single word before." Kayama sighed, "The last time I tried to call on him, the boy sitting in front of him just turned around and kept on mocking him. He didn't mention his quirkless status, so I can't like, put him in detention for quirk discrimination, but I wouldn't want to answer a question if people did that all the time. Does that happen in your classes?"

Ectoplasm nodded, "It's happened, a lot. Except that he can answer questions since he just has to write the entire thing on the board. I feel bad calling on him a lot, but he's the only one that actually knows his stuff in class."

"It is troubling, though. Every time I ask a student to go around the class to collect homework or worksheets, he just refuses to give his worksheet to the kid. He just walks right up to me, puts it on my desk, and walks back without saying a word. It's almost like he doesn't trust that the other students won't do something with his work." Snipe sighed.

"So, he's selectively mute?" Yamada confirmed, "Because if that's the case, we're going to have to figure something out for the oral assessments."

"I don't think it's as simple as that." Nezu replied, "But at least he's willing to talk. I'll try to figure it out."


	7. Chapter 7 - What was lost in me

Nezu was still trying to figure Midoriya out.

"He reminds me of Void, in a way." Nezu admitted, when Aizawa entered the staff room after he had entered the school with Shinsou. "I'm not sure why."

Aizawa shrugged, "Maybe they're cousins or something."

Nezu shook his head, "Nope. I looked into it. Midoriya Inko and Midoriya Hisashi don't have siblings, and neither did their parents or grandparents. "

"Why don't you ask him?" Kayama asked, "You're meeting him today, right? Void seems knowledgeable about our society."

Nezu just paw-palmed, and rubbed his eyes, "I can't. Midoriya looked so surprised that someone was willing to do something for him… this is something sensitive. On the off chance that they are connected in a way, asking about that would destroy the trust that Void gave me. I can't afford to do that. Not when Void has made it very clear that he prefers interacting with animals instead of humans."

"Also, just a note, since you mentioned animals, Midoriya volunteers at that pet rescue center a few blocks away. I saw him there yesterday, bringing in a black stray, and he just glared at anyone who told him that it was just a stray and shouldn't be there."

Aizawa swore he heard Nezu mumble something along the lines of, "Where do you think the damn stray came from in the first place?"

Kan poked his head into the staffroom, "Alright, my students did mess up the boat at the USJ up a bit, as well as destroyed the Conflagration Zone the other day, but Thirteen says that the USJ is ready for 1-A to use tomorrow."

"Alright." Aizawa noted. "I should go help Mic deal with the damn press."

Suddenly, a loud clang of metal resonated throughout the school, and Nezu clicked on a blinking button on his laptop, "The press activated the barrier. It should be fine."

* * *

It wasn't fine.

Somehow, the press had created a hole in the wall, and had gotten in.

Aizawa and Yamada growled as they tried to keep the press out of UA, but they kept on pestering them with more and more questions, and Aizawa was sure that his patience was going to run out soon.

Then, all of a sudden, the entire area grew silent. The reporters and cameramen were all frozen in place, stunned into silence. Aizawa was pretty sure the only reason why he could feel the presence but still had full mobility was that he wasn't the target of the strange aura, and that he had felt it before.

However, the boy that he had thought to be associated with the aura was nowhere to be seen.

But still, it gave him a moment of clarity to sort his thoughts out, and he hissed, "Look, this is a place for students to learn. You triggered the intruder alarms, and this is probably the result of a panicking student's quirk. We already called the police for vandalism and trespassing, and now, you're scaring the students as well."

Aizawa sighed as the police finally came along, and as suddenly as the pressuring aura appeared, it dissipated.

He still needed to figure out who was the person behind this. Midoriya was still a possibility, but he wasn't anywhere near the area. Or it really could just be some student's quirk that activated by accident.

Midoriya was quirkless. Even if he were to have some sort of quirk that he didn't know about, Aizawa would assume that it was an analysis quirk. Snipe taught the general education course skills that would be useful, regardless if they managed to transfer into the hero course or now. After all, most general education students did end up working for heroes as their secretaries, accountants, or becoming police officers and detectives.

And when Snipe had covered the analysis class, Midoriya had truly shined. Snipe had wanted the students to write an analysis of any heroes' quirk, as long as they were well known enough so that Snipe didn't have to figure out who the hero was in the first place, and Midoriya had ended up writing a report on Eraser Head, stating that he was an underground hero, but was a teacher at UA, so technically Snipe should know him.

And Snipe had no idea how to even grade his work since Midoriya had handed up a stack of papers that was ten times thicker than those of the other students.

Midoriya's work included sketches, diagrams, and just a huge load of information, and Aizawa had no idea how the kid even knew of him where there was just a singular video of him that had been released four years ago, and even that had been removed in five minutes within its upload.

His report had included his capture weapon, his quirk probably not working on mutant types, his goggles being there to make it harder for enemies to discern where he's looking, and his hair floating up whenever he used his quirk.

And the only question Aizawa had when Snipe shoved the paper in his face was _how the heck did Midoriya know so much about him!?_

They had even asked some of the third year hero course students that Aizawa didn't teach, and even they had no idea that the person standing in front of them was Eraser Head.

And that was the reason why Nezu had pulled the kid out of his maths class to investigate the gaping hole in the UA barrier. He needed to address his class, and all the other teachers had lessons to teach. Their reaction to the "break in" was horrible. He needed to lecture them all. At least Iida and Uraraka managed to stop anyone from getting hurt in the stampede, and Shinsou had to calm down several of the students with quirks that went nuts.

"A disintegration quirk." Nezu said, "We were thinking along the lines of rusting, but upon further examination, some of the dust wasn't of metal, but of cloth as well. It may be a distraction for an infiltration, but the security feeds didn't show anything wrong and the database shows no signs of tampering. But Midoriya thinks it's a villain, since if it were one of the press, they would have disintegrated the wall long ago."

Aizawa nodded, "So, basically, don't tell the students or we'll cause more panic. What if Midoriya tells the others?"

"Shouta, the kid doesn't even speak to his classmates, what makes you think he'll say anything about this?" Yamada retorted.

"He agreed not to tell anyone either." Nezu nodded. "Just make sure to keep an eye out for anything suspicious."

* * *

Midoriya ran.

He was going to meet with Nezu at the park again, but he had somehow ended up with a huge bunch of villains, and a man with hands all over him announcing that they were going to launch an attack on the USJ the next day to take All Might down.

He needed to alert Nezu that there was going to be an attack on UA. He couldn't tell him as Midoriya, he would definitely know something was up, but as Void, he could. He didn't like All Might, but he did admit that All Might did his job properly with minimal property damage, even though he lied to everyone with that stupid smile on his face and his other Yagi Toshinori form.

He knew that Nezu was curious about him, and was trying to figure out who he was, both as Midoriya and as Void, but Nezu had never done anything to overstep his boundaries, and for that Midoriya was grateful.

Maybe it was because no matter what, Nezu was smart enough to find a way out of any situation, which was why he was so relaxed around him. But Midoriya really did like and cherish his weekly meetings with the principal.

He ran all the way to the park, and stood around, waiting.

"Ah, hello! It's nice to see you again!" Nezu grinned and waved as he made his way towards the bench that he and Midoriya usually sat at.

"They're going to attack the USJ tomorrow."

"Pardon?"

"Villains. The ones who destroyed the UA barrier. They want to go to the USJ when your hero course students are there with All Might and kill him." Midoriya repeated his statement.

"Oh dear." Nezu frowned, "Thank you for alerting me. I'm sorry our first meeting after a month has to start on such a sour note."

"It's fine. It doesn't matter how I feel." Midoriya shrugged, before taking his usual spot on the bench. Nezu crawled up the bench to sit beside him.

"Void, I don't know why you think so, but how you feel matters to me." Nezu admitted, "If there's anything you want to vent about, or you just want to rant about something, you are free to do so. You're human, after all. We all are. It's not healthy to think that you don't matter."

_"You're the most humane being that I've ever met."_

Nezu swore that he heard Void mumble that, but he already felt that he was overstepping his boundaries by telling Void that he could vent to him and didn't ask him to repeat it or ask for an explanation. Void was clearly socially awkward, even though he seemed to like talking to him, and Nezu didn't want to pressure the kid any more than he already was.

And all of a sudden, a realisation popped into Nezu's head.

Void didn't usually wear a mask, and he was used to hearing his real voice for the past few months. Then, he didn't meet Void for a while, due to the UA entrance exams, and he in the meantime, had met Midoriya in the second week of school.

He didn't realise it when he first talked to Midoriya, it had been a month since he had met the vigilante, and now that he had bet both boys only ten hours apart, he could make the comparison.

Void sounded exactly like Midoriya. They both slouched, shared similar statures, heck, both of them were so similar to each other that even Aizawa thought they were related, and he hates making theories about people because he claimed it was a waste of time.

He was wrong, obviously. Void and Midoriya were related, but not in the way Aizawa meant.

They were the same person. Void was Midoriya's vigilante persona. Void was the person that Midoriya wanted to be. Void was the hero that Midoriya was never allowed to be due to bullying and society's view on his quirklessness.

But Void wasn't quirkless. He had explicitly stated that he had a quirk, and that was before the deadline for the UA applications to be submitted. Midoriya would have known that he had a quirk, and would have stated it, wouldn't he?

It was pure speculation at this point, and while Nezu didn't have any concrete evidence, he was fairly sure that Midoriya was Void. At least the two problem children he was fond of was actually one single problem child with a lot more problems than he thought.

It made it easier, and also, more difficult. Midoriya's problems were just that much complex.

But at least, he could help him, both as Void and as Midoriya.

* * *

"So, you can do that, and that's how to get that formula." Shinsou explained.

Uraraka nodded, trying to understand what he had just said. She and Iida had become fast friends, which had ended up with her becoming friends with Shinsou as well.

"Thanks! I can do my homework now! See ya!" She waved, as she bounded towards the train station with Iida walking behind her.

Shinsou himself was waiting for Yamada, but they were all at the USJ for something and was going to be running late.

"Oh, hey, look, it's the fucking villain!"

Shinsou cringed internally. Sure, he was in the hero course, but still, being called a villain still hurt a ton.

He looked up, and hissed as he saw several of his old classmates stalking towards him.

"I wonder how you even got into UA, let alone the hero course." One sneered.

"Did you brainwash them to let you in?"

"Just like a villain!"

Shinsou just stood there. He didn't want to react, they would scream about his quirk again and yell to the heavens that he should kill himself.

He had told his dad before, but without proof they couldn't actually do anything and all they had gotten was detention. And it wasn't like Shinsou kept his phone on to record the daily serving of abuse from his classmates.

He waited for the next series of taunts and insults, except there weren't any more.

"Calling other people a villain? Maybe you should look at yourselves first."

Shinsou wasn't expecting a voice from behind him to speak up.

He turned around, finding the green haired boy that Bakugou had called Midoriya walking towards them.

"Oh. You." A boy sneered, "We heard stuff about you, quirkless freak. How the heck did you get into UA?"

Midoriya didn't reply, and just stared emotionlessly at them.

"Are you even going to react, freak?"

"Shit man, he looks like a fucking zombie."

Shinsou had no idea what Midoriya had done, but all of a sudden, it felt like they were in a freezer. The only thing he felt was a sudden blast of pressure, and then there was nothing but a thick, uncomfortable silence that seemed to fill the area.

"This kid's a monster! Let's go!"

Apparently, that was all that was needed for Shinsou's former bullies to run off, and he have a sigh of relief.

He turned to Midoriya, who still looked as impassive as usual.

"Thanks for.. uh.. standing up for me."

Midoriya's emerald green eyes flicked to him for a split second as acknowledgement, before he looked forward again.

"Uh… would you, uh… like to eat lunch together or something?"

Midoriya just turned to face Shinsou once more, his blank expression slowly shifting to that of mild confusion and distrust.

Shinsou stuck his hand out, "Sorry, it's rude of me to, uh… not introduce myself before asking… if you wanna hang out. I'm Shinsou Hitoshi."

Midoriya just stared at his hand questioningly, before he signed something instead of replying.

_"Didn't the explosive blonde B-a-k-u-g-o-u tell you about me already?"_

Shinsou blinked, trying to decipher the fingerspelling.

"Wait, you heard that?"

The green haired boy just nodded as a response.

"I mean… I thought it would be better if you introduced yourself?" Shinsou replied, "I guess…"

_"M-i-d-o-r-i-y-a I-z-u-k-u."_

Well, Midoriya didn't speak, instead opting to fingerspell his answer, but that was a start.

"So… uh… lunch?"

Midoriya seemed to ponder over it for a while, retaining his creepy blank stare the entire time, but eventually, the boy nodded.

Shinsou heaved a sigh of relief.

"Alright. Awesome. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Midoriya nodded again, before he turned and left the school.

The green haired boy rounded the corner, and Reiko popped out from his bag and nuzzled him.

_It wouldn't last anyways. They never did._

He wondered how long he would have to wait this time.


	8. Chapter 8 - You filled me up with hate

"Dad, why didn't Midoriya get into the hero course?"

Aizawa blinked as he plopped his capture weapon on the table. The USJ had been attacked, like Nezu said, and while the damn misty portal, the hand-covered man and their big black monster had escaped the second they noticed all the heros standing around, alongside All Might, they had to round up the other hundred or so villains that had dropped into the facility.

The public just knew that Nezu had somehow predicted the attack after the presumed infiltration the previous day, but in reality, he had revealed to all the UA teachers, as well as Tsukauchi, that Void had been the one to alert him of the imminent attack.

It was more annoying than dangerous, rounding up so many villains who decided it would be nice to attack UA. At least no one was hurt, and that most of the villains were in jail. None of the other students knew about the attack, since Nezu had decided to distract the students by giving a very long lecture to all three grades at the same time.

"Why are you asking?"

"Uraraka said he saved her from the zero pointer, and I know that there are rescue points. Mineta and Hagakure got thirty four points, and if he managed to stop the zero pointer to rescue her, I thought he'd get a lot more points."

Aizawa sighed, and sank into the couch.

"It's complicated."

"I bet." Shinsou moved over to plop himself down next to Aizawa.

"Rescue points are… given by five teachers and Nezu. None of us were the ones giving rescue points. Not Ectoplasm, Yamada, Recovery Girl, none of the teachers that teach you are in charge of that. Most of the other teachers… they may be a bit biased towards Midoriya." Aizawa groaned. "Also, because we're keeping track of so many students, usually the people flashier quirks will get more attention because it is easier to see. Honestly, after looking through the camera feeds, Midoriya should have gotten a much higher score, but most of his rescuing wasn't noticed by the other teachers. Nezu did point it out, but we can't change the scores after the exam had finished."

"That's dumb." Shinsou snorted.

"It is true, as much as I hate it." Aizawa growled, "We get distracted when there's a huge explosion or something like it. And Midoriya with his EMP…. even Nezu couldn't give him a very high score because he did stop the zero-pointer in a very precarious position, though it did buy him time to rescue Uraraka. The other teachers were skeptical since he had an EMP, and gave him a really low score since they assumed he knew about the rescue points. He still got an impressive thirty three though, given that a lot of his points were skipped over. Although I am curious as to why Midoriya even had an EMP in the first place."

"So, he can still get in from the Sports Festival, right?"

"Probably, if he can win. Robots are a lot sturdier than humans, but the students have pretty powerful quirks that he will have to find a way to get around. Just look at Todoroki, Midoriya will have a hard time just getting near him." Aizawa sighed, "I am curious to see how he'll perform, though.".

* * *

Shinsou looked around for the mop of green hair, before he found Midoriya standing at the doorway to the cafeteria.

He gave a quick wave, and Midoriya turned in his direction, before he weaved his way through the crowd of people. He finally made his way to Shinsou's table, and Uraraka and Iida raised his eyebrows at the General Education student.

He gestured towards the seat opposite Shinsou, beside Iida, and Shinsou nodded, "It's empty, go ahead."

He caught the questioning looks from Iida and Uraraka, and Shinsou just replied, "I invited him."

"Ah, okay." Uraraka's face lit up, and she turned to face Midoriya, "Uraraka Ochako! Thank you so much for saving me from the zero pointer!"

"Iida Tenya! I apologise for snapping at you at the exam! You have a good heart to stall the zero pointer and save Uraraka even though there was no benefit to it."

_There was a benefit to it._ Shinsou thought internally, _just that some of the other teachers are dumb._

Midoriya merely nodded in acknowledgement, before Iida and Uraraka dissolved back into the conversation about support items.

"Not going to eat anything?" Shinsou asked, as Midoriya just sipped water from his water bottle.

Midoriya shook his head, and signed, _"Not hungry."_

Shinsou did the translation for Uraraka and Iida, and the blue haired boy sighed, "It's not healthy, you should eat three meals a day! It helps you build muscle and strength, and not to be rude, but you're a little on the… skinny side."

"Come on, Iida, that's just rude. Maybe he had a heavy breakfast this morning." Uraraka butt in, and Midoriya just stared in mild confusion as the two of them dissolved into minor bickering.

"Don't worry about it. This happens often. Iida and Uraraka have vastly different perceptions of things since Iida comes from a better off family, but they generally get along just fine. They bicker for about five minutes, and then they're civil again."

Midoriya just looked at the arguing duo impassively, before turning back to his water.

* * *

A few days later, Aizawa announced the Sports Festival.

And the students from the other classes started crowding around 1-A and 1-B, deeming them as the ones to beat since they had training in both fighting and quirk usage. Shinsou was honestly hoping that the green haired boy would pop by their classroom as well, like his peers, but to his dismay, aside from Asui, Tokage, Kamakiri and Shiozaki, there wasn't a hint of the smaller boy. He did join them for lunch, though remaining quiet throughout, and he wasn't a very social person. He was probably sick of the crowd.

"Tch. Get out of my way, extras!" Bakugou snorted, as he let off a small explosion from his palm in his rage.

"Also, if you think we're the monsters, then you guys better look out for your wolf in sheep's clothing. That green broccoli in your course is no slouch. You guys, on the other hand, are."

Most of the 1-A students froze.

They knew that Bakugou didn't compliment anyone. In fact, he raged that the other students weren't strong enough, and that Todoroki was only used half his power against him for some reason and was just looking down on him.

But Bakugou had literally just said that there was someone not in the hero course that they had to look out for.

Uraraka, Iida, Shinsou, and Kirishima were the only one's aware of Midoriya's existence, and they knew right away who Bakugou was talking about.

"You mean Midoriya?" One of the General Education students sneered, "That kid's just a nerd. He never says anything. He's just a weakass idiot who is always getting called out of class to talk to the principal for some reason in the middle of tests. Totally a teacher's pet."

"Maybe because he actually finished his test and the teachers didn't want him sitting around?" Shinsou offered.

"Tch. He's so scrawny and weak, what can he do, besides staring at us like an emotionless freak?" The other student snorted.

Bakugou just shrugged, pushing his way through the crowd, "Underestimating someone stronger than you is going to be your downfall."

_This sports festival was going to be fun,_ Shinsou thought to himself, _especially if even Bakugou is acknowledging him. Maybe I'll get the chance to fight him._

* * *

Nezu sighed as he stretched. Midoriya was doing absurdly well in lessons, and Maijima has even requested for him to pop by the Support Course during his free time since he apparently knew how to make an EMP.

His reasoning for somehow deciding to make an EMP in the middle of the exam was surprising though, even to Nezu.

_"The zero pointer was.. Probably hiding underground? And was probably very large since… there's no tight spaces. Someone would get hurt if it just… emerged from the ground?"_

Seriously, Midoriya was too selfless for his own good, both as himself and as Void. While Nezu really prefered to not disrupt Midoriya's lesson time to try and speak to him, he didn't want to disturb the kid's nap time during lunch. The boy already had horrifyingly dark eye bags and looked like he was barely getting enough sleep, and now Shinsou was trying to befriend Midoriya. He couldn't ruin that chance for Midoriya to actually make a friend.

It wasn't like Midoriya needed to attend his lessons, though. He was smart enough without them, and the boy would no doubt end up napping or getting bored in lessons that he already knew.

He was already getting the boy's help in filing some papers on some lower criminals. And while he specifically said not to look at them, he knew that Midoriya was, no doubt, going to check the papers and go after the criminals himself.

If he was going to continue his vigilantism, then Nezu was going to do his best to make sure he knew exactly who he was targeting. It was the safest option for him, taking care of lesser criminals that Midoriya could definitely take out, and it cleared the villains off the street. Midoriya was good at his job, even if he was borderline on a legal standpoint.

And for some odd reason, there was a cat in the staff room.

Nezu had no idea why there was a cat. Aizawa owned a few, but none of them were as white or as small as the feline was currently looking around the staff room with its heterochromatic mint green and aquamarine eyes.

The cat looked to be about fifteen centimeters long, not counting its head or tail. It looked like a Maine Coon, but it was way too small, so probably a mixed lineage. It didn't wear a collar, but it was probably a house cat since its fur looked really clean.

"Hey."

He squatted down in front of the cat, and much to his surprise, and cat's eyes lit up and it pranced over to him.

"Well, friendly, aren't you." Nezu laughed as he reached out, and the cat pressed its head against his paw, "Do you have an owner?"

The cat meowed at him, and Nezu blinked.

_"Izuku. Not owner. Friend. Takes care of me."_

She was a female, and she said… she belonged to Midoriya.

That was surprising. He hadn't expected Midoriya to actually bring his cat to school, and he was wondering how the hell no one found out about it until she decided to pop in.

"Do you have a name?"

Reiko. Her name was Reiko. Nezu frowned, and tapped his paw against the ground. He wasn't sure what to do with Reiko, or Midoriya for that matter. Bringing pets was against the school rules, but Midoriya didn't do things for no reason. There had to be a reason why he would bring his cat to school.

"May I ask, why does he bring you here? Isn't it better if you stayed at home?"

Reiko purred once more.

_"Not safe. They hurt him. They let him hurt. They're bad. He doesn't tell, he thinks it's fine."_

Shit, Nezu thought. This was bad. Worse than he thought. Midoriya was never keen to talk about his home situation, heck, he wasn't keen to talk about anything in relation to his life. If he was not only suffering in schools, but also at his home, and then went out capturing villains at night, when did he ever get a break?

When did he ever get the chance to enjoy being a kid?

"Nezu, why is there a cat here?"

Nezu was shaken out of his thoughts, and looked up, seeing Aizawa staring at the small white feline with a stack of papers in his hand.

"Ah, Aizawa, this is Midoriya's cat, Reiko. She apparently thought it was a good idea to follow Midoriya to school without his knowledge." Nezu smiled, lying through his teeth. "I figured she could stay here for the rest of the day in case any of the other students find her."

Aizawa blinked, before plopping his papers down onto the table and reached down, offering his hand to Reiko. Reiko trotted over, sniffed his palm, before purring and rubbed her head again Aizawa's hand.

"Well, she's quick to trust. The complete opposite of Midoriya." Aizawa commented. Rubbing his fingers through her silky fur, "He takes good care of her."

Reiko let out another sad sounding purr, and Nezu sighed, "I know. We're trying."

"What did she say?" Aizawa asked.

"She said that a lot of people hurt Midoriya before, and that he was a very different person when he first found her." Nezu replied. "She asked us to help him."

Aizawa scowled, "Probably bullies. He is quirkless after all, no doubt other kids in his elementary and middle school would make fun of him for it. I'll go check his previous school records. Meanwhile, he seems to only be willing to talk to you. Maybe you can get something out of him."

"I've probed before. I'm not going to push him to reveal something he's not comfortable with." Nezu mumbled, "Reiko, stay here for now. I'll bring you back to Midoriya after school."

Aizawa wanted to pet Reiko more, but she had stalked over to Nezu and rested at his feet, batting at the principal's tail.

"Well… I guess I should talk to Midoriya later about leaving his cat at home." Nezu shrugged, before he turned back to enter his office, "Come on, Reiko. Maybe we can figure something out if you prefer to follow Midoriya around."


	9. Chapter 9 - The ship is slowly sinking

Midoriya frowned internally as Reiko slinked out his bag in the middle of Yamada's lesson. He couldn't go and retrieve her, lest the teachers find him with his cat and possibly confiscate her.

Nor could he avoid having lunch with Shinsou and his two hero course friends to go look for her. What was he supposed to tell them without telling them that he brought his cat to school?

He didn't want to ruin his chances of getting into the hero course, but he also wanted to make sure Reiko was okay. She knew how to hide and avoid people, being surprisingly perceptive, and he just hoped that she would run into Nezu or Aizawa or Yamada. Nezu would probably take care of her, and Aizawa and Yamada were fond of cats.

Thank goodness she didn't have a collar.

Midoriya just sank into his chair and tried to listen as Yamada droned on and on about the difference between "Your" and "You're".

But his thoughts kept slipping back to Reiko, and where she could possibly be. Reiko was the first friend he had since he was ten, and she was more like a sister to him than just a cat.

Midoriya hoped that she would be okay.

* * *

"Midoriya, Nezu would like to meet you for a bit. Can you go to his office?" Snipe asked, as he stared at the new stack of papers in his hands. He had requested everyone to analyze support items this time, and this time, Midoriya had doing his analysis on Yamada's directional speaker system.

It included several sketches of what looked like the inside of the speaker, and Snipe didn't want to know why Midoriya seemed to know how to build the device from scratch.

Not to mention that he had plenty of ideas of how to upgrade and improve the device while making it lighter and more sturdy, as well as possibly ideas for Yamada himself to try and improve his quirk.

He was really going to have to be harsher on the word limit for Midoriya. He spent more time on Midoriya's work than on all the other General Education students' work combined.

Maybe he should have Midoriya analyze villains instead of heroes.

Midoriya just nodded, before grabbing his bag and making his way to the principal's office, his body moving on its own in the direction he wanted. He had visited Nezu many times, upon the animal's request, and it was just muscle memory by now.

Midoriya stopped in front of Nezu's office, before he paused and knocked.

"Come in."

Midoriya hesitantly pushed the door open and stepped into the room, closing the door gently behind him.

Almost immediately, a small ball of fluff tackled his legs. Midoriya looked down, and his eyes lit up when he found Reiko pawing at his shoes. He quickly bent down, and scooped his cat up, running his fingers through her soft fur.

Nezu never thought he'd see the day where Midoriya would actually express some emotion, even if it was just through his eyes. He loved it. And he was going to try to find a way, as the principal of the school that he was attending, and as a friend of Void, to make sure it happened more often.

He swore he saw something around Midoriya's neck, but he dismissed it for now. Midoriya was short, and he had a tendency to slouch, much like Aizawa did. It was probably a habit from being a vigilante, having to hide and creep about, trying to make himself appear as small and non-threatening as possible. Not to mention Midoriya seemed to like having the collar of his uniform up, as if he was trying to hide his neck from other people.

Plus, wearing jewelry wasn't against the school rules, as long as it didn't dangle about or was a hazard to the wearer or those around them.

Nezu wondered what Midoriya would do in the Sports Festival, though. It was a chance for him to join the hero course, and considering that he's a vigilante, Nezu figured that it was what he was aiming for. Luckily, if Midoriya managed to win, he wouldn't be allowed to go on internships with the other hero course students, so the problem of what to say about his quirk could wait for later.

"Ahem, Midoriya." Nezu cleared his throat, "It has come to my attention that Reiko had decided to… _follow_ you to school today."

Midoriya almost blanched, as Reiko stuck her paw out to pat Midoriya's nose.

"Now, as we both know, pets aren't allowed in school. Family, on the other hand, is." Nezu grinned, "As long as none of the other teachers see her around, feel free to bring her. You can drop her off here in the morning if you wish as well."

Midoriya just blinked at Nezu, stunned into silence. Not that he spoke much anyways.

"It's clear that her mere presence improves your mental state. I'm not going to take her away from you. It's not like her being here affects your grades negatively. Also, speaking of grades, from now on, when Snipe has lessons, you are to come find me here, okay? He has spoken well of your analysis abilities, and I would like to make good use of that and find something suitable to challenge your skills. Not to mention that some of the information you have analyzed would be detrimental in the wrong hands."

Midoriya nodded, and placed Reiko on his shoulder. She quickly found the hole next to the shoulder strap of Midoriya's bag, and popped inside. She poked her head out, her mint and cyan eyes trailing down to look at Nezu.

"Alright, that's it. For now, we'll be working on your analysis skills, but later on, if you decide you want to continue these lessons instead of your normal lessons, we'll be working on some other things to ensure your notes are safe." Nezu nodded, "You're free to go. I don't want to hold you for too long, the Sports Festival is coming soon and you should get all the rest you can."

He didn't want to tell Midoriya that Reiko had told him about his home situation, that it wasn't normal to be neglected and ordered around by the other children that shared the same foster home, that he didn't deserve to be treated like a lesser being simply because he lacked a quirk, or was functionally quirkless.

If he couldn't enjoy his time at home, then Nezu was going to make sure he enjoyed his time at school, doing things that he is good at, and being appreciated for it.

Or, at least, Nezu hoped he could enjoy it. He hadn't seen Midoriya express much emotion, speaking mostly in a monotone voice or slight anger. The happiest he had seen him was when he saw Reiko, and even then, he continued to keep a straight face.

Nezu was probably going to assign one of the teachers to do a home visit, just in case. Or maybe he should just do it himself, since Midoriya seemed to trust him the most.

Midoriya walked out of the principal's office, pondering over Nezu's words. He wanted to get into the hero course, even though he had long forgotten the reason why he wanted to be a hero in the first place. Heroes just did it for the money, after all, with a few exceptions like the teachers he knew in UA, and a couple others. But just because he felt they were good heroes didn't mean that he trusted them.

And he didn't need to be a hero to help people, after all. It made capturing criminals much more difficult since all the idiotic reports and civilians just stand around, some even inching closer, just to watch the ensuing fight like it was some kind of street show, making the heroes have to look out for them as well, and not being able to concentrate solely on the villain.

It wasn't like he had an offensive quirk and needed a license either. All he had was some dumb quirk that he couldn't control that didn't let him die. What, was he going to be arrested for being a vigilante simply because someone stabbed him and ripped out his lung or something and he was still alive and well?

Midoriya sighed, and headed in the direction of the animal rescue center. At the very least, the animals there liked him, and could help soothe his fraying nerves. The workers there never liked him, thinking he was weird for signing all the time even though he wasn't mute, but they kept him around simply because the animals liked him the most, and that he could calm most of them down with his presence alone.

It was kind of stupid, really. They knew these were animals with abusive owners, or strays that had never had positive contact with humans, and they thought that man-handling them was a good idea?

He just hoped that he wouldn't have to sign aggressively at people. The last time he had to do that, one of the caretakers had dumped a black stray cat onto the ground even though it looked terribly sick.

He pushed all his thoughts of the Sports Festival to the back of his mind. Win first, then decide later. He wouldn't have to decide if he lost, after all.

* * *

Midoriya sat still as a rock as he listened to Uraraka rant about something or another. To be completely honest, he had no idea what she was talking about, and was trying his best to not fall asleep right there and then.

He had been pushing himself further, as preparation for the Sports Festival. Hunting more criminals, trying to be more efficient and deal maximum damage in as little time as possible.

He may be able to fend off ten low level criminals at the same time, but he couldn't use weapons for the Sports Festival, and if he were to go up against someone like Tokoyami or Todoroki, he might end up having a little problem.

Thank god that he didn't feel too much pain anymore.

He remembered this guy from the files he skimmed over that had a quirk that allowed him to paralyse people temporarily as long as they held direct eye contact. Taking him down would be great practise for learning how to fight blind.

After all, the world wasn't going to slow down and wait for you as you wallowed in self pity. They'll just take advantage of that and swallow you whole.

He needed to get better, faster, if he wanted to prove himself.

But Midoriya no longer knew why he wanted to do so.

He could no longer remember what he was fighting for.

Midoriya popped open his water bottle, and took a sip, ignoring its tangy taste. One of the friendlier kids in his foster home had a quirk that allowed him to turn water into sedatives, and had more often than not, been called by the other kids to mess with their water when they had trouble sleeping.

That's probably what they had done to his water. His quirk didn't need direct contact, and could work through the wall of his bottle, but Midoriya really didn't want to waste his water, or risk the spiked water ending up in a drain that some poor stray would drink from.

He'll just have to sleep it off later. It's not like he has never done anything while sleep deprived before.

* * *

Midoriya yawned as he made his way to Nezu's office. Snipe was conducting his lessons, and Nezu did tell Midoriya that they were going to do something to challenge him. To be honest, Midoriya was kind of looking forward to it, since a lot of things in school weren't difficult in the slightest for him.

But Nezu wasn't there when he arrived.

Ectoplasm, the teacher who was in the staff room, informed him that Nezu was speaking to the police, and the meeting had probably taken longer than expected.

"Go take a seat in his office. I'll tell him I sent you inside first when he comes back."

Midoriya carefully pushed open the door of Nezu's office, finding Reiko sitting in a corner in Nezu's office, poking at the bookshelf curiously. Midoriya didn't own a lot of things, most definitely not a bookshelf, so there was no doubt that Reiko would be curious about something new.

She immediately lit up when he entered the office, and she leapt up onto the sofa, waiting for Midoriya to take a seat before she hopped onto his lap. Midoriya yawned and cracked his neck as Reiko pawed at his chest and licked his cheek. He proceeded to nuzzle her gently and sank into the soft couch.

He was tired, Midoriya would admit that. Chasing after villains all the time and getting less and less sleep was getting to him. Not to mention that his water wasn't actually water.

He leaned back against the sofa, and closed his eyes. A small nap wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

* * *

Nezu decided that Midoriya was pushing himself too much.

Tsukauchi was lamanting about the vigilante again, saying how he was getting a sudden influx of texts everyday, with villains tied up and restrained all over Musutafu. He had to deal with all the paperwork, so honestly, Nezu didn't blame him.

At least, his tactic of indirectly feeding Midoriya information was working. Midoriya continuously seeked out a harder opponents, and was doing a pretty good job in taking them down. But he seemed to be working harder at the cost of having fewer breaks and less time to rest.

It wasn't healthy for him to be pushing himself so hard.

Nezu sighed, as he brisk walked to his office. The talk with Tsukauchi had taken much longer than intended, overshooting by half an hour, and Midoriya was probably getting bored waiting for him.

Nezu really didn't want to break the trust that Midoriya had put in him.

He quickly pushed open the door to his office, before blinking at the sight in front of him.

Midoriya was curled up on the sofa in his office, cuddling Reiko protectively as he slept. His feet were hanging off the side of the couch, probably so as to not dirty his furniture, but other than that, Midoriya seemed perfectly content snoozing in the principal's office.

Nezu couldn't help but walk towards the boy, gently patting the boy on the head. If he needed to sleep, then Nezu was going to let him. They could always reschedule their talk for another day. Midoriya's health and well being came first.

Much to his surprise, Midoriya let out what sounded like a purr, relaxing ever so slightly to his touch, and Nezu just gave him a soft, gentle, reassuring pat on the head. Reiko opened her eyes, giving him a quick glance, before she snuggled back into Midoriya's grasp.

He really was getting attached to the boy.


	10. Chapter 10 - There's nothing left

Midoriya groggily opened his eyes and blinked, trying to figure out where he was. Reiko licked his cheek as Midoriya pushed himself up into a sitting position, and blanched when he saw Nezu sitting at his desk, typing away.

"Ah, hello Midoriya, had a nice nap?"

Midoriya was quick to stagger to his feet, clutching Reiko tightly as he tried to apologise while bowing.

Nezu just chuckled, "Don't worry about it. You looked like you needed a nap."

His expression hardened, "Though you have never fallen asleep like this before. Are you okay, Midoriya? Are you getting enough rest at home?"

Midoriya blearly blinked, and nodded. He was getting enough rest, though it was barely enough to keep him functioning throughout the day. But it would be pretty embarrassing to admit that he had drunk spiked water.

His eyes unconsciously trailed to his water bottle, and Nezu caught the motion.

"Oh dear… Do you know who may have done that?" Nezu asked.

Midoriya just shook his head. He didn't want that kid in his foster home to get into trouble. He was one of the nicer ones, and hadn't really bothered Midoriya before. Nezu hopped off his chair, and plucked the bottle out of Midoriya's bag.

"I'll just hand this to Recovery Girl to check if it's dangerous or just a mild sedative. It's rather late now, so I'll just escort you home so you won't get into trouble for taking a nap."

Midoriya was grateful that Nezu had brought that up. If he went home on his own, no doubt he was probably going to get smacked on the head a couple of times for getting home late, since today was a day where he didn't go to the animal rescue shelter.

"Thank… you…"

"Don't worry about it, Midoriya." Nezu grinned, reaching up to pat Midoriya's arm.

* * *

Based on Reiko's description of Midoriya's living conditions, Nezu expected Midoriya's foster parent to be loud, brash, possibly cursing and swearing a lot.

He wasn't expecting for Midoriya to be smacked harshly on the head the second he entered the house.

"How many times have I told you to be back on time?!" His foster mother roared, as Midoriya just stood there, letting her yell at him.

"Ahem." Nezu cleared his throat, gaining the woman's attention, "About that -"

"Excuse me, who are you?" The woman scoffed, "What kind of quirk made you look like that?"

"I should introduce myself. My name's Nezu. I'm the principal of UA, the school that Midoriya currently goes to."

The woman just rolled her eyes dramatically and sighed, "What did Midoriya do this time?"

Nezu raised his eyebrow, "Midoriya didn't do anything, in fact. Someone messed with his drink and he ended up passing out in his class. That's why he came home late."

The woman scoffed, "Seriously?"

She turned to Midoriya, "That's a new one. What other lies are you making up now? First it was classmates destroying your homework, messing with your locker, taking your worksheets, and now spiking your drinks? Can't you come up with something more believable instead of filling people's heads with lies?"

Nezu blanched at how uncaring she seemed to be towards Midoriya. How could he stand to live with someone like that?

He was about to say something when he saw Midoriya signing something behind his back.

_"Don't. Please."_

"We already did a quick check. His water really was mixed with a mild sedative." Nezu confirmed, biting back his comment about her attitude, "Well, I just came to tell you that he's not in trouble in any way."

"Midoriya, go to your room." The woman ordered, and Midoriya followed almost immediately.

Nezu was about to protest that she treat Midoriya with respect when the door to Midoriya's room closed, and the woman sat down on her chair.

"Don't associate yourself with him. In case you're not aware, he's quirkless. I have no idea how he even managed to get into UA, but he's honestly not going to end up getting anywhere without even a useless quirk. He's also non-responsive, doesn't show any emotions, and is just weird in general. A useless freak, even. He's just going to end up being a disappointment."

Nezu growled internally. He really hated how she just talked down on Midoriya without even seeing what he was capable of, but he also wished to respect Midoriya's wishes and not pick a fight with her. If she was the cause for Midoriya's conditioning to not respond to anything and his complete lack of self esteem, he really needed to get him out of her clutches once and for all.

"I understand." Nezu gave her a fake smile, "Midoriya has, however, been doing excellently in lessons, so I'm positive he will be able to do great things later on. I will say goodbye to my student, and I'll be heading out."

"Good." She nodded.

Nezu made his way towards Midoriya's door, and knocked on it gently.

"Midoriya? It's Nezu."

"He's not allowed to lock the door." The woman called out, "Just open in."

Nezu grimaced. No privacy at all?

He still waited until Midoriya himself opened the door, and judging by how quickly he did so, Midoriya was probably trying to listen to the conversation, and Nezu just smiled gently at the teenager. "Hey, I'll be heading back to UA soon. Just… don't listen to her, okay? You're clearly good at analysis and all your other subjects, and that's important. Just because you're quirkless, doesn't make you a freak, and you're certainly not useless."

Midoriya just stared at him, stunned.

Nezu reached up to pat his hand, "If you ever want to talk about it, you'll know where to find me."

Midoriya nodded, and Nezu shot him a small smile as the teen gently closed the door. He made his way out of the house, before he let out a small groan and dialed Aizawa's number.

_"Yes, Principal?"_

"How do you take custody of a human child from someone?"

* * *

"Midoriya."

Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida turned at the sound of Midoriya's name, only to find that Nezu, of all people, was the one to had called out.

Midoriya just got out of his chair and stood up, as Nezu appeared by their table with a huge pile of papers and folders.

"I'll be busy for the next week, so take a look at these villains and see if you can get anything out of them. There's videos, some images, lots of articles, tons of stuff for you to look at."

Midoriya squatted down and collected the huge stack of files and papers from Nezu's paws, and the principal just grinned up at him.

"It's probably not enough to keep you entertained for the entire week, but just take your time with it." Nezu grinned.

Midoriya quietly nodded, and Nezu made his way out of the cafeteria like nothing had happened, ignoring all the 1-A and 1-B students as they watched the exchange in mild shock and fear.

Aizawa and Kan had already told them about Nezu's quirk, High Spec, and for him to actually take an interest in a student and interact with them means that the particular student had probably done something to catch his attention.

Midoriya had never said a word, and through rumours, they had heard that Midoriya was smart, getting through tests and homework without making any mistakes, which was almost a feat in itself as almost no one has done so well before. The only difference between the heroics course and general education was that of the hero lessons, which meant that Midoriya would also be acing their lessons if he were in the hero course.

Also, he seemed to have something around his neck. Probably a choker. No one wanted to question him.

"Hey, Bakugou, is he the one you talked about the other day?" Kirishima gently elbowed Bakugou and asked. The blonde just nodded.

Yaoyorozu shivered. She had no idea who Midoriya was, and to think that both Nezu and Bakugou had acknowledged him….

He might be a troublesome opponent for the Sports Festival.

* * *

"Just who is he?" Yaoyorozu groaned.

"Midoriya?" Asui asked, "You've been stressing about him for some time, kero."

"There's nothing about him that's interesting. There has to be some reason why Nezu has taken him under his wing." Yaoyorozu sighed, "It just doesn't make any sense."

"Tch. Don't underestimate him." Bakugou growled, as he stalked out of the waiting room into the stadium where cheering could be heard from all over the place.

"Damn, this Sports Festival is going to be a riot." Kaminari gasped as he stared at the sheer number of spectators that filled the stadium.

And then Bakugou had to give a small speech since he had gotten the most points in the entrance exams.

"You guys are just stepping stones for my victory. You better give it your all if you even want to stand a chance."

He did manage to find Midoriya's prominent green hair in the crowd of General Education students and sent him a subtle wary glance.

The first event was an obstacle course.

Except that it was not any normal obstacle course. The first part of the obstacle course was a thick forest. And one couldn't just walk or run between the trees, since the ground was, in actuality, waist-height quicksand. It was simply impossible to get through the quicksand fast enough to gain any distance, and the students were forced to either climb the trees and make their way through the forest, or precariously hop along the elongated tree roots in order to pass.

_"Alright, Bakugou and Sero seem to be in the lead! Uraraka is doing good too, in fact, most of 1-A seems to be doing well! Ah, some of the 1-B students are struggling, and uh…. Midoriya? From Class 1-C?"_

Midoriya was just leaping from tree branch to tree branch, running along like he was just running normally on land.

"What?" Monoma gaped as Midoriya just leapt past him, grabbing the nearest branch with his hands and swinging himself up to the next branch. Monoma himself was borrowing Kendo's quirk to get a firm grip on the trees, and he had snagged Uraraka's without her knowledge, and yet he was still having trouble getting through the forest. And there was this guy who was just jumping off like he had lived in a forest his entire life.

Midoriya easily surpassed Uraraka and Iida, the former who was getting nauseous from the usage of her quirk, and the later not having much stable footing to work with.

Then, Ashido accidentally melted a branch with her acid and fell.

Or she would have fallen, if Midoriya didn't seem to have sensed it beforehand and had lunged at her, wrapping his legs around her chest as he hung from a nearby tree branch.

"Woah! Damn, thanks a lot, man!" Ashido grinned, as Midoriya seemed to haul them both up without much of a problem.

Bakugou and Todoroki had taken the lead, clearing the first section of the obstacle course without many problems. Sero was close behind them, after Todoroki had used his ice to slice through his tape. He had fallen into the quicksand, but had managed to save himself in time.

In front of them, lay a few long metal poles that stood up from a large chasm. The poles didn't span the entire length of the chasm, instead, being very randomly placed so there was no clear path to the other side.

Bakugou, always the hotheaded one, shot forward, ignoring the obstacle all together with his quirk, until he was hit by a powerful stream of water right in the face. He tumbled down, and managed to blast himself back onto the side.

Todoroki peered down the chasm, and stared at the massive water cannons that littered the bottom of the chasm.

_"You fall to the ground, you're automatically out! Oh! Monoma and Iida are catching up, Midoriya's behind them, with Sero, Hatsume and Shinsou! Asui's making good progress too! And Uraraka!"_

Iida braked when he saw the chasm, and Shinsou and Sero leaned over the edge to see what lay below. Hatsume tried to cross, but she got a blast of water to the face as she did so, blasting her back to the edge. Asui had caught up and made her way across slowly, hopping to the next bar when she sensed that water was coming her way, and Todoroki made his own protected path of ice and ran across. Bakugou had given it another shot, blasting the water away when it came near as he propelled himself further over the chasm with his quirk.

Then Midoriya came running up. Without even stopping to check his surroundings, he leapt onto a metal pole.

"Hey, watch out!" Shinsou yelped, as he saw a water cannon revving up and taking aim at Midoriya.

Midoriya swiftly leapt to the next bar as a jet of water flew at him, dodging the pressurized blast of water. He kept up the pace, not even missing a beat as he quickly raced along the metal bars towards the other side of the chasm, dodging water blasts left and right.

He weaved through the attacks effortlessly, almost as if he were dancing, smoothly, and just gaped at the green haired boy, blinking like an idiot.

He wasn't the only one. Asui had almost gotten blasted off her pole by water as she stared at the boy who was making good headway, and Kirishima and Tetsutetsu, who had just caught up, were dumbfounded.

Two pressurized blasts of water flew at Midoriya, and much to their surprise, Midoriya jumped, performing a backflip as he twisted midair, dodging both water blasts and landing back on the metal bar in a crouched position.

Even Yamada and Aizawa were gaping from their commentators position, and Aizawa glared at the animal principal who was sitting innocently on his seat and staring at the television, a smile creeping onto his face.

_Damn it, Nezu. What are you teaching him?_

It didn't take long for Midoriya to overtake Bakugou and Todoroki, crossing the chasm. Asui, Iida and Yaoyorozu, who were hot on their heels, until they came up to the next segment.

A huge field of darkened splotches, coupled with robots that littered the area. Midoriya immediately bounded forward, avoiding the splotches completely as Bakugou roared, blasting forward. Todoroki made an ice path to keep up with Bakugou, as the three of them raced for the finish line, Midoriya somehow able to keep his lead despite having to leap and jump all over the place.

Bakugou easily blasted apart a robot, as Todoroki froze another in place. Midoriya, on the other hand, sped up. He jumped, spinning midair as he kicked the robot's head, easily decapitating it. He took it in stride, leaping off the robot and continuing to make his way past the mines.

Bakugou growled, and attempted to attack Midoriya, but Midoriya merely moved his head, like he had predicted that Bakugou would do that, and latched onto his arm with one hand. He twisted his upper body, and jumped, kicking Bakugou to the ground, right onto a mine.

The mine exploded, erupting into pink, glittery smoke, that blasted Bakugou backwards into Todoroki, causing them to activate more mines. Meanwhile, Midoriya was midair at the right angle that the very same blast that sent Bakugou flying backwards propelled him forwards, allowing him to clear the minefield.

Midoriya raced through the tunnel, back into the stadium, where he was declared the winner by Yamada.

* * *

"Damn."

That was the only thing that Yamada had said as Midoriya took both Bakugou and Todoroki down. Luckily for him, his microphone was muted, so no one heard him.

Aizawa was just sitting there, blinking, trying to process what the quirkless, selectively mute teen had done.

"He could have gotten into the hero course." Aizawa muttered, after Yamada announced Midoriya as the winner, "He should have. He chose to save others over gathering the set villain points. He chose to take down the zero-pointer with an EMP because he thought someone would get hurt instead of using the time to take out more robots."

"Well, if he wins, he has a good chance of transferring, right?" Yamada turned to the other pro hero.

"Once people find out he's quirkless, they're gonna flip their shit. That's the main reason why he got so few rescue points." Aizawa growled.

* * *

"Alright! Our next event! Spin the wheel!" Kayama grinned, as she waited for the next event to be displayed on the wide screen television.

"And next, we have the two man cavalry battle! Now, you may be wondering what this is about! There are forty two students who have passed the first round. There will be twenty one groups of two. The person who ranked last would be worth five points, and each rank above that would be worth 5 more points than the previous position, with the exception of first place, who was worth a thousand points!"

Everyone turned to Midoriya, who had gotten first, but the lone green haired general education student didn't even flinch as forty one pairs of eyes stared at him like predators.

"Each team will have a headband that is the sum of the points of the two teammates. One person will carry the other rides on their backs, and the rider is the one wearing the headband. The horse can use their hands, but once your rider falls off your back, it's game over. You're not eliminated if you lose your headband, and quirk usage is allowed, but should you attack with malicious intent to injure or harm another student, you will be disqualified! Now, you have five minutes to make your teams, alliances, whatever!"

* * *

Shinsou had no idea who to team up with. Kirishima was with Bakugou, and Uraraka had gone with Iida. He was about to go ask Midoriya, but a pink haired support course student had already asked to team up with him.

He had ended up paired with Tokoyami. Dark Shadow was sentient, so they technically had three members instead of two, so Shinsou was certain that the second event wouldn't go too badly. Shinsou was the rider, and he could hear Dark Shadow grumbling that the second event made no sense and there was no practical use in it.

"Actually, it is useful. We may have to do rescue or stealth operations that require us to jump around with people on our backs. If we can't even carry young and healthy teenagers without them falling off, we may accidentally drop any injured or elderly people and result in their deaths." Yaoyorozu pointed out.

Shinsou could hear Hatsume babbling on about her inventions as Midoriya heaved her onto his back, testing his own mobility. Uraraka was sitting on Iida's shoulders instead of being piggybacked, and it seemed to be working well for them as long as Uraraka didn't overuse her abilities.

Kaminari and Sero were trying to figure out who would be the rider and the horse, and Ashido was cheering as Asui clung to her back.

"Todoroki and Bakugou are going to go after Midoriya for sure." Ashido commented, dragging Asui with her, "He has the most points. I pity Kirishima and Yaoyorozu."

"Kero, just be glad that Mineta isn't with any of us, kero." Asui said, seeing as Mineta had somehow ended up with Shoji as a partner and was screeching at Todoroki and Iida for having a female partner, much to the two males confusion and the anger of the two other females.

* * *

Ishiyama placed his hands on the ground, manipulating the ground so that it was blocky and uneven.

"Woah! This is awesome!" Kirishima grinned, as the earth beneath him shifted and moved, cement columns rising and sinking.

"Shut up, Shitty Hair." Bakugou snapped, "Keep an eye on Midoriya!"

Midoriya was grabbing onto Hatsume's legs as she clung to his back like a koala, wrapping her arms around Midoriya's neck.

Kayama yelled, "And go!"

Kirishima leapt up androcketed towards Midoriya, powered forwards by Bakugou's explosions, but the green haired boy merely leapt up onto the nearby elevated platform, dodging Bakugou's attempt to steal Hatsume's headband. Shinsou seriously wondered how strong the teen was if he was able to carry Hatsume and all her equipment, which included a pair or large metal boots and a jetpack, without any problems at all.

He clicked his tongue.

"Gotcha." Hatsume activated her jetpack as Midoriya jumped again, giving him a huge boost in speed as they rocketed away from the two hero course students. He immediately pushed off a wall with his foot and tackled Bakugou, knocked him off balance, but he grabbed on to Kirishima in time as the red-head righted himself.

Tokoyami, Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou were staying at the sides, trying to avoid conflict. Uraraka's quirk would be useful for offence, while Iida's quirk could allow him much more mobility in midair, while Dark Shadow was just focussing on defending. Both teams had enough points to take fifth or sixth place, so they were just focussing on keeping their points safe.

Todoroki immediately shot towards Midoriya, as Yaoyorozu created a metal pole, and aimed it at Hatsume, but Midoriya just dodged and stepped on the pole as they came close, jumping and swerving aside as he narrowly avoided being frozen in Todoroki's ice.

He clicked his tongue twice.

"This one, right?" Hatsume grinned, activating her hover soles. It wasn't powerful, but it propelled the non-hero course duo away from Todoroki, giving Midoriya some breathing space as he shot backwards. Todoroki hissed under his breath as Midoriya put some distance between them, as Midoriya jumped onto another elevated platform, before dropping down directly onto Kendo and Bondo.

Hatsume swiftly grabbed Kendo's headband, and Midoriya jumped and clicked his tongue once. Hatsume activated her jetpack again and by the time Kendo and Bondo realised what was going on, they were already out of the two 1-B students' reach.

"Jeez, is he a pro at this?" Monoma muttered, watching as Midoriya effortlessly twisted and maneuvered Hatsume and himself around, dodging attempts at Hatsume's headband and any other obstacles that others like Shiozaki, Kamikiri, Yaoyorozu, and Awase were creating.

Heck, he was even using it to his advantage, kicking up a blade that Kamikiri had shot out and using it to slice away Shiozaki's vines with one foot, using his other foot to support both his and Hatsume's weight.

It came to the point where Bakugou and Todoroki got so frustrated that they decided to form an alliance, albeit an uneasy one, to team up on Midoriya. They'd rather let each other win then to be bested by a General Education and a Support Course student. Even though they had already snagged Mineta and Tsunotori's headbands respectively, they didn't have enough to beat Midoriya.

Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou just stared in horror from their safe zone, after both groups had managed to snag Shoda's and Kodai's headband respectively. Shinsou's quirk was also freezing both teams in place, so neither group could fight back.

Kirishima and Todoroki raced towards Midoriya, and the green haired boy didn't even flinch as he noticed both teams coming towards him. Todoroki's ice shot out, and Kirishima blasted forward.

Being forced to dodge the ice, Midoriya swerved, giving Bakugou the perfect opportunity to snatch Hatsume's headband off, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the pinkette.

What no one expected was for Midoriya to lunge forward as Hatsume clung onto him to prevent herself from falling off, his head snapping forward as his teeth clamped down on the headband in Bakugou's grasp. He jerked his head backwards, and Kirishima braked as Bakugou tried to yank the headband out of Midoriya's bite.

Todoroki growled, as Yaoyorozu lashed forward with another pole to try and get Midoriya away from Bakugou.

Midoriya just clamped his teeth down harder on the headband, and yanked it backwards as he dodged Yaoyorozu's attack, as a loud ripping sound filled the stadium.

_"And times up! It looks like Team Hatsume has the majority of their headband, since it tore, so they still retain their 1010 points from the Sports Festival! They also took Team Kendo's headband, leaving them in first place with 1175 points!"_

Bakugou stared at the torn headband in his hand, and his gaze shifted to Midoriya as the boy spat out the remainder of the headband onto the ground, with Hatsume still clinging onto his back, almost choking him as she cheered.

Yaoyorozu and Todoroki had ended up in second place with 530 points, while Kirishima and Bakugou earned third with 455 points. Tokoyami and Shinsou received 390 points and fourth place, Uraraka and Iida got 385 points in fifth place, Kaibara, Yanagi, Shiozaki and Kamikiri all tied for sixth place with 270 points per team, and Monoma and Tetsutetsu had made it in eighth place with 255 points.

_"Now, we'll take an hour's break for lunch before we start the afternoon festivities! See ya! Hey, Eraser, let's go grab some food!"_

_"I'm going to sleep."_

* * *

"You were awesome, Midoriya!" Uraraka gushed, "I thought you were done for when Bakugou and Todoroki teamed up on you guys! You really showed both them!"

Midoriya just glanced at her and nodded, acknowledging her compliment but still not saying a word, instead sipping his energy drink that Lunch Rush had provided. Shinsou noted that he had something around his neck from the previous events, but he didn't question it. Midoriya could wear whatever he wanted to.

"You think you're too good to eat with us, huh?"

Everyone looked up as a boy growled, glaring at Midoriya. Shinsou, Iida, and Uraraka flinched as he slammed his palms down on the table, right in front of Midoriya, but the green haired boy didn't even flinch.

Midoriya was roughly grabbed by the collar of his UA sports uniform and lifted out of his chair.

"How did a quirkless nobody like you manage to get so far!?"

Yaoyorozu paused, noodles still hanging from her mouth, as she processed his words in shook. Other members of both 1-A and 1-B were also staring at the commotion, gaping at the green haired boy.

_Midoriya was quirkless? He placed first in both the first and second events, without a quirk? Sure, pretty much everyone was struggling with the second event, save for him, who seemed right in his element as he zipped around with Hatsume on his back, but the first event?_

Midoriya just hung limply from the other boy's grasp, not even struggling or making a move to free himself from potentially being choked. He just gazed lifelessly at the other General Education student, his green eyes dim and empty.

"What's this? A collar?" The boy sneered, using one hand to hold Midoriya's uniform, and his other to tug lightly at the black band around MIdoriya's neck.

Oh. So that's what it was. Shinsou bleakly realised, as he was frozen to his seat.

"What are you, some kind of pet?" The boy growled, pushing Midoriya to the ground.

Shinsou snapped as Midoriya's head made contact with the wall, producing a loud bang.

"Hey, what did he do to you?" Shinsou hissed, standing up and blocking the downed Midoriya from the other boy's view, "He didn't do anything to you! Leave him alone."

Midoriya picked himself up from the ground wordlessly, as the other male just snapped, "He doesn't deserve to be here. He's powerless. Sure, he's smart, but there's absolutely no reason how to had gotten so far without any physical enhancements. And what about you, with your vile, disgusting, villainous quirk? How the hell did you get into the hero course anyways!? Did you brainwash the teachers and the principal?"

Shinsou flinched.

_He hated it. Hated that people would assume he would use his quirk to get his way. Hated that other people don't care that some people actually work hard and don't rely on their quirks all the time._

"Hey, that is completely uncalled for! Shinsou didn't - " Iida tried to stand up for Shinsou, but all of a sudden, he felt like he couldn't breathe.

The boy froze as Midoriya stared at him coldly, eyes gleaming like emerald, cold, hard, uncaring. He flinched, and panicked, falling to the ground as Midoriya took a step forward. Midoriya wasn't even doing anything remotely threatening, but the air around him seemed to darken, crackling with pressure that squeezed the air out of everyone's lungs and made it hard to breath.

Midoriya wasn't tall, but he towered over the general education student who was sitting helpless on the floor, completely at the mercy of the silent boy. Midoriya just looked at him, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes, making them appear to glow an eerie shade of green. His expression was empty, like a void, betraying none of his thoughts as he looked down at the student who had insulted him and Shinsou.

As suddenly as the oppressing pressure had appeared, it dissipated.

"You… you monster! Freak! You're not even human!" The boy yelped, scrambling to his feet and running out of the cafeteria.

Midoriya just walked back to his seat and sat down, drinking his energy drink like nothing had happened at all, his eyebags standing out as he sat there emotionlessly.

Everyone in the vicinity heaved a sigh of relief as the activities in the cafeteria returned to normal, though rumours were flying all over the place in hushed whispers.

"I'm so sorry, Midoriya. He shouldn't have said that. You don't deserve that." Shinsou sighed, as he went back to his seat.

Midoriya just glanced at him, uncaring, eyes vacant and empty.

"As the class representative, I shall go report him to the teachers." Iida made a move to stand up, "I believe a description of his appearance will be enough. You may not be in my class, but a class representative should take care of students outside of their class as well."

_"Don't worry about it."_ He signed apathetically, as Shinsou's heart sank at what the boy signed next.

_"It's not like it's the first time I've been called that."_


	11. Chapter 11 - Drag me into nowhere

Kan eyed the snowy white cat that sat on Nezu's lap, staring at the television screen intently.

"I wasn't aware you had a pet, sir."

"Ah, she's Midoriya's cat." Nezu turned to the teacher, "She followed Midoriya here again and he didn't have time to bring her home."

"Sounds like this happened before." Kan noted that Nezu said "again".

"Quite a few times. She's pleasant company." Nezu grinned, choosing to omit the fact that Midoriya brought her to school pretty much every day.

Reiko purred at the praise, and Kan hesitantly reached his hand out to pet her. Reiko froze, before cautiously sniffing Kan's palm, before she let out a purr and rubbed her head against his palm.

"Well, it seems like the second event has ended." Thirteen spoke up, eyes trailing to the seemingly affectionate feline, "Do you think Midoriya will want her back?"

"Perhaps." Nezu stood up, as Yamada and Aizawa bantered over the loudspeakers as they announced the lunch break. He placed Reiko on the ground, and made his way towards the stairs, making his way towards the cafeteria, Reiko trotting along beside him.

It took a much longer time for the teachers to reach the cafeteria from their position in the stadium, and when Nezu was close to his destination, he found a boy which he recognised as from being in Midoriya's class to be running in the direction opposite that of the cafeteria.

He didn't seem to notice either or Nezu, and the boy nearly kicked Reiko had the cat not lunged out of the way in time, his foot barely nicking her tail. Reiko hissed as the boy ran away and turned the corner, and Nezu didn't even have time to call out for him to stop before he was gone.

"Well… that was interesting." Nezu muttered, as he continued on his way to the cafeteria, Reiko hissing the direction that the boy had run in.

_"Bad. Bad human. Hurt Izuku."_

Nezu kept that in mind as he finally reached the entrance to the cafeteria, and finding his way blocked by Tensei's little brother.

"Ah, Principal. I was just going to find Aizawa-sensei. I'm sorry for blocking your path!" Iida yelped as he immediately jumped to the side, standing perfectly straight.

"No problems." Nezu replied, "May I ask, why are you looking for Aizawa?"

"Well… I would like to report a boy who pushed Midoriya to the ground, insulted him for being quirkless, and then insulted Shinsou for his quirk when he tried to stand up for Midoriya. He ran out of the cafeteria after calling Midoriya _a monster and a freak._" Iida bowed at a perfect angle of ninety degrees, purposefully lowering his voice when he mentioned the last few words.

Nezu seethed internally, "Alright. I shall deal with it. Do you know who it was?"

Iida shook his head, "I apologise. I do not know his name. I just know that he's around my height, and he has grey hair and yellow eyes."

_The same guy who had run past just now,_ Nezu noted. "Alright. I'll call Shinsou and Midoriya later to decide a suitable punishment. Please enjoy your lunch and the rest of the Sports Festival."

"Thank you, sir." Iida nodded, before he turned around to join Uraraka, Shinsou and Midoriya at their table.

Nezu followed behind him, before he picked Reiko up gently and deposited her on Midoriya's lap.

"Your cat. You can leave her with Aizawa or me before the third event."

Shinsou blinked at the cat, and Reiko leapt up onto the table, careful to avoid knocking over Midoriya's drink, as Midoriya looked at her in mute, emotionless confusion.

Then Reiko reached up to boop Midoriya's nose with her paw.

Uraraka burst into laughter as Iida berated her for being rude, as Midoriya just blinked and looked at Reiko, dumbfounded. Shinsou was doing his best to hide his own laughter, and Reiko seemed pleased with her action, leaping up onto Midoriya's right shoulder and nuzzling him.

Midoriya let her do so, not making a single movement in case she fell off by accident, and he closed his right eye as Reiko continued nuzzling him, her tail flicking around erratically.

Even though Midoriya's facial expression had barely changed at all, Shinsou couldn't help himself from thinking when he saw Reiko being so affectionate with him, _Holy crap. He's adorable._

Uraraka caught Shinsou's expression, and she giggled as Iida continued to berate her. Reiko was purring all the while as she perched on Midoriya's shoulder, before licking his cheek and hopping down curl up in his lap.

"I would like to speak with Shinsou and Midoriya in private, please." Nezu spoke up, as Reiko nudged Midoriya's arm. Shinsou frowned and stood up, as Midoriya picked Reiko up, both of them following Nezu out of the cafeteria.

"I wonder what's that about…" Yaoyorozu mumbled.

"Iida did talk to Nezu about what happened when he entered the cafeteria." Jiro pointed out, "Maybe he's going to talk to them about that."

* * *

"Now…. Iida told me what happened." Nezu sighed, as the trio were standing outside the cafeteria, just around the corner. "Quirk discrimination isn't tolerated here. In most cases, we would just give the student a warning, and expel the student if it happens again, but... I think I should get your opinion on it."

Shinsou frowned, as Midoriya placed Reiko on the ground and started signing at a breakneck pace.

_"No you can't expel him! He's probably just frustrated that he didn't manage to pass the first round and just took it out on me in the heat of the moment, and anyway it's not like he's wrong. You can't blame him for that, even though acting on emotions is irrational. Maybe just give him detention or something?"_

It took Shinsou a couple of seconds to process what Midoriya had just signed, and he just gaped at the smaller teen, "What do you mean, he's not wrong?"

Nezu just watched the interaction with an emotionless expression face.

Midoriya just looked at him blankly and signed back, _"I don't have a quirk. Twenty percent of the population doesn't have a quirk, and most of them are from the older generation. There's probably only a couple of quirkless people in our generation scattered around the world."_

Nezu thought about why Midoriya never got help, or never got offered help in the first place.

_He's quirkless. No one would listen. He's not the one who doesn't want help, no one was willing to listen to him at all._

_But then, there was the other thing. As Void, Midoriya had a quirk. If he was getting bullied for being quirkless, logically, once he realised he had a quirk, he would try to tell others to try and fit in, right?_

_Of course not. If he was quirkless for his entire life and suffered for it for fifteen years before suddenly gaining a quirk, obviously he wouldn't be sure how to handle it. He's going to need counselling for that… once he decides to open up about that quirk he has. He said it was life and death… and Aizawa swore it was regeneration…._

Nezu just hoped that if he went up against someone like Todoroki or Bakugou, he wouldn't get injured too badly. Revealing that he had a quirk on live television would be the last thing he wanted.

"So what? You're not a freak, not a monster, and you're still human like the rest of us, quirk or no. Heck, you're doing pretty well in the Sports Festival compared to others who have a quirk." Shinsou tried to reason with the boy, "He insulted you, and bullied you, because you don't have a quirk. He shouldn't treat you like that."

"Midoriya, Shinsou's right. A quirk doesn't define a person. The lack of a quirk likewise does not define a person. You made it this far without a quirk, you should feel proud of yourself for getting as far as someone who has extra abilities to do so."

_"Being proud makes one egoistical and ignorant to others around them. It's irrational."_

Reiko just purred and rubbed her head against Midoriya's leg, making the green haired boy pick her up. She licked his cheek comfortingly.

_Jeez… he's just like Dad…, _Shinsou thought, _What happened to him before? Why didn't anyone help him before?_

"Shinsou."

Shinsou was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the principal call him.

"Uh, yes, sir?"

"Are you okay with giving the boy another chance? He did insult you as well, according to Iida."

"Well… I won't tolerate him calling Midoriya names and hurting him for no reason again." Shinsou growled. "I don't know how you can be so nice to someone who treats you like that, Midoriya, but if you want to give him a chance, then I'll let it slide."

"It's fine. Everyone treats me like that, sometimes worse. It's normal, I'm used to it."

Nezu merely sighed internally. Midoriya had so many problems and most of them were caused by other people. There was only so much abuse a person could take until they snapped. It was a miracle the boy hadn't done something foolish yet to escape the harsh words and bullying.

"Well, that's it for now. Midoriya, after the Sports Festival, would you like the continue our lessons?"

Midoriya gave a curt nod, and Nezu continued, "Alright. Go and enjoy the rest of the Sports Festival. I'll deal with everything else."

Midoriya bowed, and Shinsou thanked Nezu, before they both turned around to go back to the cafeteria.

"Shinsou, a word, please?"

Shinsou stopped, and Midoriya followed suite, turning around the face Shinsou. Shinsou gestured that he could go back first, and the purple haired boy turned back to the principal.

"This may seem like a huge request, but please, take care of Midoriya. You're the first person that tried to help him… I'm sure it means a lot to him."

Shinsou nodded. He had a villainous quirk. His former family tormented him, his classmates bullied him, he had a general idea of what Midoriya might have been through.

And Midoriya was quirkless. No doubt that it was a lot worse for the green haired teen.

"Yeah. I'll do my best."

* * *

The rest of lunch time went by smoothly. No one wanted to bother the three hero course students and the lone general education student, and while they did get some weird looks for the cat sitting on Midoriya's lap or on the table, nothing else really happened.

There were conversations between Uraraka and Iida, occasionally with Shinsou, but Midoriya remained silent throughout. Uraraka and Iida did try to drag Midoriya into their conversation, but Midoriya merely signed his answer and Shinsou translated it for him.

Midoriya had excused himself to go to the bathroom at one point, and Shinsou just glared at Uraraka and Iida.

"Okay, what's your deal?"

Uraraka snorted, "We're not blind, Shinsou. You like him."

Shinsou immediately turned red, "Of course I like him. He's a friend."

"Not in that way, dummy. You like _like_ him."

"No I don't."

Shinsou turned away, only for Reiko to playfully pat his cheek before returning to her position by Midoriya's seat.

"Uraraka, I think you should let up a bit. A lot of things has happened today, and we still have the third round of the Sports Festival." Iida butted in. "I suggest we leave this matter for another time. Also, Midoriya may come back from the bathroom any time."

* * *

_"Alright! For the third round! We will first be having team battles! Two versus two! And the teams and matchups will be decided randomly right here and now!"_

Shinsou just gulped when Yamada announced that. The third round was usually one versus one battles, and now he was going to have to work with someone he may not even know?

It was logical, like their first lesson with All Might and randomly picking their partners, but at the very least, they kind of already knew each other from Aizawa's quirk apprehension test.

"Alright! We have our eight groups!" Yamada announced, once the flickering images of the students finally stabilized, "First group,Iida and Shinsou! Second group, Kamikiri and Yaoyorozu! Third group, Tetsutetsu and Hatsume! Fourth group, Bakugou and Shiozaki! Fifth group, Tokoyami and Kirishima! Sixth group, Todoroki and Kaibara! Seventh group, Uraraka and Yanagi. Last but not least, the eighth group, Monoma and Midoriya!"

_Well shit._ Monoma thought. He didn't necessarily _dislike_ Midoriya, per say, he had proven himself to be capable even without a quirk. He would need to borrow his classmates quirks beforehand, but what if they ran out?

No. He was the one in the hero course. Why did he have to be the sitting duck, the weak one without a quirk?

"And now, for the first round matchups! Todoroki and Kaibara versus Uraraka and Yanagi! Bakugou and Shiozaki versus Tokoyami and Kirishima! Iida and Shinsou verses Tetsutetsu and Hatsume! And lastly, Kamikiri and Yaoyorozu versus Monoma and Midoriya!"

_This is even worse. Kamikiri knows how my quirk works… Shit._

Midoriya merely turned to him, signed something to Shinsou after formerly being dragged to the 1-A viewing platform by Uraraka, and made his way towards him.

"Shit." Monoma cursed again, Midoriya was right next to him. "I don't know sign language."


	12. Chapter 12 - Into the fire consumed

Monoma stared as Midoriya just looked at him blankly, before pulling him aside. Who cares about the others if they couldn't even get past the first round?

"Are you mute? Or do you just not like speaking." Monoma started, "Because we can't win if we can't communicate."

Midoriya paused, hands frozen in place as he thought, before he fingerspelled.

_"M-o-n-o-m-a?"_

It took Monoma some time to decipher Midoriya's gestures, but he did figure it out.

"Yeah. Midoriya Izuku? Quirkless, right?"

Midoriya just nodded.

_"C-o-p-y."_

Midoriya then stuck three of his fingers up, before he used his other hand to tap at his wrist, then stuck four fingers up.

Monoma's jaw dropped. To any outsider, the gestures may not have any meaning, but those specific values were significant to Monoma. He could copy three quirks, for up to four minutes for each.

"How… did you… know that?"

Midoriya just stuck his fingers up in the gestures for one and two, before pointing at his eyes.

"Ah… you… observed me? Just me or everyone else?"

Midoriya drew a circle with his finger, and it was pretty obvious that he meant everyone instead of just Monoma himself.

"Well… that's good to know…" Monoma really wasn't sure what to do at this point. Discuss strategies against Kamikiri and Yaoyorozu? Try and befriend the boy and show that he, and by extension, his class, was better than 1-A?

He knew that they were going to have a tough time. Yaoyorozu was definitely strong, being a recommendation student, and the fact that Todoroki picked her as a partner showed her versatility.

Kamakiri was also no slouch, and he had excellent combat prowess. He was fast, had an excellent reaction time, and his quirk allowed him to produce razor sharp blades, which meant that he was pretty much untouchable to a quirkless boy and another functionally quirkless boy.

_"Kamakiri fast, quirk blades. Yaoyotozu quirk create anything, tendecy for poles, knives. Copy Tetsutetsu quirk for defence? Yanagi quirk to steal weapon? Kaibara drilling quirk?"_

Midoriya was clearly having trouble fingerspelling so many words in one go, but he kept it up to try and communicate. Monoma appreciated it. And Monoma was really getting afraid of Midoriya. How the hell was he that familiar with his classmates quirks when he wasn't even in the hero course? How did he know Tetsutetsu, Yanagi and Kaibara's quirks? Did he also keep his eye on them throughout the cavalry battle?

If so, how the hell did he do so?! They barely used their quirks, they only really used them in the obstacle course, and they were nowhere near the general education student after Hatsume had stolen Kendo's headband in the second round. They did their best to not stand out at all, and yet, Midoriya was still able to figure them out?

And this was the guy that Bakugou was referring to, when the Sports Festival had just been announced. The wolf in sheep's clothing, Bakugou had called him. The dark horse of the general education course. Who would have thought that a quirkless student had made it this far?

"So… do you have a plan to beat them?" Monoma asked.

Midoriya looked away for a second, as if contemplating the question, before he nodded. He brought his hands up to his face and positioned them by his mouth.

Monoma squinted, trying to make sense of the hand gestures.

"Uh… Mouth? Your mouth?"

Midoriya shook his head, repeating the hand gesture, until Monoma finally made the connection that his gesture looked like the mandible-looking structures on Kamakiri's face, and that Midoriya was trying to find another way to communicate.

He gawked.

"You wanna take on Kamakiri? Do you even know what his quirk is?"

Midoriya nodded, before he fingerspelled Kamakiri's name, gestured to Monoma, and made a cross with his fingers.

"You think Kamakiri won't want to fight me?"

He nodded, and started fingerspelling again,_ "P-o-w-e-r-f-u-l. H-e k-n-o-w-s q-u-i-r-k. N-o C-o-p-y."_

"Ah… that makes sense…" Monoma muttered. Kamakiri was in his class, no doubt that he would want to keep Monoma away to prevent him from copying his quirk.

"I'll take on the 1-A girl, then?" Monoma asked, and Midoriya nodded once more.

* * *

It was a shame, truly. Uraraka and Yanagi were no match for Todoroki as they were almost immediately frozen solid by Todoroki. Kaibara just stood there, stunned, as the match was over in an instant.

Tokoyami and Kirishima were also no match for Bakugou and Shiozaki. Bakugou's explosions were weakening Dark Shadow to the point where they couldn't rip through Shiozaki's vines. And Kirishima? Bakugou just had to blast him again and again while Shiozaki kept Tokoyami occupied, until he pushed Kirishima out of the arena.

Hatsume had given Iida tons of support items to use, but Shinsou managed to stop Hatsume almost immediately after she tried to use Iida as a guinea pig to advertise her inventions. All he had to do was ask Hatsume some questions about her technology, and took that chance to brainwash her and force her to walk out of the area. Iida, with the help of Hatsume's tech, pushed Tetsutetsu out of the arena, ignoring the fact that Tetsutetsu had turned himself into steel in an attempt to slow him down.

Hatsume may be an eccentric person, but her ability to create support items was no joke.

And then, it was finally the last match of Round One, Kamikiri and Yaoyorozu versus Monoma and Midoriya.

The second Kayama announced that they had started, Kamakiri shot towards Midoriya, and Yaoyorozu immediately created a long metal pole, before charging towards Monoma.

_"Yaoyorozu, Monoma's quirk lets him copy anyone's quirk when he comes into contact with them. You said your quirk is dependent on how much food you consume, right?"_

_"Yes? Why?" Yaoyorozu asked, as they stood in the waiting room, getting ready for the match._

_"You can deal with Monoma. Monoma generally has a poor appetite, and he doesn't eat a lot. Copying your quirk, no matter how powerful and versatile it is, will be limited for him."_

_"And you're going to deal with Midoriya? He's quirkless. With a quirk like yours ... won't it be too much of an overkill?" Yaoyorozu asked, worried._

_"You saw how he acted in the second round. I have a feeling it's going to be far from being an overkill." Kamakiri sighed, "Plus, he knows what he's doing. He's been bullied before, and it's not a nice feeling. I admire that he made it this far without a quirk, and I'm going to show my respect for him by giving him my all."_

Monoma growled. Midoriya had no quirk to defend himself from Kamakiri, and while Midoriya said that he would handle it, he was worried for his green haired partner.

He quickly dodged a strike from Yaoyorozu, and took a quick glance at Midoriya's fight with Kamakiri. Yaoyorozu caught his gaze, and also turned to look at the other fight, and her jaw dropped.

Kamakiri was fast, his attacks swift and accurate, extending and retracting his blades to make him even more unpredictable, but Midoriya was dodging everything, every single one of Kamakiri's attacks.

He swerved to the side, dodging a slash, before he ducked and moved out of the way, slowly moving backwards. Kamakiri sidestepped, trying to feint, but Midoriya just jumped out of the way. Over and over, Midoriya continuously evaded Kamakiri's attempts to even lay a hit on him.

_Of course,_ Kamakiri thought to himself, internally berating himself for thinking that Midoriya could even fight back in the first place, _he can't defend against the blades without getting hurt. He can only evade with his limited reach._

"You know, it's pretty amazing that you made it this far, with your circumstances." Kamakiri said, as Midoriya moved back and stood there, as if contemplating Kamakiri's words, "As a show of respect, I'm going to take you out with everything I have."

Kamakiri jumped back, before he lunged forwards, extending his blades to the maximum, charging at Midoriya.

To his surprise, Midoriya didn't dodged. In fact, he didn't even move from his spot.

He just reached out with his hands, clamping his fingers down firmly on the flat of Kamakiri's extended blades to ensure that he wouldn't get cut.

He did skid back a few inches from Kamakiri's momentum, but that was it. The two of them were locked in a power struggle as Kamakiri attempted to free his blades from Midoriya's grasp, to no avail.

Monoma just gawked internally. That was one of Kamakiri's strongest attacks, and he had used it to slice through the robots in the entrance exam with no trouble at all; Monoma had happened to be in his group during the exam and had seen him do so.

The fact that Midoriya stopped it so effortlessly, he truly was a monster, and somehow…. Monoma felt relieved.

All his life, he had been teased, bullied, for having a quirk that was reliant on others. He had tried to strengthen himself, build muscles, but he never got far until someone saw him and called him names.

_"You can never be a hero with a quirk like that! You might as well be quirkless!"_

And here Midoriya was, easily fending off a boy with a powerful quirk.

He could do so while quirkless.

_Maybe he should ask the boy for pointers after the Sports Festival._

Midoriya suddenly swerved to the side, causing Kamakiri to lose his balance, and fall over. Midoriya used that opportunity to toss Kamakiri past the line, eliminating him, before looking at Monoma and Yaoyorozu.

_Shit,_ Yaoyorozu thought, as Monoma quickly used that opportunity to snatch her weapon away, smacking her aside with her own weapon, and he shot towards her, forcing her out of bounds.

Kamakiri just stood up, and made his way towards Midoriya, as Kayama called the match.

"I underestimated you. That was a great fight. You want to make it to the hero course, right? I hope you make it in, and hopefully we can have a rematch?"

He stuck his hand out, and Midoriya just looked at his extended hand, then at him, before he hesitantly stuck his hand out to shake Kamakiri's.

_Huh. That's weird._ Monoma thought, _it's almost as if he didn't know what to do next when Kamakiri wanted to shake his hand._

It definitely wasn't normal. Wasn't it a universal gesture of goodwill? Midoriya looked like he was expecting Kamakiri to attack him the second he did so.

Maybe he was still upset over what that dumb kid in the cafeteria said to him. That's probably why he was being so cautious. Monoma just sighed, and pushed it to the back of his mind.

There was still the quarter finals.

* * *

Well, the matchups could have been better. Shinsou and Bakugou were teamed up against Iida and Monoma, while Todoroki and Midoriya were to go up against Shiozaki and Kaibara.

Bakugou did managed to knock Iida out of bounds with a well timed blast to obscure Iida's vision, before literally blasting him out of the ring, while Iida hammered him with a Recipro Burst, with Bakugou barely managing to blast himself back in bounds with his quirk. Monoma had copied Iida's quirk, and had attempted a Recipro Burst, but Shinsou barely managed to dodge his attacks and he was pushed out of bounds when his temporary engines stalled.

As for Kaibara and Shiozaki?

Todoroki was in a seemingly bad mood, and made a gigantic glacier again, but Kaibara's quirk was perfect to counter it, and he completely destroyed the glacier, his hands wrapped with Shiozaki's vines in an attempt to protect them as he did so, sending the ice back at Midoriya and Todoroki in the process.

Todoroki made more ice to defend himself, while Midoriya just evaded the ice, not moving more than necessary.

"Shiozaki, get Midoriya! I'll deal with Todoroki!" Kaibara yelled, as he rushed at Todoroki, smashing through his ice easily.

Vines erupted through the ground under Midoriya, but the boy merely served aside to evade the initial attack.

Shiozaki shot her vines at Midoriya, fully intending on grabbing him, but Midoriya dodged _everything_, from vines that emerged from the ground to the twisting tendrils that raced after him. Midoriya was crouched on the ground, supporting himself with his arms, as he ducked under vines, twisted past tendrils and generally, didn't let as much as a thorn come close to him.

Even the normally calm Shiozaki was getting frustrated that she wasn't getting anywhere against Midoriya.

Todoroki and Kaibara were at a standstill, Todoroki just making more and more ice as Kaibara kept smashing through them. Midoriya was still crouched on the ground, as if waiting for her to attack again, and Shiozaki contemplated her choices.

Going after Midoriya was fruitless. He would just dodge everything. Or maybe she could attack Todoroki, but there was no doubt that he could freeze her vines in no time flat. But it may distract him enough for Kaibara to land a hit on him -

She felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck and then, all she saw was black.

_"Shiozaki is knocked out!"_

Kaibara turned to find his partner, barely having time to see Midoriya carrying Shiozaki before Todoroki sent another wave of ice at him.

"Oi! Put her down!" Tokage yelled from the stands, but Monoma just shushed her, "Just watch."

They watched as Midoriya carefully lifted the knocked out Shiozaki to the other side of the arena, away from Kaibara and Todoroki's fight, before gently depositing her on the ground, out of bounds.

He stood up, looked at her for a moment, before he turned around.

"SHIT!" Kaibara yelled, as he accidentally sent a large chuck of ice flying in Midoriya and Shiozaki's direction.

Much to everyone's surprise, Midoriya immediately turned around and scooped Shiozaki up, and raced out of the way of the ice. Kaibara just stared at Midoriya, stunned, and he didn't even protest as Todoroki encased him in ice, Yamada announcing that Midoriya was out of bounds and that he himself was immobilised.

_Midoriya had taken himself out._

_He had opted to save Shiozaki from the ice instead of remaining in bounds._

And while he technically still won because of Todoroki, it was mind boggling to think that someone would actually risk their position in the Sports festival to save someone, and even more absurd, taking into consideration that he had saved his opponent.

Kaibara felt numb as Todoroki defrosted him with nothing more than a quick, quiet "Sorry", but it wasn't the ice that shook him to the core.

He had almost hurt his classmate, his partner. One moment of carelessness, and he could have killed a potential hero.

_How could he be a hero like this?_

He stalked towards Midoriya, who was squatting down and checking on Shiozaki, who had just woken up.

He squatted down next to Midoriya, perfectly aware that the smaller boy was looking at him warily out of the corner of his eye. He didn't blame him. He hated himself too.

"Hey, Shiozaki, you okay?"

"Ow.. my neck… what happened?" Shiozaki asked, still slightly dazed.

Midoriya pointed to her neck.

"I got hit in the neck?"

Midoriya signed something, then seemed to remember that not everyone knew sign language.

"Uh, he hit your pressure point." Kaibara translated. He knew sign language, since when he was a kid, he had tugged on his father's ear and his quirk had activated for the first time, and in his panic, he had accidentally damaged his ear. His father was deaf in one ear, from an accident in a photoshoot, and poor Kaibara had been unlucky enough to damage his father's lone good ear.

"Oh…" Shiozaki tried to stand up, but she just fell on her butt again. Midoriya carefully pulled her up, as Yamada announced the matchups for the semifinals.

Shinsou and Midoriya versus Todoroki and Bakugou.

"Well shit." Kaibara cursed as he carefully took Shiozaki from the green haired boy, "I'll take her to Recovery Girl. Good luck with your next match, Midoriya."

Midoriya merely nodded in acknowledgement.

* * *

"Start!" Kayama yelled.

Immediately, Bakugou shot himself forwards, as Todoroki created a widespread ice barrier. That alone would probably have ended the match, except that Bakugou had ended up caught in the ice.

"You little shit!" Bakugou roared, as he destroyed Todoroki's ice, "I've been really nice to you so far, fucker. So stay out of my way and let me fight Midoriya!"

Midoriya had predicted that. He knew Bakugou would come after him, and Todoroki would attempt his usual ice glacier attack. It was amazing how accurate his predictions were.

Todoroki didn't say a thing, and Shinsou used that opportunity to yell, "Wow, you guys really aren't working together?"

Todoroki just glared at Shinsou, and Bakugou just downright ignored the boy and shot himself at Midoriya, who swerved aside to dodge the attack.

Midoriya jumped, twisted, spin, as Bakugou tried over and over to land a hit, but Midoriya just seemed to be able to dance out of his reach.

Until Bakugou overextended himself and Midoriya flipped him over, fully intending to throw him out of the arena. Bakugou managed to blast himself back in bounds, before trying to attack Midoriya again.

But that was all he did. Dodge, dodge, dodge, use Bakugou's momentum against him, rinse and repeat.

Todoroki, on the other hand. was having trouble trying to reduce the area his ice took up to avoid another confrontation with Bakugou, at least, not in front of his father, and Shinsou was using that to his advantage, easily weaving around Todoroki's attacks, kicking the ice that formed to close to smithereens.

All that training with Aizawa and Yamada really paid off. He could do so much better with his own version of Aizawa's capture weapon that he used in hero lessons, but that meant Bakugou would have his gigantic grenade blasters. That would be... highly undesirable.

"Stop holding back!" Bakugo roared, as he righted himself after who knew how many times Midoriya had flipped him over his shoulder, "You piece of shit, don't look down on me! I know you can fight better than this! I've seen you fight before, you fucker!"

Midoriya suddenly straightened up, his eyes obscured by his face, and suddenly, everyone on the field froze.

The same pressure that they had felt in the cafeteria erupted from the smaller teen, though nowhere near as powerful as it had been, yet, Bakugou couldn't do anything as Midoriya suddenly looked up at him, his eyes seemingly glowing in the shadows.

Midoriya shot forward, and Bakugou barely had enough time to blast himself backwards to avoid Midoriya as the boy suddenly appeared in front of him, having launched himself into the air and was aiming a kick downwards.

Bakugou tumbled away, and gawked in horror as the concrete platform they were fighting on cracked as Midoriya's foot made contact with the ground.

Midoriya had always appeared to be meek, never trying to stand out, always the nerd, the prey in the food chain.

Now?

Midoriya was no longer the innocent, weak herbivore that let others push him around. He was the predator, the one in charge, and he wasn't going to stop until he won.

Bakugou was forced to dodge as Midoriya struck again, his movements erratic, unpredictable. No matter how good Bakugou was, Midoriya was better, faster.

It didn't matter that he had great mobility while in the air. Bakugou's style had always been, and will always be close combat, something that Midoriya excelled in.

Shinsou and Todoroki just stared, seemingly forgetting about their battle, mesmerized as Bakugou attempted to counterattack, but to no avail. Midoriya just seemed to predict his actions and acted accordingly.

Midoriya leaned back after Bakugou attempted to nail him with a right hook, grabbing his arm, and rolled backwards. He aimed his foot at Bakugou's stomach, and knocked the breath out of him as he kicked him out of bounds.

"Bakugou is out of bounds!"

Todoroki just hissed, aiming a wave of ice at Shinsou. He was closer, and Midoriya was way more of a threat than Shinsou at this point in time.

He wanted to fight Midoriya properly, without any distractions.

Except that when Shinsou tried to evade, he accidentally tripped over a huge chunk of ice on the ground.

If Todoroki's attack hit, the jagged ice spikes could possible run him through. But his ice quirk didn't give him the ability to manipulate the ice after it has formed, and Todoroki's view of Shinsou was obscured by his own ice.

Shinsou closed his eyes and braced for the impact, hoping that the ice would hopefully hit something that wasn't vital. He liked being alive, thank you very much.

Something hit him, and Shinsou tumbled across the ground. He blearily stood up, and stared at the scene in front of him in horror.

Midoriya was standing where Shinsou initially was, bleeding from his shoulder as an ice spike impaled it. Todoroki had managed to stop his ice in time to prevent any major damage, but if Shinsou had fallen... he would probably be staying overnight in the infirmary.

Midoriya didn't even make a sound as he broke the ice off the glacier Todoroki had made, and slowly pulled the ice spike out of his shoulder, blood staining his uniform, dripping down his arm and the ice spike and dying the ground red.

Kayama looked like she wanted to call the match, but Midoriya suddenly lunged at Todoroki, and earned a face full of fire for his efforts.

"Midoriya!" Shinsou called out, as Midoriya was engulfed in flames, but Todoroki seemed to realize what he had just did and immediately put out his fire, raising his right arm instead. Midoriya got iced at point blank range, but Midoriya still managed to nail Todoroki in the chest and pushed him out of bounds.

Shinsou immediately picked himself off the ground and rushed to Midoriya's side, trying to stem the bleeding on his arm. Midoriya was shaking ice shards out of his hair, and Shinsou gently tried to steer him towards the infirmary, "Come on, let's get that fixed up."

* * *

Nezu frowned. He was certain that Midoriya was Void, and that Void had a regeneration quirk, based off Aizawa's words.

Yet, the wound Midoriya received from Todoroki never healed.

_Why did one wound heal and the other didn't?_

Nezu contemplated the question as he watched Ishiyama fix the stage.

The boy also had a unique fighting style. Using the opponents' power against them, it was effective and also conserved energy. Midoriya had only truly attacked twice, once on Shiozaki's pressure point, and once against Todoroki.

If he had the skills to attack, why didn't he do so in the first place?

* * *

"Alright…" Shuzenji frowned, "You need to be more careful. You guys have one more match, so I'm not really worried but…"

She trailed off as she moved to get some papers, noticing that Midoriya's eyes were following her, but she had moved to a brighter area, and yet, Midoriya's pupils didn't seem to register the change in light intensity.

She walked back towards Midoriya, and told him to sit down. She grabbed a light from her pocket, and shown it in Midoriya's eyes.

_No reaction._

"Midoriya, can you see?"

He shook his head.

"Why didn't you tell me you couldn't see? Thank goodness it's temporary. If you had left it any longer, the damage could be permanent." Shuzenji scolded, as she checked his eyes again, "Todoroki's fire and ice damaged them, but I can heal it. Problem is, they'll be sensitive. Fight out in the open and you'll feel like your eyes are burning out. Do you still want to fight? If so, I will have to cover your eyes to protect them. and I don't think that fighting blind will do you any good."

Midoriya seemed to think about it for a second, before he nodded.

"Stubborn kids..." Shuzenji grumbled, "Good luck, Midoriya."

* * *

_"Uh... I have some news from Recovery Girl, it seems like Midoriya's eyes were damaged in the semifinals! Not to worry, they're all fixed now, but Midoriya will be fighting in the finals blind to let his eyes heal. Now that is unfortunate, but this General Education student has already made it so far! Let's welcome them into the finals!"_

Shinsou gulped as he walked onto the stage Ishiyama had fixed.

Midoriya? Fighting blind? With no proper hero course training?

Sure, he was good, but that was just way too unfair for him, though he didn't seem to have too much of a problem finding his way up the stage with layers of bandages covering his eyes.

At least Todoroki looked somewhat guilty. Kamakiri, Kaibara, Uraraka, Iida, Monoma, and even Shiozaki were glaring at him up on the stands.

"Start!"

Almost immediately, Shinsou lunged, wanting to push Midoriya out of bounds as soon as possible without injuring him further. Midoriya couldn't see, so it shouldn't take too long to end this fight, right?

He couldn't be more wrong.

Midoriya had dodged.

Not only that, he had also lunged, aiming a hit at the side of his neck, but Shinsou had countered, falling back and lunging again. But no matter how much he fainted, how he moved around to try and confuse the temporarily blinded boy, Midoriya somehow was able to keep track of him. He turned his head wherever Shinsou was, tried to defend whenever Shinsou tried to attack, trying to attack Shinsuo's pressure points whenever he could.

_Almost like he could see him._

But that was impossible. Midoriya was quirkless, and even with just one layer of bandages it would be impossible to keep track of him. Aizawa and taught him how to move silently, and there was no way thatMidoriya could track him via his footsteps, if his hearing was even good enough to do so against normal opponents.

Midoriya lunged again, aiming at his neck again, but Shinsou sidestepped.

That was his mistake.

Midoriya immediately drop down, using his arms to support himself and swept Shinsou's legs out from under him. He pinned the teen to the ground, but Shinsou easily overpowered him and pushed him off.

The power from Midoriya's hits came from his speed. The boy himself was horribly light, almost like he wasn't eating right and was malnourished.

Both of them wanted to end the match quickly, with as few injuries as possible.

Both of them were quirkless, one literally was and the other was functionally quirkless since his opponent barely spoke.

Both of them wanted to win.

Shinsou lunged, and Midoriya countered. Midoriya attacked, Shinsou defended. Back and forth they went, but while Midoriya lacked in mass, he made up in stamina. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Midoriya tossed the exhausted Shinsou out of bounds, not even looking at the slightest bit winded.

_"Shinsou is out of bounds. Midoriya wins!"_

* * *

Kaibara and Shiozaki raced out of the stadium. They wanted to find Midoriya. The poor kid literally looked emotionless as All Might hung the gold medal around his neck, and had immediately slinked off the second he was allowed to, most likely to retrieve his cat.

They were lucky enough to see Midoriya walking out of the stadium onto the pavement, and they jogged to catch up with him. The bandages were gone, though Midoriya just looked weary with his eyes partially closed to reduce the amount of light entering them.

"Wait! Please, Midoriya!" Shiozaki yelled, as they ran to catch up with him.

Midoriya stopped, and turned around, as the two 1-B students caught up with him.

"I... my classmates told me what happened. You saved me, but went out of bounds... Thank you." Shiozaki bowed, as Midorita immediately gestured at her to stop.

"You have my thanks as well." Kaibara nodded, after translating Midoriya's sign language to Shiozaki, "I almost hurt my classmate in my frustration and carelessness, and if your didn't save her... Thank you, Midoriya. Also, great job fighting Shinsou. You must be proud of yourself."

But all he got was a solemn reply from Midoriya.

_"Acting on emotions is illogical and irrational. They're just chemical reactions in your head, making something just a little bit different. Emotions aren't real, and they don't mean anything. It just results in someone hurting, whether it be you or someone else. Neither of you are hurt, so that's good. Pride makes one egotistical and ignorant to others around them. It's useless and meaningless."_

Midoriya just turned and walked away, and Kaibara was too stunned to react.

"What did he sign?" Shiozaki asked,

"I… don't think I ...want to tell you." Kaibara stammered.


	13. Chapter 13 - Circling like vultures

Shinsou wasn't sure what he felt at that very moment when Midoriya claimed victory. Sure, there was the surprise that Midoriya could still track him accurately even while blind, and even as they traded blows, Shinsou knew that they both wanted to end this fight quickly.

So when Midoriya finally flipped him out of bounds, Shinsou ignored the ache where his butt had come into contact with the cold cement, fully intending to congratulate his friend, if Midoriya even considered him one, for his victory.

He wasn't expecting his mouth to immediately run dry, and his mind to go blank, as he looked up, right into the eyes of Midoriya Izuku, who was looking down at his opponent. He definitely wasn't expecting his head to seemingly shut down, as the emerald eyes gleamed in the light, no matter how empty they appeared to be.

He most definitely wasn't expecting the first thing to come into mind when his brain finally rebooted to be, _Oh shit. He's hot._

He was pretty sure he was sitting there like an idiot for some time, since Midoriya had actually kicked him lightly in the legs, and when he finally realised what was going on, Midoriya had actually stuck his arm out in an offer to help him up, and his dad was yelling at him from the announcers booth to get up so they could conduct the prize giving ceremony.

Yep. Of all the people he had to fall for… it had to be him.

* * *

Midoriya made his way to the pet rescue center, Reiko sitting on his shoulder and purring.

He won, at what price?

His eyes hurting a ton, apparently.

He didn't need to see to fight Shinsou, his well honed instincts told him where the other boy was, and he could feel the slight change in air pressure whenever he moved. His father had taught him how to do that, since his fire quirk could end up hurting an unintended target should the wind be blowing in the wrong direction, and having fought in dark alleyways for a few years, Midoriya wasn't nearly as reliant on his sight as other people were. It had proved to be useful for the functionally quirkless boy.

Midoriya fingered the collar around his neck, adjusting it once more. His almost back to back fights and his visits to the infirmary had shifted the collar, and while it was still covering that horrible scar that lay beneath, it was shifted a tad bit to the left of how he normally wore it.

But he couldn't adjust it in front of his schoolmates. They knew he had it, his idiotic classmate from general studies had literally let every single first year know about, but he didn't want to appear to be reliant on it. The collar was a reminder that he had failed, five years ago. He made a promise, and it had been broken in like, ten minutes.

He failed.

He couldn't afford to fail again.

He came close to the entrance of the pet rescue center, and Reiko suddenly gave a sharp yip and hopped off his shoulder, prancing towards the door. Reiko wouldn't do that for no reason, so Midoriya moved to take a closer look.

By the staircase, hidden under some shrubs and under the cover of darkness, sat a small box, with what looked like to be a rock in it. Midoriya carefully picked up the box, and under the light that passed through the transparent door, he found that, to his horror, it was not a rock.

It was an egg. A bird's egg.

Judging by how cool the egg was, there was no doubt that someone had dumped the egg here for quite some time already. Eggs took several weeks to hatch, and Midoriya wasn't even sure if it was dead already. But if it was dumped here, specifically at a pet rescue center, then that meant that it was probably alive at the time it was left here.

There was a note to be found with the egg, though. Someone's bird had eggs, most hatched, and the owner decided to leave the lone egg that didn't hatch here. Hopefully, it wasn't too late.

Midoriya quickly took out his phone, and using its flashlight function, candled the egg. It was opaque, and Midoriya took it as a good sign. It was close to hatching, but how close, Midoriya wasn't sure. There was also the problem of whether it was still alive or not.

Just at that moment, he felt the egg twitch.

Midoriya quickly made his way into the center, and quickly wiped the egg down with a warm, damp cloth, making sure to dry it since the pores on the egg were for the developing chick to breathe. He was about to search for a towel or something to keep the egg warm, but Reiko apparently decided that she was better suited for the job. She just curled up around the egg, and lay there, unmoving.

Midoriya wasn't really sure what to do. Let Reiko take care of the egg? She was small enough that she wouldn't damage it, and she would definitely do a much better job than he could.

He gently shifted Reiko and the egg to a corner of the room, where she should be safe, before he went to calm some of the more anxious animals down.

* * *

Koda was going to the pet rescue center. He worked there, and his quirk was great for communicating with animals. Except this time, he was being accompanied by Uraraka, Shinsou and Iida.

Koda prefered using sign language, and while he knew that Shinsou knew it, he had been way too shy to interact with pretty much everyone. But somehow… watching Midoriya kick everyone's ass' just… made him want to give it a shot, as much as the green haired boy was scary. Try to make friends, try to talk to someone.

He had tried to talk to Shinsou, who immediately just pulled him into his friend group which consisted of Uraraka and Iida. It didn't take them too long until Koda remembered he had to go for his shift at the pet rescue center, and Shinsou jokingly followed along, saying that maybe he would adopt a new cat. Uraraka was eating dinner on her own, so she didn't mind staying out with her friends a little later, and Iida mentioned that he was curious and tagged along, since he had never had a pet before.

Koda pushed open the door to the rescue center, and he paused, blinking. Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida tried to look past him, trying to figure out why he had stopped.

They were surprised to see Midoriya standing there, looking at them blankly, a black tabby on one arm, an orange and grey calico in the other, and a large golden retriever pawing at his leg.

"Oh, hi Midoriya! Didn't expect to see you here!" Uraraka greeted, as she walked into the center, "Do you work here?"

Upon getting closer, the retriever immediately flinched, and shifted to hide behind Midoriya, and the green haired boy gently put the tabby cat down and moved to scratch the dog's neck.

Koda was completely still, stunned. The golden retriever was called Kogane, and they had found her by the side of the road just the previous day. Kogane was absolutely afraid of humans, and no one could get close to her unless they wanted to reduce her to a whimpering mess. Koda himself had tried just the previous day, but made no progress.

And here was Midoriya, having done the seemingly impossible task of befriending the dog. Koda was unaware that Midoriya worked in the same rescue center, but he did hear rumours from the other workers that there was a volunteer worker who was a lifesaver, calming down the animals with no problems at all. Even the most skittish animals warmed up to him within a few hours.

"So, where's your cat?" Shinsou asked.

Midoriya merely turned his head, gesturing in the direction where a small white ball of floof sat, seemingly with a rock of some sort.

Reiko looked up, gave a purr in greeting, before shifting and curling around the rock even more, before laying down again.

"So.. you never answered Uraraka's question. Do you work here?" Iida asked, as he looking curiously at the golden retriever as he pulled Uraraka away so as to not spook the canine again.

Midoriya carefully put the two cats back in their cages, before he signed, _"Volunteer. Not work. Sometimes they pay me if they specifically call me in."_

"Sounds cool." Shinsou replied, translating for the others as he took a closer look at the black tabby. It had lime green eyes, and it just stared at Shinsou for a while, before it went back to grooming itself.

The sound of a bird chirp rang out, so soft that Koda would have missed it if it weren't for the fact that he was used to discerning soft sounds over the chaos of much louder ones.

Reiko shifted slightly, and Midoriya quickly stopped whatever he was doing to go check on her. Reiko unwrapped herself from the rock, and the four hero course students inched closer. Midoriya didn't stop them, but the glare he gave them practically screamed,_ "Do anything wrong and I'll rip you apart."_

And that was when they realised it wasn't a rock. It was an egg.

It twitched, and shook, before more chirping was heard. Reiko looked utterly confused as to what to do next, and just sat next to the egg, staring at it.

The egg shook again, and suddenly, a crack appeared on the surface of the egg. More cracks appeared, more chirps, and a small hole had formed on the egg. Reiko leaned down, and gently pawed the egg, as chirps rang out. The egg was rocking back and forth as the hatchling tried to free itself from the confines of its egg, as the hole progressively became bigger and bigger.

Midoriya did read that some hatchlings needed help getting out of their eggs, except that he wasn't sure if he should do it _now_. The hatchling had been making good progress, but now, all sounds and movements had ceased, almost like the poor chick was tired and needed to rest.

Reiko meowed at the egg, like she was trying to encourage the hatchling, and the shaking started up again, much weaker this time.

Koda was close to panicking. He could talk with animals, yes, but had no idea what to do when it came to a baby animal. Uraraka and Iida were stunned, looking on silently, and Shinsou looked like he wanted to help, but was equally clueless as to what to do.

With what seemed to be a final burst of strength, more hairline cracks appeared on the surface of the egg, until it suddenly cracked into two, revealing a newly hatched chick that barely had any feathers. The newly hatched avian was lying on its back, its little talons kicking about weakly, as it flailed its featherless wings about.

Reiko leaned down, and Koda tried to stop her in alarm, as Iida hurriedly pulled him back as Midoriya suddenly grew defensive, and snarled at Koda, shifting his body so that he was shielding Reiko from the hero course students.

And much to his pleasant surprise, Koda found that Reiko was _not_, in fact, eating the chick, but was just licking it as if she were trying to clean it. The hatching gave a small tweet, and Reiko, feeling satisfied, gave the chick one final lick and curled up around the hatchling, with the baby avian letting out a small tweet and snuggling up to the larger, warmer cat.

Midoriya gently ran his fingers through Reiko's fur, and the cat gave a contented purr and snuggled closer to the hatchling.

And all Shinsou could think about was how absolutely adorable Midoriya was when he was finally calm and not ready to kick someone's ass. That small light that shone from his eyes, the sparkle that Shinsou had never seen in the teen's eyes before, and a look that Shinsou would definitely want to see much more often on the usually apathetic boy's face.

* * *

"Had fun with your friends, Hitoshi?" Aizawa asked, staring at his reports as Shinsou walked through the front door. The television was switched on, playing reruns of the Sports Festival, and Shinsou had no idea if his father was watching television or reading his reports.

"Dad…"

Aizawa looked up, and Shinsou looked away, almost like he was nervous about something.

"What is it?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow, "Did you break something? Injure yourself? Was someone kidnapped?"

"No…" Shinsou fiddled with his fingers, before he took a deep breath and said, "I think I'm gay."

Aizawa just looked at him, "So?"

Shinsou just gawked at him, "You're not mad?"

Aizawa rolled his eyes and sighed, "Who is the other person we live with?"

"Uh, Pops? Oh… ha...ha…" Shinsou sheepishly laughed, forgetting that his own adoptive parents were hopeless gays and it would be very, _very _hypocritical of them to get mad at him for it.

"To be fair, it is hard to remember that since Zashi acts like a girl all the time -"

"Shouta! Why are you doing this to me!? Meanie!" Yamada yelled from down the corridor, and judging by the amount of steam that he could see, Shinsou assumed that his other dad had just finished his shower.

"See? A girl." Aizawa shrugged, as Shinsou let out a small laugh at his parents' antics.

"Don't worry about it, kid. We're not going to judge. Who's the lucky guy? I swear, if it's another annoying blonde -"

"Shouta! Stop it!"

A flash of green caught Shinsou's attention, and his eyes trailed to the television where the rerun of Midoriya's fight with Kamakiri was being played.

Aizawa caught his line of sight and sighed, "The other problem child. Why am I not surprised?"

"He's really nice. He stood up for me." Shinsou blurted out, "And he's adorable. But more importantly he's really nice."

Aizawa just raised his eyebrows, "Really? He's an interesting kid, to be honest, Zashi's only heard him introduce himself at that was it. He never said a word after that."

Shinsou just cocked his head in confusion, "Wait what? But that other day… he spoke up for me against my older… classmates."

"What did they say? Do I need to hunt them down again?" Aizawa growled, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was important then?" Shinsou sheepishly replied, "They just ... you know, called me a villain and that I didn't deserve to be in UA, the usual. Midoriya just told them to look at themselves, and they turned on him, before Midoriya just glared at them until they ran off. Then I invited him to have lunch with Iida, Uraraka and I, and he accepted."

Aizawa sighed again, "That's good… at least… as far as we know he hasn't said a single word since the first day of school. He spooked Hound Dog pretty badly when they met. He speaks to Nezu pretty willingly, though."

Shinsou's shoulders dropped, "Nezu told me to take care of him. Even if he didn't do so... I want to help him. He thinks it's justified that he's treated like some lesser being… and he just lets others step over him all the time… I want to help him. Someone as nice as him doesn't deserve it."

Aizawa just pat his back, "Go for it. I don't know him that well, but what I can tell is that he's been hurt for a long time and hasn't gotten help. It will take some time, but don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately.

Shinsou gave Aizawa a sheepish smile. "Got it. Thanks, Dad."


	14. Chapter 14 - You thought I'd forget

** Just some random: Kinda? Im not sure if that comment about the ShinDeku ship in general, or having a ship in the fic? I personally love ShinDeku, but never really... wrote a fic about it...**

* * *

Midoriya decided that he had a lot on his hands.

Not only did he have to hide a cat from his foster mother, now he also had to hide a bird.

At the very least, both of them were very quiet, so Midoriya didn't have to worry about one of them waking someone up by accident.

And upon doing further research at one in the morning, instead of going out as Void, he discovered that Reiko, as gentle as she was, could have killed the bird. He should probably ask Nezu about a vet… He really didn't know how to care for a bird, let alone deal with diseases and bacteria and other stuff he couldn't fix with normal equipment.

Reiko did look somewhat guilty when he had mentioned that to her, and she just wrapped herself around the bird and cuddled it. They were sitting on his lap, and Midoriya was more than happy to let them rest on him if they wanted to.

On that note, Midoriya was around… seventy percent sure that he somehow had a baby hawk, based on the pattern on the egg. Which raised another legal question, if he was allowed to keep it.

Midoriya was sure as heck not giving up the little bird any time soon, he and Reiko were already attached to the baby avian, but he was aware that hawks were wild creatures, and that once his little baby grew up, they will probably want to go free. If they wanted to, Midoriya was more than willing to let them leave.

Midoriya shut off his laptop, and climbed onto his bed, cradling the already asleep Reiko and the baby bird, before he curled up around the two smaller animals and tried to fall asleep.

* * *

"So… a hawk?" Nezu raised his eyebrow, as he found Midoriya wanting to talk to him early in the morning.

Midoriya just held the baby bird gently in his hand, as Reiko groomed herself on the ground.

"Well… People do own hawks around here. There are a couple of places where you can buy hawks on the outskirts of Musutafu." Nezu pointed out, "And since you hatched it, I don't think it's a good idea to send him away, especially since he's so young."

"He?"

"Yeah. He's a male." Nezu replied, gently reaching out to pat the baby avian, and Midoriya gently handed the bird to him. "He seems okay, even though Reiko licked him. Cats tongues are very rough, and the bacteria on their saliva can be deadly to birds, let alone a baby bird. I'll talk to Recovery Girl about it. You go on for your lessons, I'll take care of him."

"Thank you." Midoriya bowed, but just as he turned to leave, the baby hawk started chirping in what sounded like distress. Reiko leapt up onto Nezu's chair, then his table, and meowed, staring at the chick in Nezu's paws. Nezu gently placed the chick in front of Reiko, and Reiko leaned down and stuck out her tongue, before freezing.

She quickly retracted her tongue, before just opting to nuzzle the baby hawk. She still remembered what Midoriya had mentioned before, and Nezu's words echoed in her head as well.

"Well…" Nezu hummed, "I'll deal with it, somehow."

Midoriya merely bowed again, scratched Reiko behind her ears, and left the office.

* * *

Internships.

They were to go on internships next week.

Shinsou stared at his list of heroes that had sent him an offer. He had many offers, being the runner up of the Sports Festival, but he wasn't sure who to choose. None of them were underground heroes, which would be preferable for him, and most of them focused on using their quirks too much. Completely different from how Shinsou fought, since he wanted to use his quirk as little as possible, and have it as a hidden trump card instead.

Mineta wanted to go with Takeyama, and Iida, much to everyone's surprise, had decided to go with Mizushima instead of Tensei. Though to be fair, Tensei had been attacked by Stain during the Sports Festival, and while he was one of the lucky ones where he was just injured and not permanently paralysed for life, or dead, he was still pretty out of it and Iida hadn't heard back about his brother's condition for some time.

Iida definitely didn't look too happy about it.

And on that note, they also had to choose their hero names. Shinsou definitely had no idea what he wanted to call himself. They were given their lunch time to think it over, and Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida, and the recent addition of Koda were sitting at their usual spot, discussing names.

And suddenly, a hush fell over the cafeteria.

Shinsou looked up, trying to figure out what happened, until he noticed the crowd parting like a wave, and he could make out Midoriya's figure.

The rumours started up again, how Midoriya won the Sports Festival without a quirk, how he was a monster, and there was no way he could have won, especially while blinded in his last match.

"Hey! Midoriya!" Uraraka called out, waving him over, "This is Koda! You met him yesterday, but we never introduced you! Koda, this is Midoriya, from the General Education course!"

Midoriya just looked at Koda blankly for a few seconds, before nodding in acknowledgement, and Koda nodded back, before turning to his vegetarian burger.

Midoriya then turned to Iida, and signed, _"I saw the news."_

Shinsou translated it for Iida, who snapped to attention, before Midoriya dug around his pockets, and procured an envelope, passing it over to Iida. Iida took it, and with a small nod from Midoriya, gently opened it up. Shinsou turned his head, and focused on his spaghetti.

This was between Iida and Midoriya.

_"I heard what happened to Ingenium. I am sorry that it happened, and I hope that you will think about the consequences of your actions before deciding to go after the Hero Killer. Ingenium will recover, and be up and about soon, with no major, permanent injuries. Don't be blinded by your emotions, and end up doing something you'll regret. You can't beat the Hero Killer, and you'll just be breaking the law. I do not think that Ingenium will want you to seek the Hero Killer out for revenge."_

Iida had a stoic expression on his face when he finished reading it, and he neatly folded it back up and tucked it away in his pocket, "I will keep that in mind."

Somehow, somewhere in that blank, void expression, Shinsou could tell that Midoriya wasn't very convinced, as the boy rested his elbows on the table and stared at his glass of water.

"Aren't you going to eat anything? The only thing I've seen you eat so far has just been… water." Shinsou mumbled. Midoriya merely shook his head, and continued looking at his water, as if he were deep in thought.

"Wow, you're really hanging out with him, you guys must be weirdos too." A general education student from 1-D spoke up, "You guys got curb-stomped by someone who isn't even in the hero course, weaklings."

"Leave them alone." Kamakiri grumbled, holding his empty tray, on his way to return it, "They did nothing to you."

"Well you got beaten too!" Another student laughed.

"Well, if students who were actually trained and were decent in fighting lost, do you think you could even stand a chance against him?" Kaibara retorted, coming to Kamakiri's defence, "Use your common sense."

Pretty much everyone's attention was on the argument at hand, including Koda, Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida.

Midoriya closed his eyes.

_Inhale._

_Hold it._

_Cleared your mind._

_Erase your presence._

Ishiyama and Snipe had heard the commotion, and they rushed to break up the argument.

"Whew… that almost got out of hand. They didn't seem to happy with you, Midoriya… uh… Midoriya?" Uraraka turned to face the green haired boy, only to find that he wasn't in his seat. His cup was also gone, and there was no trace of the boy.

"When did he leave?" Shinsou asked, as Iida looked utterly confused, and Koda scratched his head.

Outside the cafeteria, Midoriya took a deep breath, and internally sighed, before making his way back to class.

They stood up for him time and time again. He may not be fond of humans… but them… maybe he'll make an exception for these ones.

"Midoriya."

Midoriya looked up, and turned, finding Todoroki looking at him, "I want to talk."

Todoroki led him to an empty classroom, and Midoriya just followed along, silently. The dual elemental user clearly had something on his mind, and it definitely had something to do with his quirk. Fire and ice, but with a heavy preference for ice.

_What a waste of a quirk. He's going to die if he doesn't use the full extent of his power._

"I was overpowered. I broke my pledge, and used my curse in an attempt to fight you."

Midoriya just stared at him emotionlessly, as Todoroki continued talking, "You were the only one that overpowered me. Not Kaibara, with his powerful drilling quirk. Not Kaminari, with his uncontrollable electric powers. Not even Bakugou, with his powerful explosions and explosive personality to match. But you're quirkless. You may have defeated Bakugou, but he doesn't particularly have any long range attacks that would be effective against you. There is absolutely no reason why I couldn't beat you. I was shocked that you were willing to bleed for Shinsou, but other than that, I used my fire instead of my ice when you came close. A quirkless person cannot hold so much power and skill, or emit such an aura for no reason. Where did you come from? What turned you into this monster that managed to crush every single person in our first year? Or do you have a hidden quirk that you are ashamed to use, like me, and would much rather ignore it's presence than to announce to the entire world that you have a quirk."

Midoriya just stared blankly at him. He was fairly sure he had a quirk… and Todoroki was right. He wasn't sure if he was _ashamed_ of it, per say. He wasn't sure he felt anything towards it, actually. It was more of an annoyance, more than anything, and there had literally been no use for it except it being a hindrance to five years worth of suicide attempts.

And it wasn't like he could prove it to anyone, unless he wanted to throw himself off a building and yell, "Hey, this is my quirk."

People were probably going to stuff him in a psychiatric ward if he did something like that. People with quirks that allowed them to see ghosts, or rebirth, or come back after death… life for them was not pleasant. They can't prove it, as no one believes them. There was no reason to tell everyone that he couldn't die from suicide, all it would do would be counterproductive.

"I am aware you don't like talking. My old man has a strong desire to rise in this world. Since he couldn't surpass All Might, he moved onto his next plan. Have you heard of quirk marriages? Choosing a spouse based purely on strengthening your own quirk, and passing it on to your children, forcing people into marriage. He's trying to fulfill his own desire by raising me to be a hero to surpass All Might. I refuse to be a tool to scum like that. In my memories, my mother was always crying. 'Your left side is unsightly', my mother once said, as she poured boiling water on my face. I'll reject him completely by surpassing All Might without ever using his quirk. And that means I'll have to beat you, a General Education student. I'm hoping that your win in the Sports Festival would result in a transfer to the hero course, so that I can have a rematch and prove that I'm stronger than you with just my right side."

_Todoroki was foolish,_ Midoriya decided,_ Not using his quirk just to spite his father? To be fair… Dabi also had the same reason to become a villain. Does everyone just act rashly and make decisions without thinking anything through? If Todoroki hadn't used his fire, he would have ended up freezing himself to death. In fact, him using his fire was probably more of an instinctual thing because he cryopreserving himself._

That was why Midoriya decided to throw his emotions out the window. Because they did nothing but force you to make stupid, rash choices, and because emotions only serve to hurt you.

Todoroki's mother had hurt him because of his father. Because of Enji. Midoriya had suspected as much, comparing pictures of the Todoroki family, Touya's disappearance, combined with the sheer amount of property damage that Enji caused… if he was willing to do so much while people were looking, how much would he do if no one was watching? No prying eyes to report his actions to the rest of the world.

Midoriya quickly fished into his pockets again, procuring a small pen and a crumpled piece of paper. He had started bringing paper around, in case Shinsou wasn't around the translate for him, and quickly scribbled something down, and passed it to Todoroki.

_"Use your fire. It's your quirk, not his. He doesn't have a say in how you use it. One day, you will find yourself in a situation that your ice cannot solve, and you will die if you don't use your fire. People will die, and you will live with the regret that you could have saved them, except you chose not to because you wanted to spite your father._

_Talk to Nezu about your father. You may not know me well, but trust me on this."_

Todoroki blinked, and looked up to question Midoriya, but by the time he did so, Midoriya was already gone. He made no sound, no footsteps at all. Todoroki liked to think he had sharp senses, but in the few seconds he had read Midoriya's note, the green haired boy had disappeared into the void, and he was completely unaware that it had happened.

_Just who, and what the hell was Midoriya Izuku?_

* * *

"What's going on?" Sato asked, "Why do we have an assembly?"

"No idea. We were just told to assemble." Yaoyorozu replied, fidgeting with her skirt. The field was filled with students from all three grades, all talking and chatting as they waited for the teachers to start.

"Now. I'm sure some of you… know what happened yesterday, during the Sports Festival at lunch." Nezu started, as all the students fell into silence, "Not to mention what happened today."

Some of the hero course students glanced at Shinsou briefly, and the entire class of 1-C and 1-D tensed up.

"I've heard some things from the teachers, and I would like to bring this up to everyone. We do not condone bullying and quirk discrimination. Normally, if we find out that anyone has partook in activities like this, with sufficient evidence, you _will_ be expelled."

Most of the general education students glanced at the student who had openly insulted Midoriya and Shinsou that day, before Nezu continued, "Keiso Meika, you have one warning, because Midoriya had actually spoken up for you and has given you another chance, and you will have detention for this week as your punishment. That also goes for the rest of the general education students. I have received reports that you have made the lessons very uncomfortable for Midoriya, and have harassed him when there are no teachers in class."

Most of the hero course students were gaping in shock at Midoriya, who was standing at the back of his class, slouching.

"Some of you were also harassing some of the hero course students during lunch due to their loss against Midoriya. I would recommend you highly refrain from doing so. You may dislike someone, or hold certain emotions towards certain people, but that does not give you the right to act on it. On that note, if any of you are being bullied or suffering from quirk discrimination, either in school or by someone you know, feel free to tell the teachers. We're here to help you, and we wish to make UA the best learning environment for all of you. That's it, have a nice day. I do not wish for a repeat of something like this."

"Why... would you forgive him? He was being horrible to you!" Uraraka whispered, as they made their way back into class, "Shinsou, why? You were insulted too!"

Shinsou shrugged, and Midoriya merely signed,_ "Not worth it. Less trouble."_

* * *

Todoroki stood in Nezu's office, looking weirdly at the snowy white cat that was in his office, as well as what looked like to be a bird in it's paws. The cat certainly was affectionate, she had nuzzled him almost the second he had entered the room, and it also seemed to be overprotective of whatever small animal is had in its grasp.

"I knew it." Nezu growled, after Todoroki finished telling whatever he told Midoriya about his father, minus all the parts about beating the smaller boy and the hopeful transfer to the hero course, "He was right. We had enough evidence, but none of it was circumstantial enough to form a case… he could also say we were trying to tarnish his name and all the reports were pretty old and none of them well preserved…"

"Excuse me, 'he'?" Todoroki frowned.

"Ah, don't tell anyone I told you this," Nezu said, prompting a nod from Todoroki, "A vigilante called Void brought up your case a couple of months ago, with the analysis of social media posts and newspaper clippings, suggesting that there was something was wrong with your family. I did have my suspicions, but there were too many things going on and not many people wanted to work on a case like this when… your water accident occured. But we currently have a full police force investigating this, but honestly, given how secretive Endeavor has been about his children, with all the private schooling and whatnot, you can tell we're having trouble collecting substantial evidence. Most of what we have is speculation at best and nonsense at worst. If you wish, we can file a case against your father, and transfer custody of the rest of your siblings to your sister, who I believe is to be of age, but you and the rest of your family will have to speak in court, or at least be present for the hearing."

Todoroki frowned slightly. His father had sent him an internship request, and since Midoriya had been right about talking Nezu… did he really want to let people die just because his fire was untamed? Just so that he could spite his sperm donor?

"I will talk to my family about this matter." Todoroki replied, "I wish to discuss it with them. Also, I wish to take up my father's offer at an internship, so that I can learn to use my fire quirk proficiently. I cannot do that if he is behind bars."

Nezu gave a sharp bark of laughter, "Oh? Why now? What changed your mind about using your quirk?"

Todoroki looked away, "I told Midoriya about my father, and he told me to talk to you. He recommended that I should learn to use my fire, and not just hide it because of him. I think he's right. I hate my father, yes, but I am being very selfish if I let someone die because I don't use my fire."

Nezu gave the boy a small smile, before he dismissed him.

Midoriya really did work wonders. He didn't talk much to his other schoolmates, but his effect on the others were obvious. The hero course students wanted to work harder, he tried to help Iida (It was obvious, a letter from MIdoriya after Tensei was attacked, addressed to Iida?), and now, Todoroki. Midoriya's heart was too big, even if he was impassive, apathetic, and ridiculously stubborn.

He was fairly sure that months back, during the entrance exam for recommended students, Yamada did try to talk to him about using his fire, but the boy have vehemently refused. Now, he was asking that they not put a case against his father yet, just so that he could pick up a few tricks.

And Midoriya knew about the Enji case, that Void had brought up. Another piece of evidence that Midoriya was Void, though Nezu thought that was obvious enough already, but that little thing about the inconsistency of the two reports he had of Void's quirk were just niggling his brain.

* * *

Midoriya was seriously wondering if this was a good idea.

He still had to attend his lessons while the hero course were on their internships, but he was considering hopping over to Hosu everyday that week. Stain had a habit of attacking roughly once a week, in order to keep a lower profile to main and murder unworthy heroes, and he usually attacked at night.

Midoriya wanted to keep Iida safe.

It didn't matter that Iida had read his letter. He was interning with Mizushima, after all. Even if Iida didn't actively seek Stain out, if he just so happened to run into the villain, there was no doubt that Iida would act on his emotions and attack Stain.

Plus, Stain had a habit of attacking three to four heroes, sometimes even five, before moving on to another city. He had only attacked Native and Tensei, it was highly likely he was still lurking around Hosu.

Hosu wasn't that far from Musutafu, just an hour away, and that was by running on rooftops, hiding in the back alleys, and Midoriya was really hoping that he could take a short cut and save some energy in case he needed to fight by taking the train, but nope, the trains didn't run at the time when he usually snuck out of the house.

He fiddled with his collar.

He had promised to protect _her_. He had failed. His parents were dead because he was worthless, quirkless failure in life. Reiko's mother was dead because he was just that utterly useless. He had always kept the collar around his wrist, in his pocket, around his ankle, just _somewhere_ on him, as a reminder of her, that he couldn't afford to fail again.

Then, he had made a stupid choice, and had done something dumb. He didn't think, and the marks on his neck were something that were impossible to hide casually under his clothes. He had tried other things, bandanas, just leaving it out in the open, scarves, but no matter what, he still got picked on for it.

If he was going to be picked on no matter what he appeared like or what he wore, might as well wear something he actually wanted to keep on his person, in order to hide it.

And the collar, always wiped down and cleaned at least once a week, moved up to around his neck, impossible for him to look at directly, not tight enough to choke him, but tight enough that he could feel his pulse against it, always constant reminder of his failure.

He didn't want to fail anyone again. If he could save a life, he would do it. If he was going to die, he might as well save someone with the life he would lose.

Even though he didn't promise Iida anything, the boy had still stuck up for him, defending him. While Shinsou and Uraraka were clearly more vocal about it, Iida still supported him. Not many people would do that, especially for a quirkless kid. He was one of the few people who were willing to treat him like a normal human instead of a piece of glass that needed to be protected, or a wild animal that didn't deserve anything at all.

And if Void could take down Stain, that would be a bonus. Though he really hoped that Stain could take Enji down first….

Midoriya carefully tucked a box into the back of his cupboard. He didn't want to leave Reiko and the baby bird at home, where someone may just pop in and discover them, but he didn't want to bring them all the way to Hosu. It was uncharted territory, and while he had memorized the entire map of Hosu and had several locations that he felt Stain was likely to strike, studying the map was nothing like going there in real life. Normally, he would have brought Reiko, but now with the baby hawk… someone needed to take care of him.

Reiko purred, as she wrapped her paws around the hawk. His room was in the worst condition out of all the rooms in his foster home, and there were plenty of holes that led into the fake walls within the apartment. Nowhere large enough for a human, but definitely spacious enough for a cat and a baby bird. That was one of the hiding spots if someone barged into the room and Reiko happened to be near the closet. No sane human would tear the walls down simply on a whim.

But not bringing Reiko meant that he had to be a lot more cautious. She had an innate ability to sense her surroundings, Midoriya wasn't sure if it was an animal thing or she was just special, but she always seemed to know exactly where villains were within a three meter radius. His hearing was relatively good, and he could detect who was good and who wasn't, but it was nice to have someone else's opinion. Plus, he couldn't really do anything if someone was just around the corner and didn't make any noise; the walls would interfere with the air current and he wouldn't be able to sense anything. His instincts will scream at him, yes, but he never acted on his instincts unless he knew that he was supposed to fight the people around him.

Midoriya took a deep breath, and jumped out of his window, landing six stories down, pulling off a quick roll before jumping to his feet, and he started his jog to Hosu.


	15. Chapter 15 - But now they only ricochet

Midoriya climbed up the tree that just happened to be next to his window, and hopped into his room, careful to not bump into anything, moving with practiced ease. He had been doing this for years and knew how to move and navigate in his barren room, but he was being careful just in case someone decided to play a prank on him and leave something in his room.

According to Nezu, Recovery Girl said that the hawk was, luckily, healthy, though she was surprised that Nezu was bringing a baby bird to see her. The bird ate meat, and Midoriya had taken to buying small amounts of it, alongside Reiko's cat food that he hid right at the bottom of his bag, and feeding the bird with a pair of chopsticks.

Reiko and the hawk were probably still in his closet, considering how his room seemed untouched, and he made a beeline for the closet in the dark, gently flinging it open. He really needed to figure out a name for the hawk, just calling it by its breed was no doubt rude.

He saw mint and cyan eyes looking directly at him, and he gently reached out, scooping Reiko, and by extension, the bird in her grasp. Reiko purred softly, nestled in the crook of Midoriya's neck, and Midoriya gently tucked her into his oversized hoodie. He didn't bother changing out; he was usually sleeping in his vigilante outfit, with the blanket always stuffed behind the door or under his bed. He hated the damn thing; they were suffocating, quite literally. Even in winter, he couldn't bear to use it, and just opted to curl up in a corner and try to preserve his own body heat with pillows and his hoodie.

The chick gave a small peep, and nestled into Reiko's paws, and Midoriya lay down on his bed, curling up into a ball and positioning himself so he wouldn't crush them by accident, before he dozed off, but not before he nuzzled Reiko and closed his eyes.

* * *

Midoriya's foster mother, luckily, had decided to go out to the mall for the day, bringing some of the other kids out as well. She had never bothered asking Midoriya if he wanted to go, and Midoriya's didn't really want to go out anyways. Malls had too many people, were too noisy, were obvious targets for villain attacks, and things were way too pricey. People were wasteful, not even bothering to repair stuff when they broke and just opted to get a new one. Everything Midoriya owned, which included his phone, laptop, his lamp, was salvaged from the dump.

Sure, it was annoying to have to keep finding new parts whenever something stopped working, but everything could be reused. People took whatever they had for granted.

Midoriya just looked around, and listened, making sure that the other residents weren't anywhere near his room, before he closed his door and pulled out a piece of paper. The baby hawk was a few days old, and he was starting to grow some feathers, so Midoriya decided that it was time to name him.

He scribbled down a few ideas on the paper, as Reiko curled up against his arm, and the hawk was nestled comfortably between her paws.

Midoriya gently nudged her, and Reiko opened her eyes, before turning to the paper that Midoriya was writing on.

"Name ideas for him, Rei?" Midoriya scratched the back of his head, "I thought you'd want to choose."

Reiko gently licked Midoriya's cheek, before she looked over the names. The hawk gave a small chirp, and Midoriya gently ran his thumb over the chick's head, careful not to press too hard. The hawk nuzzled his finger, and Midoriya let a small smile grace his features.

He hated showing his emotions around others. People would only use his emotions against him and hurt him. He put on a mask to protect himself, and had been putting on the mask for so long that he could no longer tell if he was wearing it or not. He pushed everything away; emotions only served to hurt, and they made you make poor decisions. It wasn't worth it, when dealing with people.

But when he was alone, with Reiko, and now, with the baby bird, he could let whatever emotions that still lingered, the small spark of happiness that he never revealed around other people.

Reiko stood up, and pressed her paw against one of the names that Midoriya had written down.

_Ryuto._

Midoriya gently pat the newly dubbed Ryuto's head, as the hawk chirped.

"Welcome to the family, Ryuto."

* * *

"So, anything you particularly wish to achieve on this internship?"

"I would like to learn hand to hand combat." Uraraka blurted out, upon Gunhead asking, before she realised that she was being rude and blushed, "I mean, you know, that boy... he beat everyone pretty much in hand to hand, and ..."

"Ah. Midoriya, right?" Gunhead nodded, "I was surprised too, seeing a General Education student winning once more after so much time."

"Wait… a General Education student won the Sports Festival once?" Uraraka asked, intrigued.

"Yep. Your teacher is Eraserhead, right?" Gunhead replied, " Aizawa Shouta. He won the Sports Festival in his first year and transferred into the hero course. His quirk to erase other people's quirks were pretty good against other people, but against robots, and without any other gear? He was at a huge disadvantage and that was probably why he didn't get into the hero course directly."

Uraraka gaped, as Gunhead continued, "I watched the Sports Festival. Midoriya's fast on his feet, and while I can't see him using a proper fighting style, his way of fighting clearly works for him. You may have a versatile quirk, but if you can't even touch him, you're quirk is useless. Like the vine girl, the second you take your eyes off him, you lose. It will take some time for you to learn the basics of hand to hand combat, but I believe if you have the determination to do so, you can do it."

Uraraka clenched her fists and nodded. If a quirkless boy could be proficient in hand to hand combat, even managing to defeat Bakugou and Todoroki, then she could too.

* * *

"Iida… you chose my agency because of its closeness to the Hero Killer, didn't you?"

Iida paused, and spluttered, as Mizushima laughed, "I'm not exactly the best hero, and my style is definitely anywhere near yours. My water quirk isn't the most powerful one out there, and with your powerful engine quirk, I think you only chose Hosu because of what happened to Ingenium, didn't you? Pretty sure if he wasn't hospitalised with a broken arm and two broken legs, you would have gone to him for your internship."

Iida froze, and looked away. He wanted to be in Hosu for two reasons. To be close to his brother and, if given the chance, take Stain down for his brother. Tensei's injuries would heal; with a variety of healing quirks and his injuries just being broken bones, all Tensei needed was some surgery to put the bones back in the right place, and he should be able to get back to his job after a month or two of rehabilitation.

But then there was another thing.

Stain only killed and attacked those he deemed unworthy of being heroes.

_The fact that he attacked Tensei meant he thought he wasn't worthy?_

Iida was offended. His brother was one of the best heroes out there, willing to put his life on the line to save others. He had taken care of Iida when he was young, and no matter how Iida saw it, he could not pinpoint any ways that Tensei was not worthy of being a hero.

But he wouldn't seek him out. Midoriya had told him not to, and seeing how little Midoriya communicated with pretty much anyone, the fact that he had written him a note shows that Midoriya cared, in some way.

Plus, Tensei didn't want him to seek out the hero killer. He had mentioned that when Iida had gone to visit Tensei right before his internships; Tensei seemed adamant on Iida not even going anywhere near Stain.

But if Iida just happened to see him, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't intervene.

* * *

So far so good.

Midoriya had been hopping over to Hosu for four days by now, and luckily, nothing much had happened. He had seen Iida and Mizushima patrolling at night once or twice, and Iida seemed to be listening to Mizushima and not running off on his own, so at least he was taking Midoriya's, and most likely Tensei's as well, advice to heart.

The fact that someone was finally kinda listening to what he had to say (Or write, for that matter), just made Midoriya feel... weird inside, but he pushed them aside.

_Focus on what's important, dammit._

Nezu had asked him to submit a couple of sketches for potential support items, since he was going to be transferred into the hero course, most likely after the UA annual hero training camp since he was "quirkless", or at the latest, in the beginning of his second year. He had several of his older sketches, plus a few of his own prototypes made out of junk from the dump, and he just decided to bring them along. He hadn't ever needed to use them before, but seeing as it was _Stain_ he may have to fight… it was better to be safer than sorry.

Midoriya was still trying to figure out just what was going on between some of the other students and himself. Shinsou? The first one that reached out to him, gave him an offer to be friends, and introduced him to the others. Uraraka? She was cheerful, always trying to engage him in a conversation or try to drag him into their conversations. Iida? Iida was like the class's unofficial dad, in a way, trying to make sure no one swore and all the topics were school appropriate, and was generally very eager to be a good role model for his classmates. Midoriya was only willing to write to communicate with Uraraka and Iida; they had tried to understand him, with the help of Shinsou translating, and it was only fair for him to cater to them instead of them just catering to him all the time.

He was definitely not as close to the 1-B students as he was to Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou, and even then, Midoriya wasn't very sure how he felt about them.

They were nice, sure, but how much of that was a facade? How many of them were waiting for him to open up, to drop his guard, and brutally stab him in the back?

_"You really thought we wanted to be friends?! You worthless Deku, who would wanna be friends with you? You might as well take a swan dive off a roof and wish you were born with a quirk in your next life, loser!"_

And then there was Todoroki. He had literally stated that he wanted Midoriya to succeed so that he could stomp him flat into the ground.

At least he was being truthful about it.

And Midoriya didn't like to leave problems unsolved. He prefered to tie up loose ends. Enji was Todoroki's father, he was the one that caused pretty much all the problems in the Todoroki family. In the end, Todoroki was the one with the most proof that could land his father in deep trouble. He was the one who could decide Enji's fate. Midoriya was just showing him the path, it was his choice whether he wanted to take it or not.

He shook the thoughts out of his head. He needed to concentrate, dammit. This was definitely not the best time and place to be figuring out the feelings that he had pushed away for five years.

He may not like them, but if he knew the danger was coming, it was only the right thing to do to save them. There were plenty of people he disliked, but he still saved them because it was the right thing to do.

People became villains because they chose to do the wrong thing even though they knew it was wrong. Accidents were fine, but that was the path they chose. They deserved getting beaten up and knocked out before being thrown into jail. It didn't matter what their circumstances were; the wants of one person do not outweigh the needs and wants of the many.

One person is in no way more important than anyone else; they do not deserve any special treatment.

He wasn't in UA to make friends. He didn't want to make friends.

There was no such thing as friendship. Friends weren't necessary.

He didn't want to care.

_Caring can only hurt you more._

* * *

"I am aware that Todoroki has chosen to intern with his father." Aizawa nodded, "You want me to keep an eye on them?"

"Yep. Todoroki clearly dislikes Endeavor, and only took up this opportunity to learn to control his quirk. I don't want Endeavor to accidentally do something that may set Todoroki off. Plus, there is a high chance that Stain is still in Hosu. If Endeavor decides to try and pop in to claim victory from him, no doubt Stain will go after him. Todoroki will be in danger." Nezu replied, "Shinsou is interning with Edgeshot, so he'll be relatively safe. Edgeshot doesn't work anywhere near Hosu.

Aizawa nodded, and left the room.

"Nezu… I'm not trying to imply anything… but are you sure it is okay for Young Midoriya to be transferred into the hero course?" Yagi asked.

Nezu just turned to face the hero, "Of course. He won the Sports Festival, against the hero course. He's proven that he's capable of protecting himself. I don't know why you seem so against him joining, given that you yourself used to be quirkless. A bit hypocritical, I might say. I thought you would be proud that the quirkless can still stand up for themselves."

"It's not just that." Yagi sighed, "It's a Sports Festival; the hero course students were not aiming to kill. Villians in the real world, they will kill if they can. Without a quirk to protect himself -"

Nezu sighed, "Heroes always have a chance of dying on the job. I admit, Midoriya will be at a disadvantage, but he clearly has the brains to make up for it. Just ask Snipe, that boy's analysis is more than enough to land him a job in a hero agency, even if he isn't a hero that fights directly. I don't think it's fair to just bar him entry simply on the basis that he doesn't have a quirk. You were okay with Aizawa transferring, weren't you?"

"Yes -" Yagi spluttered, managing to take out a handkerchief in time as he turned back to his normal form, "But Aizawa's quirk allows him to erase other people's quirks."

"It doesn't work on mutant type quirks." Nezu replied, "And if Midoriya can analyse his opponents to disable their quirks, or just avoid them outright all together, how is he any different from Aizawa?"

Yagi fell silent, as he pondered Nezu's words.

"I know you're concerned about his safety. But all heroes, quirk or no quirk, carry the risk of injury and death. That's why we teach them, so that they can collaborate and protect themselves and others. Plus, some of the others in the hero course do want him to get transferred in."

_Plus… I don't think he's quirkless… I'm pretty sure his quirk is some kind of self healing quirk… but the specifics of the quirk still seems rather…. Obscure…_ Nezu thought, _plus… Midoriya doesn't like to talk, so communication is definitely a huge problem. Most of the teachers know sign language, and I don't think he's aware of that.. Sign language is part of the syllabus, but until then…_

* * *

Akaguro was taking his own sweet time, looking around Hosu, when suddenly, he felt a shift in the air. He quickly unsheathed his katana, as the misty villain materialised right in front of him,

"Hero Killer, Stain."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Akaguro growled, holding his blade up to where he assumed was Kurogiri's neck.

"Nothing. I would just like to propose a meeting between the League of Villains and you, since we appear to have relatively similar goals." Kurogiri replied.

Akaguro frowned, "I will listen, but depending on your… goals… I may or may not join. I do not know what your little League does, you haven't done anything remotely interesting, or anything at all, in fact, but the fact is that you have a teleportation quirk. How they managed to recruit you is a feat indeed. I will go, but step out of line and you will regret it."

"Very well." Kurogiri nodded, warping Akaguro and himself away.

* * *

Void may have been unknown to the heroes, but to the villains, Void was a name that was put fear in the villains' hearts. He hid in the shadows, he attacked and took villains down in a blink of an eye, and disappeared without a trace.

Kurogiri looked around, and grumbled under his breath. Shigaraki wanted to recruit Void. He was fast, efficient, and based on reports from various others, Void was at their first call for the attack on the USJ. He was most likely the one to have leaked the news to the heroes, given he was more of a vigilante than a villain, and Shigaraki wanted that power on his side.

Except for one small problem. Kurogiri had no idea where to find Void. He had no idea where he usually struck, or what targets he went after. He only knew that the vigilante had a black hoodie and attacked under the cover of night.

Until he got lucky and just happened to notice the boy leaping over and alleyway on the rooftops.

There was no reason why Void wouldn't attack, or just outright refuse. Better teleport him into the bar first, then talk later.

And so he struck, Kurogiri materialised right under Midoriya as he jumped again, but much to his surprise, Void turned around in mid-air, whacking Kurogiri's neck plate, and landed on the roof, rolling, before he shot up, ready to attack.

Kurogiri teleported himself back onto a rooftop, and just sighed, "Well, hello, Void."

Midoriya just growled at him, "What do you want?"

"I know someone who wants to talk." Kurogiri replied, "We won't hurt you, the League of Villains just want to extend an offer to you to join us."

Midoriya hissed internally. These were the ones that originally wanted to attack the USJ, and they may be planning to try again. Maybe… if he followed and listened… at least, for now, he could get more information. Maybe he could protect UA from another imminent attack.

"Very well." Midoriya forced himself to appear to loosen up, but was prepared to attack if they didn't anything remotely out of line, "I have not heard of this League of Villains, but I am curious."

And Kurogiri nodded, teleporting them both away, with Midoriya wondering if he had made the right decision.

_Well, at least if I made a mistake, I'm the only one that gets hurt._


	16. Chapter 16 - I hear it calling me

"I've looked into it." Tsukauchi looked down at his notebook, "There shouldn't be any legal issues if you wish to take Midoriya in. I can easily get the forms and, and with the connections we both have, everything should be completed in a day or two. But if you really do decide to take care of him, it's best to keep the entire matter quiet. You should wait a while, preferably until the hype of the Sports Festival dies down."

"Ah... I understand." Nezu frowned. He knew what Tsukauchi was talking about. In the system, he was considered a responsible adult with a proper job, and no doubt would be able to take care of Midoriya, especially since Midoriya was enrolled in the school he was in charge of.

But to the public, no doubt that it's going to cause an uproar.

After all, it has always been the humans taking care of the animals. Since when was it the case where the animal took care of the human, even if that very animal was considered one of the smartest beings on the planet?

"Your case is a unique one..." Tsukauchi sighed, "There aren't many animals with quirks, and even fewer animals with the mental capacity to be on par with humans. If word of this gets out, nobody knows how it will turn out."

Nezu shook his head. Tsukauchi was right about one thing; no one knows what the consequences of adopting Midoriya would be. Nezu didn't really care about it, but if it would negatively impact Midoriya's life, then this situation would have to be handled even more delicately than before. This was already complicated enough, given Midoriya's current mindset, and whether Midoriya _even trusted_ Nezu enough to take care of him. Nezu didn't want to do anything that would make Midoriya's situation even worse for him. Plus, High Spec granted Nezu a high intelligence quotient, but emotional stuff… was iffy. There was no right answer when it came to emotions.

And Tsukauchi was wrong about the other thing.

Animals with quirks weren't _exactly_ rare. In fact, they were rather common. Animals with empathetic quirks, especially, were commonly used in therapy, and they were specifically bred for that cause. Horses with minor speed quirks were also bred for horse racing, and animals like fish and pigs with quirks that gave them a larger body mass were practically mass bred for consumption. People just assumed that those were natural traits in those animals, and with nothing to compare them against, it was, in a way, a justified assumption.

Humans had relatively nice lifestyles and were generally smart enough to avoid death in a variety of methods, and thus, even people with weak, useless, or even quirks that harmed themselves could survive and live a normal life. But animals had to fight for their own survival, so animals, without that evolutionary edge, or even quirks that were detrimental to their survival, wouldn't make it. Animals have had quirks ever since humans have had them, but the process of natural selection just made it appear that animals didn't. No one would think that a shark swimming in the ocean had a quirk that made it swim faster, or an eagle had a quirk that gave it better eyesight.

It's just that humans considered animals as _lesser beings_ and just assumed that they weren't_ "good"_ enough to have quirks. For an animal with a quirk that made it seem abnormal, they were usually abandoned or just killed by humans, or just ignored by its parents and left to die, or were just killed and eaten if it were a wild animal. It severely limited the type of quirk mutations that different types of species could go through.

Nezu wasn't going to say anything about this topic though. He was both lucky and unlucky; he had a quirk that put him on the same stage as humans, but his intelligence had initially backfired on him and caused him to be experimented on. Nezu wasn't going to let any other animals suffer the same fate.

"Just think about it." Tsukuachi finished up, smiling, "I'm nowhere as smart as you are. You can probably come up with an ideal solution that no one else would think of."

* * *

"So, you want to add me to your numbers? No matter what you want me to accomplish, it is necessary to have conviction and desire. Those who don't have them and those who are weak will be weeded out. It's only natural, that's why it turned out like this."

Midoriya honestly wasn't surprised to find Shigaraki lying on the ground, stabbed in the shoulder, with Akaguro talking while holding him at knifepoint. What he was surprised to see was that Shigaraki was the only one in the room, with no henchmen, or underlings in the room. Surely, if Shigaraki was the boss, he was smart enough to have a couple of bodyguards. Then again, he may be completely reliant on Kurogiri, or he had severely underestimated Akaguro.

What he was surprised about was that Akaguro had immediately taken his attention off Shigaraki the second Kurogiri dropped him into the bar, and had rushed at Kurogiri almost immediately. The warping villain had his arm cut by Akaguro, and Midoriya barely had enough time to dodge the knife that was aimed at his shoulder. In fact, if Akaguro had decided to attack him first, no doubt that he would be a goner.

Akaguro brought up his knife, and licked it, Kurogiri falling to the ground almost immediately.

Midoriya stared at the fallen form of the villain, before he looked up at Akaguro.

_He licked his blood. That's his quirk. I can't get hit, or more specifically, bleed. Or I'm done for, he'll paralyse me._

"This society is overgrown with fake heroes, and the world itself has lost its true meaning. Heroes and criminals alike who wave their power around idly should be killed.

Shigaraki reached up to grab the knife embedded in his shoulder and disintegrated it, before standing up, "You sure talk a lot. Conviction? I don't have anything grand like that. If I had to say… yeah. It'd be All Might. I feel like I really want to completely crush this society where trash like that gets worshipped."

"We don't have a healer in our party, you know. Will you take responsibility for this?" He sighed, scratching his neck.

"So that's what you are…" Akaguro growled, "It seems that our goals oppose each other. However, we do agree on one thing; to destroy the present."

He turned to Midoriya, "You, Void. What do you want? What do you aim to achieve?"

Midoriya hissed internally; he didn't want to end up saying something wrong and have both parties turn on him - that was practically suicide. But he also didn't want to lie. People always said to treat others how you want to be treated, and he didn't want anyone to lie to him.

And honestly, he had no idea what he wanted. He didn't know what his ultimate goal was; and it would be selfish to just assume that everyone would agree on what he thought was a better world to be ideal.

He remained quiet.

Akaguro just shrugged, "Well, if you want to keep quiet, so be it. I've heard about you; you're strong in your own right, and if these clowns brought you here, you must have something that they want, whether it be information, manpower, or some other obscure thing."

"Stop messing around. Go home. Die." Shigaraki grumbled, "I'm the kind of person you hate most, right?"

"I was testing your true motives. People show their true colours when they're on the verge of death. It's different, but you do have a desire, a warped sprout of conviction inside of you. How will it grow? It might not be too late to see until after I've seen that to dispose of you. That goes for you too, Void. Plus, you haven't done anything to go against my goals yet, so I'll wait."

"I can move?" Kurogiri grunted as he picked himself off the floor.

"Kurogiri, I don't want someone this crazy as this as a party member." Shigaraki snapped, but Kurogiri merely replied, "Shigaraki, he'll be a great asset if he joins us, especially for the next step of our plan. The negotiation was successful."

"My business here is done." Akaguro spoke up, "Return me to Hosu. There are still things that I must attend to there."

Midoriya honed on to those words. That feeling of bloodlust that emanated from Akaguro; he was going to strike today.

Kurogiri immediately warped Akaguro away, and Shigaraki turned to Midoriya, as the villain reappeared almost immediately.

"Void. I'm well aware that you are the one that leaked our first attempt to attack UA to the heroes."

Midoriya just remained silent, trying to pick every single detail about the "plan" that Kurogiri mentioned apart. Shigaraki mentioned first; they were definitely going to try again.

"Honestly, we don't need you, or the Hero Killer. You are just upgrades; this level can still be cleared, with or without you. Get in our way again, and I'll erase you in an instant. Kurogiri, put him back where you found him."

Kurogiri looked like he wanted to facepalm, but he still followed Shigaraki's orders.

Midoriya found himself dropped on top of a rooftop, and he grit his teeth.

Forget about the League for now. He needed to stop Akaguro first.

* * *

"Shigaraki, he's a vigilante, not a villain. Why are you letting him go free?" He asked, as he warped back to the bar without Void.

"It doesn't matter." Shigaraki sat on a chair and scratched his neck, "If he joined us, he would make a good party member. Remain silent, and he'll live with the guilt of UA's downfall. But if he decides to tell the heroes… that would work to our advantage as well. The heroes already underestimate us because of our first failed attempt. Giving them a heads up would make them even more overconfident, and we will crush UA, students, heroes, even All Might."

Shigaraki turned to Kurogiri, "Sensei told us that he noticed All Might appearing less and less frequently over the years, and he's getting weaker. If we can draw All Might's attention away from UA before attacking, we can definitely do more damage instead of attacking him outright. We know the layout of the USJ, and we also know the hero student's quirks, they won't be a problem at all. The only one who will pose a threat is that Midoriya Izuku, the winner of the Sports Festival, but from what we gathered, he's quirkless. Definitely not a threat. Plus, we still have the Nomu specifically engineered for him, and all the other Nomus; wearing him out before the battle will definitely give us the opportunity to kill All Might. Tonight, we'll just test some of the weaker Nomus."

Their first failed attempt on All Might's life was no doubt a wake up call for Shigaraki, and Kurogiri couldn't help but feel proud that the man-child he chose to follow was starting to live up to what Sensei had promised.

* * *

Iida hissed, as he found himself in an alleyway, his mentor lying on the ground, slumped, as Akaguro towered over him. He had somehow found himself in a situation where he had to fight him, and despite all his previous thoughts, he knew that he couldn't fight Stain. He was too strong, too fast.

Midoriya was right; there was no way he could beat him. Even if Iida could keep his Recipro Burst active for longer than ten seconds at a time, Akaguro's reaction time allowed him to keep up with him. He could easily get Mizishima out of there, but Native was also there, bleeding out. Mizushima had seen Native's body, and had tried to help him. Iida was right behind him, trying to help in any way he could, until Akaguro had hopped out of nowhere and stabbed Mishushima right in the gut.

Iida slowly reached up towards his helmet, and tapped it three times. Aizawa had ordered Maijima to install some kind of emergency flare signal connected to their phones in pretty much everyone's costumes, and they were to alert pretty much any other student or teacher in their vicinity of their location.

_"Signal received by: Todoroki, Eraserhead."_

_"I have no idea why Endeavor of all people will be in Hosu, but thank goodness."_ Iida thought,_ "Aizawa-sensei's strong, and Todoroki is interning with Endeavor. I just need to hold out until then."_

"Step aside." Akaguro hissed, "I don't kill children, but get in my way and you'll be a target too."

"No. Leave now." Iida tried to keep his calm, and stepped between Akaguro and the two downed heroes.

"Kid, get out of here!" Native yelped, as Mizushima yelled, "Iida, go! Don't get caught up in this!"

Akaguro grit his teeth, "Your outfit looks familiar. Have we met before?"

"You met my brother, Ingenium! You hurt him!" Iida growled, trying to keep his cool, "They say that you go after those unworthy of being heroes, but my brother is no doubt a true hero!"

"Ah, that guy." Akaguro's stance relaxed, but Iida didn't make another move, "That one… I agree with you. He's a true hero. I went after another hero but Ingenium happened to be nearby and took the hit for him. Normally, I would have still killed him or paralysed him, but someone spoke up for him, small child from a couple of years ago. As far as I know, I just broke a few of his bones, and he should recover. I do applaud you for not acting on your emotions and outrightly attacking me in revenge, but I will not hesitate to cut you down if you try to protect these fakes."

Iida still refused to move, and Akaguro sighed, "That's it. Time's up, kid."

He immediately dashed forward, and Iida moved forward to tackle him, but Akaguro swiftly dodged and slashed him in the shoulder, before kicking Iida to the ground. Akaguro brought the knife with Iida's blood to his mouth, but before he could do anything with it, a blast of fire forced Akaguro to dodge and move away from Iida, Native and Mizushima.

"Ah, so I guess that's why you sent your location." Todoroki spoke up in a monotone voice, "I told Endeavor where I was going, backup should be here soon."

"Tch." Akaguro clicked his teeth, and threw his knives at Todoroki. Todoroki didn't have time to react, and he found three knives embedded in his arm. Todoroki winced in pain, and looked up, only to find Akaguro right in front of him, but before the Hero Killer could do anything, he was immediately kicked backwards.

Akaguro slid backwards, and Iida and Todoroki looked up to see a figure in black hoodie.

"Void." Akaguro hissed, "What are you doing here? I did say that you haven't done anything that opposes my goals, but now you're trying to interfere?"

"Stop it. Leave them alone." Void replied, and Todoroki let out what sounded like a squeak.

_This is the vigilante that told the principal about my dad._

Akaguro jumped forward and tried to strike, but Void just blocked Akaguro's katana with what looked like metallic fingerless gloves.

"Get Native and Manual!" Void hissed, locked in a power struggle against Akaguro, "I'll hold him off."

Todoroki hurriedly nodded and yanked the knives out of his arm, and quickly put up an ice barrier between the heroes and the fight, before making his way to Native's side, as Iida tried to support Mizushima on his good shoulder.

Midoriya knew that Akaguro wasn't really trying; Akaguro was just smiling at him as they struggled against each other. Midoriya wasn't a power fighter; he didn't have enough muscle mass to go up against a full fledged adult that killed heroes with no problems at all, not to mention his poor eating habits. His power mostly came from his speed, agility, unpredictableness, instincts, quick reaction time and his ability to analyze his opponents on the spot, but up against someone faster than him, Midoriya was barely keeping up.

Plus, he had to keep track of two injured kid and two paralysed heroes. The ice wall Todoroki made definitely helped, though.

"I do wonder why the League wanted you." Akaguro admitted, "You're a vigilante, they're villains. Even if you do go against the law, you take down criminals, not help them. Why did they let you go free?"

"They just wanted to threaten me." Midoriya replied, as the two fighters backed down before lunging at each other again.

* * *

Aizawa didn't want to admit that he nearly had a heart attack when he received Iida's coordinates. He had the support course install something that would allow the students to call for backup, and while Aizawa definitely didn't want students running into danger to save their friends, considering that most of them were on internships, the students could also alert their mentors, and the pros would definitely be able to help.

Aizawa would have preferred it to be able to alert any hero nearby, but the students haven't gotten their provisional licences, and given that they were still greenhorns at pretty much everything, it would be way too easy to hack into the students equipment. Plus, the support course didn't have long to work on them, and considering it was supposed to be for emergencies and had to be discreet and compact, it could only broadcast a signal in the nearby vicinity.

He wasn't expecting it to actually be used, or it to be at a time where Aizawa couldn't help.

Enji had gone over to Hosu to deal with a couple of monstrosities, and Aizawa couldn't just leave the fight when there were three monsters roaming around, attacking civilians. He had quickly lost track of Enji in the fight, and at this point, he could only hope that Iida could stall for time.

* * *

"Hmm…" Shigaraki hummed as he looked at the chaos the Nomus were creating, "Not bad. Those NPCs will definitely take them down, though injuring them will be a bonus, but if these are considered weak, imagine what the others could do. UA will definitely fall."

"Shigaraki, I have found Stain. He's fighting with Void." Kurogiri reported.

Shigaraki's eyes glinted, and he nodded, "Good. Let's go. I want to see that fight."

* * *

Midoriya rolled aside, dodging Akaguro's slash, but Akaguro used that opportunity utterly destroy the ice wall Todoroki put up and raced out of the alleyway, Midoriya following close behind him.

"Shit." Todoroki cursed, turning around upon the ice shattering and seeing Akaguro racing out. Void quickly tackled him, and both of them were sent sprawling across the ground, rolling into a crouch and immediately leaping at each other.

"Come on, I told my father our location." Todoroki mumbled, as Akaguro attempted a slash at Void, who blocked the attack with a knife.

"I… I think I see Endeavor!" Mizushima spoke up, and Todoroki and Iida bother turned in the direction that Mizushima happened to be facing, seeing Enji's signature flames in the distance.

It didn't take long for Enji to close the distance, and the second he was close enough to see what was going on, he bellowed, "YOU!"

"It's Stain! And Void, he's helping us -" Iida spoke up, but Enji just ignored him and extended his arm.

Fire roared from his hand, and all Midoriya could feel was fire and pain.

_Thank goodness Reiko and Ryuto aren't with me… and that my hoodie is somewhat fire-proof._

* * *

Luckily for them, the three monsters were quickly taken care of, but not before pretty much all of the other heroes at the scene were injured in some way and needed medical treatment.

Enji had immediately gone off in another direction after the monsters were defeated, and Aizawa quickly followed behind, realising that Enji was heading in Iida's direction. He suddenly stopped, allowing Aizawa to catch up and figure out what was going on.

Todoroki and Iida were supporting Native and Mizushima respectively, while Akaguro and Void were locked in a battle.

And before he could do anything, Enji fired off his flames, not at Akaguro, but at Void.

The flames washed over Void, and Aizawa quickly used his quirk on Enji, erasing his quirk.

"What is wrong with you!? Iida clearly told you he's on our side!" Aizawa snapped, as he deactivated his quirk and turned to check on Void.

Void was standing a few inches away from where he originally stood, pushed back by the fire. His clothes were steaming, but other than the bout of coughing from the vigilante, Void looked relatively fine.

"Why!?" Todoroki burst out, turning to his father in horror, "He was helping us!"

"You fake!" Akaguro snarled, his bloodlust bursting out, paralysing everyone in his vicinity, "I must make things right. Someone must be dyed in blood. I must take back what it means to be a hero!"

He dashed forwards. Aizawa could only look on helplessly as he felt his entire body freeze, not due to a quirk or anything, but out of fear.

And Akaguro's katana hit metal.

"Stop it." Void growled, knife against katana, as they tried to push each other back.

"He attacked you, and yet you still protect him?!" Akaguro growled.

"You want to change the world, but killing does nothing. It's not right." Void spoke up, in a completely dead tone that was devoid of emotion, "Lead by example. Do what's right. Show the world what's right, and what isn't. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Akaguro sighed, and pulled back, "Last warning. Get out of the way. You're a good kid, Void. I don't want to hurt you, but you're in the way."

Void just lunged forward, and attempted to sweep Akaguro's legs out from under him, but Akaguro just jumped up and avoided it. He aimed his katana downwards, and attempted to slash Void, but Void just flipped up and kicked his blade away, landing in a crouch.

They leapt at each other, dancing, weaving around, as metal continuously scraped against metal as they kept up their dangerous tango. They were a whirl of red and black, and any time Akaguro attempted to break off the fight to go after Enji, Void would be there, blocking his way. The high speed battle kept up, until one final clash sent Void and Akaguro skidding away from each other.

_"So, Izuku, what do you notice about these fights? What do they have in common?"_

_Six year old Midoriya looked up from the laptop at Hisashi, and frowned, "Uh… they're all very good?"_

_"No, silly." Hisashi ruffled his hair, "Well… you're not wrong, but now, rewatch them, but try to keep a mental beat in your head."_

_Midoriya did as he was told, and his eyes widened, "They keep a steady beat as they fight."_

_"Correct." Hisashi praised, "Every person has a tempo they prefer to fight at, and it's important for things like keeping balance. Some are better at slower fights, where every single movement is important, and some are better at fast paced fights where they overwhelm their opponents with speed, and there is the group in between. And even then, between each group of fighters, everyone has a specific tempo that they fight the best at. But suddenly switching that tempo, even slightly, can throw them off. It's easier to increase the tempo of the fight, but if the fight is already really fast, then the fighters are most likely acting on instinct. For you, it's especially important for you to learn to take control of the fight. Keep switching up tempo of the fight, don't keep it the same for too long. As long as you're in charge of the tempo, you have an advantage."_

_Midoriya just cocked his head in confusion._

_"Uh… think of an orchestra. Everything is in harmony, everything runs smoothly, but even if only one instrument is off by even just one beat per minute, then the entire thing would sound horrible. Oh! Yes, basketball. Everyone in the team plays at a certain tempo. When two teams battle against each other, the team that can play by their tempo, and force the opponents to fight at a different tempo than their used to, they get an advantage by forcing the opponent to do something different. But if one person in a team is off, then the entire team formation falls apart. Makes sense?"_

_Midoriya eyes lit up in understanding, and Hisashi grinned, "Alright. Someone in the agency I worked at explained it to me, but I'm too old to change my fighting style. Your hand to hand is decent, so I'm going to try and teach you how to switch up the tempo in a fight before your fighting style solidifies."_

Midoriya relaxed, and pretended to let his guard down, and Akaguro acted instinctively, rushing at him once more. Midoriya waited, as Akaguro got closer, and closer. Akaguro's blade glinted in the moonlight, and Midoriya focused on it.

_Increase the tempo, just to throw him off guard._

Midoriya quickly ducked under the katana, and raised his hand, grabbing the blade, and twisting it out of Akaguro's grasp. He pivoted on his foot, kicking the back of Akaguro's knee, and from then on, it was a downhill battle for Akaguro.

No matter how Akaguro tried to attack, something felt off, but Akaguro couldn't tell what. He was almost always off balance, and Void was just attacking left and right mercilessly, avoiding all his attempts to attack back while landing all his own hits. Something was definitely wrong, but no matter how much Akaguro tried to orientate himself, he was just _off by a couple of milliseconds._

Aizawa tensed up, as he felt Enji heating up, and he yelled, "Void! Watch out."

Void gave Akaguro one more kick in Enji's direction, before he dove aside as Enji's fire washed over Akaguro. Aizawa quickly rushed in the second Enji's flames died down, erasing Akaguro's quirk and knocking the villain out, before he looked around, trying to find Void. Todoroki and Iida were also the same, and it seemed like Akaguro's quirk had worn off, since Mizushima and Native were standing around, trying to figure out just what the hell had happened.

"Where is that damned vigilante!?" Enji roared, and Aizawa just snapped, "You almost killed him once before, and you almost killed him again! What's wrong with you!?"

Midoriya just looked on impassively from his perch on the rooftop, before he ran off, headed back to Musutafu.


	17. Chapter 17 - Lives in the burning fodder

**Note: A bit of self harm in the first part**

* * *

Midoriya stumbled through his window, trying to push down the feeling of dread and anxiety that was starting to bubble up in his stomach.

_He really hated fire._

Or, to be more exact, he didn't necessarily hate all kinds of fire.

His father, Midoriya Hisashi, had a fire breathing quirk. That fire didn't hurt him, it protected him.

Todoroki's fire was unstable, full of rage and anger, but Midoriya could deal with it. It wasn't gentle, like Hisashi's flames, but it wasn't outrightly malicious.

_Like Enji's._

_Like the man who hated and and set fire to his house, the fire that had taken his parents lives._

After gently lifting Reiko and Ryuto out of their hiding place in the cupboard, Midoriya hastily peeled his hoodie off, almost letting out a hiss as the cool air his singed skin. His hoodie was fire-proof, yes, he had specifically made it that way, but that just meant that it wouldn't burn easily, just to protect his identity. Inside, he could still feel the fire licking at his skin, and it wasn't the fire itself that hurt him, but the memories it triggered hurt so much.

He shakily wrapped his arms around himself, ignoring the numbing pain that shot throughout his body as his hands rubbed against his tender skin, as Reiko looked on in concern, but unsure of what to do to make him feel better. He curled up on his bed, trying to calm himself down, trying to shut off the memories that were filling his brain and overwhelming him, the memories that he couldn't handle ever since he was seven.

The smell of burning flesh filled his nose, and Midoriya squeezed his eyes shut, biting his lip in an attempt to distract himself from the memory that had haunted him for so long. He didn't want to remember, but he didn't want to forget. He swallowed down his anxiety, his anger, his sorrow, and tried to relax, trembling on the bed, curling in on himself.

He wanted to be a hero. He couldn't let stupid things like his emotions overwhelm him. The man who killed his parents acted on his emotions, his rage, his anger; Midoriya couldn't afford to do the same.

Midoriya was doing his best to try and keep as quiet as possible, to stifle the whimpers that came out of his mouth, not even thinking about the fact that someone could just barge into his room at three in the morning and see his burnt and scarred skin.

He probably looked equally pathetic as he did now as he was when he was seven, just lying there haplessly, like a beaten and broken doll, a useless, worthless child that shouldn't even be alive.

_"Shh… Izuku... " Inko cradled her four year old son gently as he wept into her shirt, clinging to her like a lifeline, his arms and legs covered in cuts and bruises, "The world will always be cruel to you, Izuku. If you want to be a hero, you can't cry. Heroes don't cry. They can't cry, or they'll appear to be weak and everyone would take advantage of that. You shouldn't cry for something that wasn't your fault. It's my fault. I wasn't strong enough to give you a quirk, a quirk that would have made your life better."_

_Inko gently ran her fingers through Midoriya's fluffy hair, pulling him in for a hug._

_"You can cry in front of you father and I, but until you can find someone else out there that loves and cares for you, no matter your quirkless status, you can't cry. You can't show other people how much they are hurting you. People would just hurt you more. Do you understand, Izuku?"_

_Midoriya rubbed his eyes and nodded, as Inko rested her chin on Midoriya's head, rubbing his back comfortingly._

_"I'm so sorry, Izuku."_

He knew that if he were still his old self, he would probably be tearing up, and crying his heart out. But he hadn't cried for so long, locking that feeling away in the depths of his very being.

He didn't want to think about the past, he didn't want to remember everything that he had lost, everything that had happened, losing the only two people on this entire planet that loved him and everyone else doing everything in their power to destroy him from the inside.

_"You know, Deku? Falling off the roof of a building? What a farce. I know the truth. Sure, my quirk did give you a little push, amplifying all your emotions by tenfold… but honestly, I wasn't expecting you to actually jump. Just how desperate are you, attention seeker? Did you really think that taking a swan dive off the roof would make you get a quirk?"_

He really hated the fact that she was right, the girl in his class who was always quiet, always passive, listening to others, and being well liked in general. Her quirk allowed her to amplify the emotions of anyone she talked to for a certain amount of time.

But in the end, it was still his fault, not hers. It was his emotions were what drove him to this point, drove him to have this stupid quirk that he didn't want, never wanted. He couldn't blame her for his emotions, his pure stupidity and nativity, for him trusting her despite having been fooled time and time again.

Midoriya quickly exhaled, desperately trying to stay as quiet as possible so as to not wake anyone up by accident. But he felt like he was suffocating, everything pressing down heavily on his chest, pushing down. He felt like he was drowning, every breath he took being so dense that it wasn't even helping his situation at all, the pressure gradually getting stronger and stronger the longer he sank.

And he did the only thing he could think of, the only thing that he could do that wouldn't disturb anyone else, to regain some semblance of control.

He hastily ripped the knife out from its sheath on his leg, and plunging it into his left forearm, right between his ulna and radius, and twisted it harshly.

The familiar, grounding feeling of pain blossoming in his arm brought him back to reality, forcing him to focus on the pain instead of the bubbling emotions that threatened to erupt, the memories that filled his mind like a broken tape record on a high, replaying over and over again, the words, the shouts, everything echoing, an endless cacophony of noise filling his brain.

His grip on his knife weakened, and there he lay, limp on his bed as he breathed, inhaling and exhaling, taking deep breaths, trying to calm his racing heart. Reiko gently padded over to him, Ryuto awkwardly jumping and waddling behind her, flapping his tiny wings, constantly getting his tiny talons stuck within the folds of the bed sheets as he tried to follow the cat.

Ryuto had really grown in the past week, his first set of feathers having already grown, covering the baby hawk in a layer of fluffy light grey feathers. He was no longer completely blind and helpless like he was when he just hatched, and was literally just a small, adorable, warm ball of fluff that cheeped and chirped for Midoriya's attention whenever he was on his way to school, coming back from school, or in the pet rescue center.

He was smart, or maybe Reiko was influencing him, or maybe it was just his baby hawk instincts that told him to remain quiet whenever he wasn't safe, and never made a single sound whenever he was in his foster home.

Nezu did comment that he made some noise whenever he was with Reiko in his office, but it wasn't enough to garner his attention and he usually did so whenever he wanted Reiko's attention, or whenever Midoriya entered the room for his daily meetings with the principal.

Reiko licked his cheek gently, as Midoriya looked at her, tired, completely drained of energy, ignoring the blood that trickled out of his arm and staining the bed sheets. Ryuto just hopped over to Midoriya, and tucked himself under Midoriya's chin, rubbing his head against Midoriya's neck and chirping softly.

Midoriya swallowed, feeling the pressure of his collar against his neck. He collected his thoughts, and pushed them to the back of his mind, stuffing his emotions, his thoughts, his memories, everything into a mental, metaphorical bottle and capping it tightly.

He had failed too many times already. He had already failed his parents. He had failed Reiko's mother.

He couldn't fail whatever family he had left. He couldn't afford to fail again.

Midoriya wearily pushed himself up, and made his way to the bathroom to clean himself up, before dealing with the bed sheets. Someone would scream in the morning if they found out what had happened.

* * *

Nezu nearly had a heart attack when he watched the news the next day, sitting in his office.

He knew that Midoriya had been hopping over to Hosu for the past few days; the local heroes like Moro, the wolf based hero that one of the monstrosities had attacked, and several others had mentioned that Void had dropped down, talked for around a minute or two, before disappearing into the shadows the second they turned away from him, repeating the same pattern that usually took place in Musutafu.

And then, he caught most of the fight between Midoriya and Akaguro that was captured by a news helicopter, with Midoriya being able to escape the cameras and disappearing as Enji and Aizawa landed the finishing blows.

Nezu was seriously getting more and more worried about Midoriya. His foster household was clearly not treating him properly, not even allowing him basic privacy in the form of locking his door.

Not to mention that despite that, no one noticed that he was sneaking out of the house to be a vigilante. That was kind of the point, but considering he seemed to be active at around the same time in Hosu as he was in Musutafu, and that the boy probably needed at least an hour each to get to Hosu and back, he was leaving the house a whole hour early, and coming back a whole hour late.

Nezu just hoped that after the entire Stain incident, Midoriya wouldn't have to push himself anymore, and would take a break, at least for a little while.

And maybe he should just get Midoriya's opinion of being under someone else's care.

Nezu almost jumped when his office was flung open, and he looked up, seeing Aizawa stomp into his office, with Ishiyama and Thirteen standing behind Yamada awkwardly.

Nezu frowned. He thought Aizawa was still with Enji and Todoroki.

"Principal, we need to do something about Endeavor. He almost killed Void, again. He tried to burn him the second he laid eyes on him."

Nezu blinked, before registered what Aizawa had just said.

"Repeat that again, and don't leave a single detail out."

Aizawa gave him a recount of what happened, about them fighting off monsters that seemed to be similar to that large hulking beast that had appeared at the USJ but they couldn't be very sure, that Iida had sent out a distress call with his location, and he and Enji were heading in the same direction that Todoroki had assumably disappeared to.

"And then, we saw Stain and Void fighting, and Endeavor immediately tried to set Void on fire. I erased his quirk, and Stain tried to go after Endeavor, but Void was still trying to protect that sorry excuse for a hero. The rest of the fight was probably on the news." Aizawa snapped. He clearly didn't have his coffee that morning in his haste to talk to Nezu, not that anyone could blame him.

Nezu growled, and added that to his mental list of things to look out for when he talked to Midoriya. By this point, he was pretty sure that Midoriya was Void. His quirk was iffy, but quirks in general were iffy.

"Got it." Nezu replied, scribbling something down in his notebook, "I'll make a note on it, if I can get access to the security cameras, maybe I can add it to the file… but you, Iida and Todoroki are witnesses…"

Aizawa nodded, somewhat calmer but still upset, and walked out of his office, grumbling about getting coffee.

Yamada scratched his head, "How did Endeavor become the number two hero again?"

"People are stupid?" Nezu piped up, "No offence, but people are the ones voting to give the heroes rankings. They probably don't take note of the mass amounts of damage he creates, or the number of people that he injured. Either that or they're just blind."

"No offence taken." Yamada shrugged, "It is true. Also, do you have a bird in your room? I swear I hear chirping sometimes whenever Midoriya comes to see you."

Ishiyama raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Thirteen spoke up, "Nezu likes to leave his window open in summer. It's probably the birds outside."

Nezu just placed a smile on his furry face and remained silent.

* * *

"Midoriya, are you okay?" Nezu asked, as Midoriya glanced away from him, staring at the ground. Midoriya always looked exhausted, and for the past few days he had been visiting Hosu, he had been looking even worse.

But now? Midoriya looked dead. His face was completely pale, his dark eye bags even more prominent before. And while it probably wasn't noticeable unless one were watching him very closely, he was trembling ever so slightly, even though he was sitting, as though he were cold.

He didn't look burnt in any way, so his hoodie must have been fire-proof to an extent, which was a huge relief.

Midoriya tried to sign something, but his hands were shaking too much for him to sign anything coherently, to the point where he just gave up signing and just rested his hands on his lap.

Reiko was curled up on his lap, and Ryuto, for some reason, was somehow nestled in the teen's hair.

"I'm… fine…" Midoriya mumbled, sounding like he was being strangled.

"Ah. Rough day?" Nezu gently asked, "Want to talk about it?"

Midoriya shook his head, and Nezu couldn't help but wonder what had happened to make him like this. It didn't seem to affect his work too much, but bottling up his feelings was definitely not doing him any good.

Reiko nudged his arm gently, purring, but Midoriya still seemed reluctant to talk.

"So… " Nezu started, trying to change the topic, "Did you hear the news about Stain?"

Nezu swore that Midoriya seemed to flinch ever so slightly, and wondered if that was the reason why he was in such a bad form. Sure, he didn't seem to have any injuries at all, even managing to take Akaguro down, somehow, but with a black hoodie, there was no way to tell at all. Not to mention the fact that Enji, a hero, had tried to burn him alive. But he wasn't sure how to change the topic without making it seem too obvious that he knew Midoriya's vigilante identity, or making the entire conversation worse for him.

"I saw."

Nezu blinked as Midoriya spoke up, still not making eye contact, "At least… no one got hurt."

_You were hurt, you silly idiot. Stop thinking about others for once and think about yourself._

"Well, that's good indeed." Nezu pretended to agree, trying to look out for more clues as to determine just what was wrong.

The two fell into silence again, until Ryuto started chirping. Midoriya reached up, shakily untangling his talons from his hair, before bringing him to rest on his lap with Reiko.

"Ah, yes, that reminds me. Midoriya, from what I've seen, your home situation… isn't that great. What do you think of being taken in by someone else?" Nezu brought up.

Midoriya looked at him impassively, seemingly confused, before replying, "It's fine. It's not like… they're hurting me or anything. They… leave me alone… for the most part."

Nezu sighed.

"Not hurting you doesn't mean they're taking care of you. You're clearly malnourished and severely underweight from Recovery Girl's quick checkup at the Sports Festival, you're constantly tired and you looked like you're never getting enough sleep, you're way too pale to be healthy." Nezu admitted, "You're clearly not taking care of yourself, you don't even eat in school, all you do is drink water. And if no one at home is taking care of you… I'm honestly worried about you, Midoriya."

Midoriya did look somewhat guilty, though his expression hasn't changed in the slightest. Nezu had gotten pretty good at reading Midoriya's emotions through his eyes, as Reiko leaned against Midoriya's chest and purred.

"It's… going to be the same. Nothing will change." Midoriya said, and Nezu couldn't help but worry about him more. He made a mental note to try and find out more about Midoriya, even if reports from more than seven years ago were hard to find and some information recorded from those times were dubious at best.

"What if I told you that I want to take you in?"

Midoriya froze, staring at him for a long hard minute, as Nezu just looked back at him, before Midoriya blinked and finally stammered, for once, a bit of emotion leaking into his voice, "Wh...why?"

"Midoriya, you don't deserve to be treated like that. They're not taking care of you. They're ignoring the fact that you're hurt and they're not giving you the help you need. Bottling up all your problems and troubles aren't going to help, they'll just fester and the only thing you're doing is hurting yourself." Nezu stood up to sit next to Midoriya, "You may not trust me enough to tell me what's wrong, but I hope you'll at least trust me enough to make sure that it won't get worse."

_Well… the idea seems to make him feel better… plus… I'm pretty sure my foster mom will be pretty happy to be rid of this worthless quitter of a child._

Midoriya hesitantly nodded, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but pursed his lips.

"Midoriya? If you want to say anything, feel free to say it."

"It's… stupid." Midoriya replied, looking away, "I keep calling you Nezu ... and you call me Midoriaya… It's rude of me to keep calling you by your first name…. So… can you please… call me Izuku?"

Nezu gave a small bark of laughter, "It isn't rude. I let you call me that."

Midoriya just looked at him, and Nezu pat his arm, "Yeah. If you want me to, I'll call you Izuku."

Midoriya stood up to leave and bowed, and Nezu called out at he exited the office, "Oh, yes, currently, I think the first year course is too simple for you. Do you want me to find something more challenging for, Izuku?"

Nearly every single teacher froze when they heard Nezu say that.

_First name basis?_

They watched at Midoriya mutely nodded before he left, and they looked at Nezu incredulously.

"He insisted." Nezu looked at the expressions on his colleagues faces, somewhat proud of himself, "He thought it was rude since I don't have a last name."


	18. Chapter 18 - You're out there

Nezu huffed as he drummed his fingers along the table. Midoriya, as Void, had informed him that it was possible the villains may try to attack UA again, and Nezu wasn't sure how to counter the possibly imminent attack.

Unlike the first time, Midoriya didn't tell him when or where the attack would take place. That wouldn't be a problem, if not for the fact that one of the villains had a warping quirk that allowed him to teleport. He was the linchpin of the attack, and he had teleported out the second he had seen all the heroes. The energy left behind was unidentifiable, and Nezu couldn't really do much to stop teleporter.

Plus, if Hosu was any indication, then they probably had a few more of those monsters, like the black one they had originally brought into the USJ.

But considering the fodder that was brought in the first time, and the fact that they had fled the second they saw the heroes suggested that they probably weren't very bright. It seemed like they didn't have a plan, and it shouldn't be too hard to take them out. As long as nothing too drastic happened, they should be able to defend the students.

Nezu moved on to the next thing. All Might had been called by the police for the next few days regarding some villains. Apparently, several groups of villains claimed that they could kill him, and while they weren't necessarily a threat, the government had said it gave the hero system a bad reputation if villains were able to openly bad mouth the number one hero. Humans and their pride was definitely a huge problem, but All Might probably won't be able to teach at UA for the next week or so to fully flush out the villains, deal with the paperwork, investigations, and other stuff.

Also, speaking of paperwork, Nezu was going to have to clear out one of his days to speak to Midoriya's foster mother and deal with the paperwork for that. Nezu could take custody of him directly and charge her with child neglect, but Midoriya clearly didn't want to cause any more trouble, so Nezu was going to take the more roundabout method. It was slower, yes, but Nezu was going to do it if it made Midoriya feel better. The boy clearly thinks he's a burden, and Nezu was going to do his best in order to help him.

Nezu had done his best to look up past events about Midoriya thoroughly, and what he found shocked him.

Both Midoriya's father and mother had been killed in a fire in their own home. The other person who had been in the house, presumably the one who set the entire place ablaze, had apparently also died in that fire, leaving a seven year old Midoriya as the lone survivor of that incident.

No doubt that was a traumatizing experience for the poor boy, not to mention that Midoriya had also almost been burnt alive by Enji had Aizawa not erased his quirk before it had gotten too powerful. No wonder Midoriya seemed so off. He was really hoping that he could coax the boy to talk; bottling all his emotions inside wasn't doing him any favours.

Nezu continued flipping through his notes. The second and third year support course students wouldn't be in school on Monday, since there was a talk by several lecturers from I-Island Academy. The third year hero students would be having their internships then, since some heroes had invited students from both the first and third years and the teachers had decided to separate them into two different weeks so each student could get the hero's undivided attention, and the lone hero course 2-B class would be busy in Ground Beta for their mid-year projects. The third year management students had a talk on founding and managing hero agencies from a pro hero in Australia, and the second year management students were entitled to a hands-on lessons in venture capitalism by a lecturer from America. The general education students were also having a field trip, the third years to Best Jeanist's agency, and the second years to Uwabami's agency.

It was a pity that there will be a day or two were only the first years were in UA's main building, but Nezu didn't really have much of a say in the timetable for those days. Those lecturers will only be in Musutafu for those few days, and they were already lucky enough that their students could attend those lectures, and the hero students had to complete their projects to ensure that they were good enough to try for their provisional licences.

Nezu closed up his notebook. Tons of things to do, tons of things happening. First, he was probably going to clear up his home, fit an extra bed in the spare room for Midoriya, before he went to talk with Midoriya's foster mother on Wednesday. Everything should be done by Friday, All Might should also be back in UA, and the students should all resume their regular timetables by then, so everything should be fine.

* * *

"You've improved a lot, Uraraka. It's your last day of the internships, right? I was thinking... maybe ask that Midoriya kid for pointers?" Gunhead suggested, "You seem to interact with him a lot, I think you can learn a thing or two from him, if he's willing to teach you."

Uraraka shook her head. It was a good idea, sure, but Midoriya coaching her one to one didn't around right to her. Midoriya was clearly a lonely person due to being quirkless. He didn't have any friends, and clearly wasn't sure how to interact with people. Even when he was with them for lunch, all Midoriya did was listen and stare at this water. She didn't want to bother him outside of school, and maybe take time away from others from being his friend.

She knew he had a cat, and maybe a bird, if he had decided to keep the little ball of floof on that day of the Sports Festival, and the cat was the only being that he clearly knew how to show affection to.

Plus, while she knew Midoriya didn't really do it unless he was trying to protect someone else, the kid could be terrifying at times. He just gave out that… pressure, a kind of pressure that practically yelled, "Take one more step and I'll break every bone in your body." Not to mention that he also had the ability to back his words up. Honestly, who wouldn't want to be his friend? He was an interesting person, he was a nice kid, a bit on the quiet side, but he was generally a pretty cool person to hang out with.

"I don't think that's a good idea. I can try though." Uraraka replied, scratching the back of her head, "We have hung out at lunch and stuff, but he just keeps quiet and doesn't say a word. He already seems uncomfortable enough just sitting at the same table… I don't want to stress him out even more."

Gunhead frowned, though Uraraka couldn't tell under his mask, "Well… that's surprising. He seems like a decent kid, at least, from what I can see on television. What quirk does he have?"

Uraraka snapped her head upwards, and replied in an almost accusatory tone, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Gunhead sighed, "I hate to say it, but nowadays, quirks have dominated our society. People judge people based on how powerful and flashy their quirks are, and seeing how Midoriya is, it is highly probable that he hasn't been treated well when he was younger. He probably taught himself to fight to keep up with his peers if he doesn't have a physical quirk, so he's not just using one fighting style, but a mixed style."

Uraraka looked down at her shoes, "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

Gunhead gestured for the sidekick that Uraraka had been sparring with to move away, before he nodded.

"He doesn't have a quirk." Uraraka looked away, rubbing her hands together. Gunhead just reached down to pat her head, "You're a good kid, Uraraka. Most people treat quirkless like they're useless because they don't have a power. In your generation, being quirkless is almost unheard of… and… I'm going to tell you something, don't freak out."

Uraraka looked up at him curiously, and Gunhead sighed, "Usually, most quirkless kids would end up taking their own lives."

Uraraka gasped, eyes widening in shock, "You mean...committing … suicide?"

Gunhead nodded solemnly, "I hate to say it, but it's the harsh truth of the world. Years and years of constant bullying, being told they're useless, that no matter what they do, it wouldn't matter, all that can make anyone snap. It's just that the quirkless are much more susceptible to bullying than others since at this point, they're so rare that considered anomalies. You guys want to help him, right?"

Just the mere thought of losing a friend… of someone hurting inside so much to the point where they were willing to end it all… it left a horrible taste in Uraraka's mouth. She was fond of Midoriya, despite how different and closed off he was, and after whatever Gunhead had told her? She wanted to protect him.

She vigorously nodded, not trusting herself to say something in her emotional state.

"Don't worry. Midoriya hasn't done it yet, and you still have time to help him." Gunhead nodded, patting her on the back, "How does he usually communicate, then? I don't think he could do anything if he didn't somehow communicate with the teachers?"

"Uh… sign language, mostly." Uraraka hummed, "My friend translates for us. But he did write something for another friend of mine to read."

"Hmm…" Gunhead mused, "I suppose you can try to learn sign language? It is a necessary part of your course, I believe, so it will be useful in the long run as well, but most students will start in their second or third year. Maybe just try to learn, and let him know that you're willing to… _listen_? I'm not sure that's the right word, but you know what I mean. Let him know that you want to help, that you're willing to listen. I think that's the most important step right now, let him know that he can trust you."

Uraraka vigorously nodded her head, "Yes! Thank you!"

Gunhead pat her on the head, "Alright. Go pack your stuff. I believe you still need to get back to UA."

Uraraka rushed off to pack her hero costume back into its case, promising herself that second she got home, she would try to start teaching herself JSL.

* * *

Todoroki sat by his desk, frowning.

_Just who was Void?_

He had tried to help him by telling the heroes about his father.

He had saved him once again when he rescued both he and Iida from Stain.

And then, his father tried to set him on fire. His god damned father, trying to kill the one person who had helped him.

He clenched his fist, and stood up, packing a small bag, before walking out of the house.

"Shouto? Where are you going?" Fuyumi asked, concerned.

Todoroki looked up as he was putting on his shoes.

"I'm going to talk to Mom."

* * *

"You were saved by Void, right?" Tensei asked, as he stretched gently on his hospital bed, "It was on the news. That wasn't Void's first encounter with Endeavor. Endeavor's tried to burn him once already."

Iida's head snapped up, as Tensei grabbed his phone and scrolled through websites, before finally stopping and handing the phone to Iida, "Take a look."

Iida shakily took the phone, and quickly read through it. The article had described how Enji was seen chasing down a figure in a black hoodie, and had hit him in the back, downing the unknown person. The second Enji's back was turned, the unknown person had gotten up and run away.

"But… how do you know?" Iida asked, passing the phone back, "That could be anyone."

"Shou-... er… Aizawa confirmed it." Tensei corrected himself, "He and Mic happened to be there while off-duty. Honestly, it's pretty amazing that he managed to beat Stain, or at least, rough him up enough for Aizawa and Endeavor to finish him off. Though I really would have liked a shot to get back at him, but the sooner he's behind bars, the better."

Iida looked away, almost guiltily. He didn't actively seek Stain out, but that was the only reason why he was in Hosu. If he didn't take up Mizushima's internship offer, maybe he wouldn't have been attacked.

"Tenya, it's not your fault. Sure, you chose Manual's agency to be in Hosu, but that's fine. You didn't expect that Stain may attack you guys, nor did you go around trying to find him. Honestly, I would have expected you to do that, seeing how much you looked up to me ever since you were a kid. I'm proud of you, Tenya."

Iida clenched his fist.

"It wasn't that… Someone, a friend... told me not to go after him."

"Must be a special friend if they could convince you not to go after him without you even telling them, seeing how hard headed you are." Tensei gave a dry chuckle, as Iida pulled over a chair to sit down, "Come on, spill."

"Midoriya Izuku. He told me… not to go after Stain. Not to break the laws, to think about how you would feel about everything…" Iida replied.

"The kid who won the Sports Festival?" Tensei asked, "Seems like a decent kid, though honestly… I don't see how he managed to convince you."

"He doesn't talk at all." Iida looked away, "He just listens, signing occasionally, and… I think his other classmates may be bullying him."

"Oh… then it makes sense… for him to actually voice his opinion on something…" Tensei mused, "I thought UA didn't condone bullying."

"UA doesn't." Iida confirmed, "But as far as I know, they make lessons hard for him, and say rude and hurtful things when the teachers aren't in class. One boy had insulted both Midoriya and Shinsou during the Sports Festival… called them pretty horrible stuff… but Midoriya still forgave him for what he said… I think it's better now… the Principal addressed everyone about this issue already."

"Oh…" Tensei sighed, "Let me guess, quirk discrimination."

Iida's head shot up, "How did you -"

Tensei looked directly at Iida, "Quirk discrimination is the main reason for bullying in this age, especially among kids. People who are quirkless, or have very weak quirks, or quirks mostly associated with villany are often mocked. As much as I hate to say it, this society defines us by our quirks. Your classmates, you, your teachers, you guys are lucky to have powerful quirks that are also versatile. You're lucky to have never seen that dark side of the world."

Tensei continued, "Look, Tenya, what I'm going to say isn't going to be pretty. Quirks are dominant traits, so the quirkless population is decreasing exponentially. But that isn't the only reason why the quirkless population is decreasing."

Iida froze, "You mean… they…"

"That's why I said you're lucky." Tensei sighed, "It something I think you should cover sooner or later, but there are things that the government would rather just sweep under the rug and call it a day. Quirk discrimination is against the law, yes, but they'll just say kids are kids, that bullying is normal and that they'll grow out of it. People do not have ideal quirks are often considered useless and worthless. Constantly being told, reminded, that they're lives don't matter, that they're a waste of space, people do things when they truly believe in it, when they're emotional. Sometimes, these things are irreversible. That's the harsh reality we live in, Tenya."

Iida just remained quiet.

"You want to help him, don't you? This Midoriya Izuku?"

"I… yeah." Iida replied, "He doesn't deserve it. He just lets everyone push him around. But he did defend Shinsou though…"

"He's probably thought that Shinsou was more important than himself. He has a good heart, but mixed in with bullying, he just thinks that he's not worth it." Tensei sighed, "Quirks grow more and more powerful over generations. When I was a kid, bullying and quirk discrimination took place really often."

Tensei tried to reach out to pat Iida's head, but forgot that his arms were still in casts and he grumbled under his breath. "Look, you're his friend. I think… as long as he knows that you're there for him no matter what… that's enough. That someone will listen if he wishes to talk."

Iida nodded, and shot up, "Yes! As the class representative, I must look out for my fellow students!"

"That's my little bro." Tensei laughed.


	19. Chapter 19 - Seas of shadows

"You seem a little distracted today. Worried about school?" Kamihara asked, turning behind him. Shinsou trailed behind him, looking around absentmindedly, before he realised that Kamihara was talking to him, "Huh?"

"It's the last day of the internships." Kamihara sighed, "What's wrong? You seemed okay this entire week."

"I'm just … worried about a friend, honestly." Shinsou scratched the back of his neck, "I know that some things would be hard to get over… but…"

"Midoriya Izuku, right? Quirkless." Kamihara asked, and Shinsou looked up at him in shock, "I did my research. He won the Sports Festival, after all, without showing any signs of quirk usage. Don't worry about it, I'm not judging that your friend is quirkless. Quirk discrimination is a thing, but some of us heroes have actually gone through it. Take Best Jeanist, or even your teacher Aizawa. Their fighting styles rely more on their technique rather than the quirks themselves. Look at yourself, you're using your equipment rather than your quirk."

He walked towards Shinsou and patted him on the shoulder, "Look, I'm not going to try and pretend to understand what he's going through. People with ideal quirks just keep on increasing as time goes on, and I'm sure that the discrimination has gotten much, much worse. Being discriminated for being quirkless has always been way worse than just regular quirk discrimination… Honestly, I think the only thing you can do to help him is to just show that you'll be there for him. You can't force him to just spill all his troubles, things like this take time."

Shinsou nodded. It had been exactly like that with him. After he had been rescued and taken in by Aizawa and Yamada, it had taken him weeks to even start talking, even though he was perfectly aware that Aizawa could erase his quirk if he accidentally brainwashed someone. It had also taken a long time for him to adjust to a new environment, and the lack of restrictions he had. He could talk when he wanted, do whatever he wanted, it was all so new to him and it had taken him a long time to process all of it.

He had gotten help, help that brought him to where he is today.

Midoriya deserved help as well.

* * *

Nezu hoped that Midoriya was getting enough sleep. After all, Akaguro was already behind bars, so there was no reason for Midoriya to sacrifice his already scarce sleeping time in order to make his way to and back from Hosu.

He drummed his paws on the table. Midoriya had looked horrible when he had last seen him on Friday. He just hoped that things would go a lot better after the weekend. Hopefully, Midoriya had decided to take a break, and get his much needed rest.

He had already finalised all the transportation arrangements. On Monday, 1-A where to go to the USJ to see what they had learnt in their internships and how to apply their new knowledge. That was also one of the days where only the first years were in school, with everyone else being busy with internships, field trips and lectures.

It didn't seem to bad. But Nezu had a feeling in his gut that something… something was about to go horribly wrong, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

Maybe he should try to beef up security once more, but then again, he couldn't do anything about warpers unless he had a sample of the energy they use to teleport around. Or maybe he should try and think of some universal force field that kept warpers in general out? But the amount of radiation that something like that would give out wouldn't be healthy…

He would discuss that with Maijima, and maybe Yagi. That purple misty warper was associated with the monstrosities from Hosu, and seeing as those things seemed to be modified in order to hold multiple quirks. They were definitely related to All for One in some way.

And if that was the case, then this was something that would be too large for the students to handle alone. Yagi was the only one who could stand a chance against All for One, and even he had been grievously wounded by that villain.

He needed to protect his students.

* * *

"Midoriya!"

Midoriya heard the shout, and immediately turned around, seeing Uraraka running up to him. She had a huge grin on her face, and signed, "Hi!"

Midoriya just blinked, and she smiled, "I've been learning sign language! I only know the real basic stuff, like 'Hi', 'yes' and 'no', and it's amazing how you know how to sign fluently! It's hard!"

Midoriya had no idea how to react to that, until Iida came running up to them, "Ah! Hello Uraraka, Midoriya! I wasn't expecting to meet you here!"

Iida flashed Midoriya a smile, "Thank you for convincing me not to go after the Hero Killer. I was unfortunate enough to chance upon him, and he's way out of my league."

Midoriya merely nodded in acknowledgement, before the trio continued their way to UA, with Uraraka and Iida talking about their internships.

"It's a pity you're not in the hero course. You would have loved the internships." Uraraka commented, "Also, you won the Sports Festival, right? So will you be joining the hero course?"

Midoriya merely shrugged. He was, but not now, and Nezu didn't want any of the other students to know, so he kept quiet. But that wasn't the only reason he seemed even more withdrawn than usual.

He had a bad feeling in his gut. A flame, burning intensely, warning him that something ominous was going to happen. Something big, something horrible, but Midoriya had no idea what was going to happen. He couldn't let these… so-called friends distract him from what's important. He needed to be on the lookout for anything amiss.

Maybe he should tell Nezu that something felt wrong.

He felt Reiko and Ryuto shifting slightly in his bag, and could tell that Reiko probably felt his unease. Reiko couldn't protect herself from humans, given her smaller size, and Ryuto was way too young to even consider protecting himself.

They were his family. He couldn't afford to lose any more of his family. He could survive being killed, they couldn't. He could take hits, they couldn't.

He would do anything to protect them.

* * *

"1-A's going to be at the USJ today, Shigaraki." Kurogiri reported, "All Might's occupied with our distractions. Most of the students are out of UA for their respective activities. The support course students will leave at lunch, and everyone in the USJ is in place. The control room has been taken over, UA's security systems are bugged, and everything is ours to use."

"Good." Shigaraki nodded, looking at his hand, "We have the Nomu for All Might. One of our flying Nomus was killed in Hosu but that was a low end Nomu. Bring along three more Nomus. Those kids don't stand a chance. We'll give those brats a fighting chance, and then crush their hopes right in front of them."

"Are we going to kill them?" Kurogiri asked.

"If they die, they die. It doesn't matter. We'll break them, break their heroes when they come to rescue them. We'll bring down the newest generation of heroes. We'll tear UA's reputation to shreds. We'll destroy those damned heroes, and finally, when we finally let All Might see what has happened, we'll bring him to his knees. The Symbol of Peace dies today, and hero society as a whole will crumble with it."


	20. Chapter 20 - I'm down here again

**Author's Note: Honestly, the relationship thing isn't going to be a major part of the story. It's just there for angst, honestly. For what I have in mind, it doesn't have to be ShinDeku. Pretty much any ship works, but I just particularly like ShinDeku.**

* * *

_This wasn't supposed to happen._

It was just supposed to be a field trip to the USJ, where they were supposed to check their skills and what they had learnt during their internships.

Not a villain attack.

The day had started off decently, in Iida's opinion. He had met up with Uraraka and MIdoriya in the morning, before heading for their respective classes. Kaminari, for some reason, had found Stain's intriguing, but to be honest, Iida agreed with him, in a way. He had the determination and drive and the power to execute his ideals. That was admirable, but his way of doing so was completely wrong.

But Iida could learn something from this. He knew what he wanted; to become a hero as great as his brother, Ingenium. In order to do that, he needed to know what was right and what was wrong; going after Stain would have definitely been a mistake, he would have been massacred on the spot before he could even say a single word, if Stain wished that to happen. He wasn't strong enough, and he needed to pay even more attention in class, work harder, train harder, in order to grow strong enough to protect himself and the others around him.

Lunch was pretty normal. Kamakiri, Kaibara and Shiozaki had joined them at their table. Monoma looked like he wanted to join in as well, except that he had literally just insulted Bakugou and Todoroki for being cocky and was partially out of it from a chop to the neck by Kendo.

Midoriya, as usual, remained completely silent, and it was only then that Iida realised that Midoriya made absolutely no sounds at all. When he drank his water, when he walked, when he put his cup back on the table, it was quiet. He wondered what had happened for Midoriya to be like this.

Then it hit him.

Tensei had told him about bullying. No doubt that Midoriya had grown to attract as little attention as possible, in order to prevent others from noticing him and hurting him. Not making any sounds, slouching to make himself appear as small as possible, they were self-preservation tactics to make himself as unnoticeable as possible.

Midoriya was his friend. He may not know much about bullying, but Iida knew that Midoriya did not deserve it. He was a nice person, willing to stand up for others over himself, and after Tensei told him that most victims of bullying had a screwed up sense of self-worth? No wonder he had jumped in to take the hit for Shinsou, or jump out of bounds to protect Shiozaki. He felt that they were more important for him, and was willing to sacrifice his chance to get into the hero course, and even his life for them.

Somehow, Iida felt the need to protect Midoriya, even though Midoriya could probably kick his butt to the moon and back.

Then, they had to go on a trip to the USJ. They had gone their once, before their internships, but the Unforeseen Simulation Joint still looked as impressive as it had been the first time. Thirteen had announced them that the Mountain Zone had been replaced by the Frost Zone, given that they already had the Ruins and the Mountain Zone which were similar to the Landslide Zone.

But the second they had entered the facility, the lights flickered, and a portal swirled into existence, bringing with it more monsters like the ones he had seen on the news in Hosu, where he had been busy with Stain, and villains.

Aizawa and Kaminari tried to call for help, but something was jamming their signals, so Thirteen had told him to run, to get back to UA and to get help since he was the fastest as Aizawa leapt off the podium into the sea of villains in an attempt to buy them some time. But the second that Iida had run out the open door, he heard the ominous sound of the air swishing, curling in on itself, and against his better judgement, he turned around.

All his classmates had been sucked into the vortex of mist, disappearing into thin air, leaving Thirteen behind with the man made of mist, yellow eyes glowing in the misty depths like the light of an angler fish, luring in its prey before those jaws snapped shut.

_This was a trap._

And Iida did the only thing he could do at the moment. He ran back to UA, putting his engines into full thrust as he sped forward, not looking back. He couldn't help anyone who wasn't there, and he had no idea where they were. All he could do was get help from the pro heroes in UA.

* * *

Kurogiri smiled to himself as he turned Thirteen's Black Hole on themself, partially disintegrating the Space Hero. The Engine boy had escaped, the rest of the students scattered, and the doors were left open, inviting the heroes to come and save them.

_Perfect._

He left the broken Thirteen lying on the ground, before teleporting back to Shigaraki. Thirteen wouldn't die yet. Kurogiri made sure of it. He wanted to heroes to see what exactly had been made of their comrade, a warning never to cross the League of Villains, that is, if they survived this encounter.

"Everything's going according to plan, Shigaraki. Thirteen is crippled. The Ingenium lookalike is getting back up. The doors are open, the students are scattered exactly where they're weakest. All Might's signal is jammed as well, so the heroes can't call for All Might to come help them." Kurogiri said.

"Good. Keep a lookout for the rest of the heroes." Shigaraki murmured, as he and the rest of the villains watched Aizawa getting pummeled into the ground, "We'll let them have a glimpse of what's going on, before we disappear before their very eyes. This facility was upgraded in case of an attack, like our first attempt. A facility with quirk proof metal, to keep whatever is inside it trapped. But we have control over it now. We'll trap them, those meaningless NPCs, right in their little dungeon."

* * *

Kaminari opened his eyes, and they stung from the salt water he found himself in. He could make out a pink blob in the distance, and Kaminari cursed to himself. Salt water, his friend was here, he couldn't use his quirk, even by accident, or he'll fry Ashido. His quirk was useless here, and he didn't even know how deep the water was.

He never liked swimming. He was a social person, but he couldn't swim with anyone else lest he fried them. And now, he was stuck in the water, not knowing how to swim properly, with a useless quirk, and what was that swimming towards him?!

Ojiro seemed to be having a better time, making his way towards the surface, when he was suddenly assaulted by a set of claws.

"Why hello there! I have nothing against you, but you look like some tasty prey!" A man with what seemed to be an alligator quirk snapped, "See ya later!"

Ojiro hastily swung himself around, but in water, his maneuverability was severely hindered, and instead of whacking the man with his tail like he intended, he found himself biting his lip in pain as sharp teeth locked themselves onto his tail.

Ashido wasn't doing much better. Even her most potent acid was diluting rapidly, making her quirk useless in water, and she was being mercilessly assaulted by a woman with a piranha quirk and another man with a shark quirk. She could swim decently, but she couldn't move around as well as she could on land. She had gotten bitten in the arms and legs, and she tried to swim upwards, to catch her breath, but found herself being pulled downwards, into the depths of the Flood Zone.

Kaminari floundered around desperately in the water, trying to prevent his panic from overriding his senses and shocking everyone around him senseless, but all of a sudden, he felt something wrapping around his neck, squeezing tighter and tighter. He could feel a slight electric charge as angs bit into his shoulders, and pain flared throughout his body, electricity running through him. He wasn't immune to electricity, like most people would think. That was why releasing too much electricity short circuited his brain for some time. But electricity that wasn't his was running through his veins, and Kaminari tried to hold his breath, squeezed his eyes shut, trying to contain all the electricity so that he wouldn't hurt his friends.

He heard a whisper in his ear.

_"Sayonara, electro boy."_

The man with the eel quirk upped the current, and the sudden influx of charges shocked Kaminari, quite literally, and the last thing the boy could think of before he passed out was_ "Sorry guys."_

Kirishima was lucky. It seemed like the villains hadn't noticed him yet, but he barely had time to reach before he saw electricity escaping from Kaminari's prone form, and quickly hardened to protect himself.

It worked, to his surprise, except that he sunk like a literal stone, shooting downwards to the bottom of the Flood Zone, the pressure on his skull increasing. He quickly released his quirk, but the water pressure clamped onto his head, into his ears, and it took all of Kirishima's willpower not to activate his quirk again and let himself shoot upwards due to his less dense form.

His veins burned, as the nitrogen bubbles in his blood expanded too quickly for him to handle, and he coughed, forgetting that he was underwater and that he couldn't regain oxygen. His vision blurred, and he desperately reached up with his aching muscles, trying to make the ascent to the surface to replenish his burning lungs. It seemed like Kaminari's attack had knocked out most of the villains, though he had shorted himself out and had shocked both Ojiro and Ashido, and Kirishima carefully grabbed onto his unconscious friends, gently pulling them along as he tried to kick to the surface, grabbing onto Kaminari's shirt with his teeth, and with his hands, Ashido's shirt and Ojiro's tail, which was closest to him.

He hated how he had to grab Ojiro by his tail, but he was unconscious, so he wouldn't feel it, right?

* * *

Asui was drying out. Her outfit, while waterproof, was definitely not fireproof. She was unlucky enough to land right on top of some burning rubble, and her hero outfit caught on fire almost immediately. She would make a mental note to inform the Support Department about that, but she had more important things on her hands. Her skin was quickly drying out, and frogs breathe through their skin while it was moist, meaning that while the human part of her body could aid in breathing, she wasn't getting enough oxygen as much as she used to. Her body was definitely not enjoying the fire and the smoke that came with it.

Uraraka didn't have as much as a problem with the fire, but she was having a horrible time with the smoke. Using her quirk to evade villains left and fight, and with the thick, grey smoke she was forced to take in when breathing, the regular nausea caused from her quirk had quickly turned into something worse. Uraraka's vision was getting blurry as she threw a beam at a set of villains, and her nausea kicked in again, making her trip over her own shoes and falling flat on the ground. She pushed herself up, ignoring the urge to throw up, as she tried her best to defend Asui, who was definitely not in any shape or form to fight.

Sero was plainly horrible in fire. His tape was somewhat comparable to plastic, but also consisted of organic material since his body produced the tape, meaning that whenever someone set his tape on fire, not only did it give off poisonous smelling gas, but there was also the stench of burning flesh, making Uraraka, and pretty much everyone else feeling sick to their stomach. Asui was definitely not doing well with the toxic gas in the air, but none of them had a choice since Sero's tape was keeping the villains somewhat at bay, flinging floating debris around and pulling others out of the way of attacks.

"Sero! Watch out!" Uraraka yelled, and Sero immediately released the tape his elbows were producing as it caught on fire.

Tokoyami, on the other hand? It was all he could do to evade attacks left and right. The fire all around them cast a nastly glow on Dark Shadow, so the poor weakened quirk couldn't do much in the harsh, blinding light caused by the fires all over the place. Dark Shadow could only stay under Tokoyami's cloak, trying to filter the air for Tokoyami and occasionally doing the same for the others if they were close enough.

But the students were in an environment that didn't suit them, while pyromaniacs, and flame throwing villains converged on them.

* * *

Yaoyorozu was cold, and that was a severe understatement. Her hero costume left nothing to imagination, with her need to have exposed skin in order to use her quirk, leaving her freezing as she was suddenly dropped into the Frost Zone. She resisted the urge to make a coat for herself; she didn't know if any of her friends were dropped in here as well, and she could see villains stalking closer and closer to her.

She felt a thump, and she turned around, seeing a set of gloves and boots beside her that was distinctively Hagakure's. Hagakure wasn't even wearing any clothes, since her Invisibility quirk didn't work on her clothes, resulting in her being pretty much naked at this point.

She heard a splash behind her, and she quickly whirled around, glad that the villains were taking their own sweet time with converging on them. Jiro had been dumped into the ice cold water surrounding the ice block they were on, and with her jacket, long pants and her speakers, they were going to drag her down, no doubt.

Yaoyorozu, with a slightly warmer Hagakure's help, managed to pull the freezing and shivering Jiro out of the icy water, and tried to evaluate the situation. Jiro's speakers were waterproof, thank goodness for that. Otherwise, Jiro could have been electrocuted by the internal circuits and they would have one less thing to defend themselves with. But Jiro's clothes were soaked, and she was definitely going to get hypothermia.

Those villains probably had ice related quirks, and Yaoyorozu knew they were cornered. Ice-cold water behind them, a group of villains in front of them, and Jiro was the only one with a ranged attack. Yaoyorozu could make metal poles, it wasn't even a good idea to go up against Todoroki with a metal pole, let alone tens of villains who were probably willing to kill. The most she could do was to make clothes to keep every warm, but that would be bulky and probably impossible to manoeuvres in. She couldn't even make something like a flamethrower in fear that the ice was thinner than she initially thought and they all fell through the melted ice, making them even more of sitting ducks.

She quickly created some grenades, and motioned for Jiro to prepare to use her quirk. If they timed it right, she could toss them and have Jiro use her quirk to denote them remotely instead of pulling a pin and having a timer. It was definitely risky, but at this point, they were already sitting ducks. They had to buy time for themselves, until a hero could come and help them.

* * *

"FUCK!"

Todoroki watched as Bakugou roared out swears left and right. They were currently in the Downpour Zone, and as drenched as they were, neither of their quirks were working right. The rain water was diluting Bakugou's sweat, and washing it away. On the other hand, the water was putting out Todoroki's fire, not to mention that the strong squalls were blowing his fire all over the place, and Todoroki couldn't even use his ice to a large extent since he would probably freeze the rain by accident to create hail, and chill the water on both him and Bakugou enough to freeze.

They were completely surrounded by villains, and they had no choice but to use hand to hand combat to defend themselves. Bakugou wasn't too bad at it, given that he mixed in hand to hand combat with the maneuverability and the versatility of his explosive quirk, but without his quirk to back it up, and Todoroki's lack of knowledge of hand to hand combat, it was all they could do to not get themselves killed. Bruises and cuts were nothing when faced with possible imminent death.

Plus, their surroundings were completely wet. Another reason Todoroki couldn't use his quirk; he would freeze both himself and Bakugou in place, leaving them as sitting ducks. Not only that, they had to take care not to slip and fall given how they were jumping and dodging all over the place.

Although the villains do seem somewhat amused by Bakugou's constant usage of choice words, so they probably weren't fighting as hard as they were capable of since they were all laughing.

* * *

Mineta, Shinsou, and Koda had found themselves stuck in the Mountain Zone. There were no animals in sight, so Koda's quirk was useless, and Shinsou's quirk wasn't a physical quirk. Mineta also couldn't carelessly use his quirk lest he got his classmates stuck, and they were currently stuck in a valley, surrounded on all sides by cliffs. Mineta could get himself out with no problem, and Aizawa had brought Shinsou rock climbing a few times so he should be fine, but Koda was going to have a little problem.

They did come up with a plan for Mineta and Shinsou to climb out, then using Shinsou's capture weapon as a rope to pull Koda out, but just at that moment, a couple of villains jumped down from their vantage point on the cliff, surrounding the three students. Mineta tried using his sticky orbs to try and stick the villains to the ground, or the cliffs, or to each other, as Shinsou desperately tried to brainwash a couple of villains to knock themselves out while fighting some others. Koda didn't have enough experience in hand to hand combat, but with his larger size, he could easily steamroll some of the dumber villains.

That was until another villain on top of the cliff started throwing boulders down on them. Mineta and Koda ended up being pinned down by the volley of rocks, while in his haste to dodge the rocks, a villain had used that opportunity to pin him down and had wrapped a piece of rope around his neck, slowly strangling the lavender haired boy.

"You're the one with the brainwashing quirk, huh? Such a villainous quirk, I wonder, how did you even manage to get into the hero course?"

* * *

Of all the people to be stuck in the Ruins Zone, it had to be Sato, Aoyama and Shoji.

There were villains everywhere. Shoji could detect them, using his quirk to create more eyes and ears, but fighting them off would be a problem. Two powerhouses, Sato and Shoji, who could not use their powers effectively with buildings in precarious positions and rubble all over the place, and Aoyama, who couldn't carelessly fire off his quirk. All of them had to be very, very careful; in the event that they dislodged something and triggered a chain reaction.

The trio of students stood, back to back, as the villains converged on them slowly. They needed a plan, and they needed one fast. Aoyama had a powerful long ranged attack, but if he missed, he could potentially bring the broken buildings and rubble tumbling down on them. Shoji and Sato also had to be careful of where they punched the villains to. They didn't even want to think about the villains purposely dislodging something in desperation, that was always a possibility as a final gambit.

"I can shoot my laser in short bursts instead of a steady stream, but it's much weaker." Aoyama stated, so that was a good start, and Shoji and Sato had no choice but to just toss the villains into the ground instead of away from them.

That plan was working out for them pretty well.

That was until the villains did something that the trio were really trying to avoid; bringing down all the precariously placed buildings down directly onto them.

* * *

Kurogiri warped back into the USJ, where he had been standing guard.

"The heroes are all on their way here, led by the Ingenium kid." He reported, eyeing the Erasure hero who was lodged into the ground, shaking as he struggled to push himself up.

"Heroes are so annoying. Who's coming?" Shigaraki asked.

"Power Loader, Present Mic, Cementoss, Snipe, Ectoplasm, Hound Dog, Midnight, Vlad King and Nezu. All the remaining teachers in UA are coming, Shigaraki. Lunch Rush and Recovery Girl aren't here for obvious reasons, but they aren't threats to our plan."

"Good. Prepare the portals. This is where the real fun starts."

* * *

_"May all teachers present, please head to the USJ."_

Ectoplasm immediately looked up, and put his marker down, and with strict orders to just complete the worksheet he had given out earlier for homework, he rushed out of the classroom, leaving the General Education students alone in the classroom.

While most of the students would have used this time to harass Midoriya, after what Midoriya had done in the Sports Festival, and Nezu's warning, no one dared to life a finger or even look in Midoriya's direction. Midoriya just buried his nose in his work, quickly finishing the questions, before flipping his notebook open to work on more sketches of support items.

He couldn't do anything now. All he could do was wait and hope that the teachers could handle what was thrown at them.

And then, he tensed up.

_The air felt wrong. That fire in his stomach blazed to life, twisting and curling uncomfortably in the depths of his very being._

Something was going on.

And suddenly, the alarms blared, just like on the day the UA barrier was destroyed and the press had entered UA.

The students scrambled out of the classroom haphazardly, though not as bad as the first time it had occurred, since the teachers had all gone through the emergency evacuation procedures after seeing utter failure of the first time. Pretty soon, all the students were standing outside UA's buildings in neat rows, separated by classes, as they murmured about what was going on.

1-A was in USJ, as far as Midoriya knew, and the second and third years were all out due to various reasons. 1-B was super confused, looking around. There were no teachers at all, all of them having left their classrooms prior to head to the USJ.

_Something was definitely going horribly wrong._

Suddenly, in front of them all, a huge portal opened, dropping hundreds of villains onto UA's lawn. Monsters and villains littered the area, and one large black one with it's brain exposed was crushing Aizawa with it's huge hand.

Not only him, but the 1-A students weren't in any better shape. Asui was on fire, Yaoyorozu, Hagakure and Jiro were freezing and shivering. Kirishima, Ashido, and Ojiro were completely drenched, while somehow looking fried, hacking and coughing all the while, puncture and electric burn marks littering their bodies. Kaminari was passed out on the ground, sparking continuously, as if he had short circuited. Uraraka and Tokoyami were covered in burn marks, and Sero was coughing harshly. Todoroki and Bakugou were completely drenched, and Bakugou was shivering, covered in a light layer of frost as he tried to warm up, and Todoroki was partially frozen by his own quirk while his other size was sizzling, like a fire doused by water. Shinsou was coughing heavily, desperately trying to untangle the rope around his neck, while Mineta and Koda were all covered in bruises. Aoyama was clutching his stomach in pain, while Shoji and Sato fell to the ground, panting, with claw marks covering their skin.

Iida, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.

Midoriya quickly loosened his tie, and palmed the small pocket knife that he kept in his pocket. This was going to come to a fight, no doubt. He stared at the man with the Decay quirk from his position at the back of the class, a silent flame of fury and anger burning in his eyes.

Shigaraki did this. He started another attack on the school. He brought four Nomus into his school, and a shit ton of villains.

Thank goodness Ryuto and Reiko were still in Nezu's office, safe from the chaos so far. But if they didn't get rid of the villains, they may decide to attack the school building itself, and Midoriya could not let that happen.

Midoriya wasn't sure what to do now. Shinsou had managed to free himself from the tangle of fibres, and was rubbing his sore neck, looking around the area. Shoji had gotten up as well, but Sato seemed to have a broken leg or something, as he clutched his leg in agony. Todoroki looked fine now, the ice having melted off, and he had made his way towards the three freezing females in an attempt to warm them up. Dark Shadow had picked up Mineta, Asui, Aoyama, and a passed out Uraraka and put them behind Tokoyami, as Koda gently helped Sato up with Ojiro's help. Ashido and Sero carefully brought the short circuiting Kaminari aside, before the students who were still conscious and able to fight turned around to face the villains, staring in horror as Aizawa was continuously smashed into the ground time and time again.

Bakugou had shaken himself dry like a pomeranian, and was facing the villains, explosions popping from his palms, and he blasted himself forwards, "You fucking villains! Die!"

He blasted the closest villain in the face with a powerful explosion, before he turned around and snapped, "Well?! Are you fucking extras just gonna sit there all day and let them kill you or are you actually gonna be useful!?"

* * *

1-B had run in to join the fight.

Or rather, those that were more suitable for fighting without their hero gear. Kendo, Kamakiri, Tokage, and Tsunotori had rushed in, with Bondo and Shishida helping to bring the knocked out 1-A students somewhere out of harm's way. Kuroiro's quirk was rather useless in broad daylight, given how small the shadows were and the fact that he was probably going to be trampled on somehow, but he had teamed up with Tokoyami and they were taking down the villains one by one, since the sun wasn't as bad as the fire glowing directly in Dark Shadow's face.

Yanagi's quirk was rather useless here, as was Awase's, so they opted to form a defence line in front of the non-hero course students, along with Shiozaki, Bondo, and Shishida, after they had returned. Koda joined in with the defence line, and Ojiro had leapt off to join the fight, though he did freeze at random times due to the electricity. Shoji wasn't in any shape to get up, so he opted to join the defence and look out for any enemies.,

Honenki had gone off to help Bakugou and Todoroki fight, as Shinsou pulled a semi-conscious Ashido and a burnt Sero back from the fighting and had Shiozaki pull them back to refrain them from injuring themselves more, before rushing into the fray himself. Monoma was rushing around, copying quirks left and, trying to help take out the villains.

Rin and Tsuburabu were blocking stray shots from hitting other students, opting to stay on defence since they had to defend over 180 students, and while the non-hero course students were being pretty useless, but they weren't running around in a frenzy and were actually staying put, so it was a lot easier for the hero course students to defend them, but it was still difficult trying to cover for such a large group of students.

Tetsutetsu and Kirishima had teamed up, somehow, and where knocking villains down, only for them to get back up again. Kaibara, with a bit of a still kinda frozen Yaoyorozu's help in making gloves to protect his hands, was mowing the villains down as quickly as they got up. Jiro and Hagakure were still freezing, and Fukidashi was trying to help warm them up with fire related onomatopoeias. Kodai and Komori were keeping a lookout, and Shoda aided Rin and Tsuburabu by knocking projectiles back at the villains with Twin Impact, but those trees were really not helping and got in the way of half the reflected projectiles.

But it was no good. Tsunotori had gotten hit with an electric shock, knocking her out, and Ojiro had finally given in to the paralysis he had been inflicted with in the Flood Zone. Shiozaki had managed to pull them back before they got even more hurt, but even then, their fighters were starting to wear out. Thirteen kids against a huge hoard of villains was really getting them nowhere. The man with a dismembered hand on his face, the misty purple man, and the two smaller monsters weren't even doing anything yet, and they were probably the true bosses behind this invasion. The hoard of villains that were brought along with them? They weren't even fodder, they were actually decent, and putting up a good fight.

"Where are the teachers!?" Monoma demanded, panting as he copied Bakugou's quirk and blasting a villain in the face, shaking as his entire body ached as he transited from quirk to quirk, his body constantly changing to accommodate the quirk finally taking its toll on him, "I thought… they were going to the USJ!?"

"They were?!" Kirishima replied, dodging a punch to the face, giving Tetsutetsu an opening to lash out, "I don't… know… we were there… then we were fighting… and then we were here…"

"Watch out!" Komori screeched, as everyone turned around, only to see that two villains had made it past the defence line, while they were busy with other villains, and they were making their way towards the General Education students. They couldn't do anything, technically, since UA did not allow quirk usage in school, with the only exception for the Hero Course during their Heroics classes, and everyone else was too far away to do anything.

Suddenly, a blur of green jumped out, nailing one villain in the face and kicking him towards the other villain. Midoriya landed on the ground, parrying away a knife that was about to stab him with a small pocket knife, before kicking one villain into the ground and the other in the back of his head, knocking them both out, having forgone the tie and UA jacket, just wearing the white UA uniform and long pants.

Komori gulped when she saw Midoriya. He still had that emotionless, void expression on his face, but his eyes, gods, his eyes were practically glowing like cold, hard emeralds. She knew it was just the unease that she felt, and the pressure that the smaller boy emanated, and the pure stress of the situation messing with her eyes, but Midoriya honestly looked terrifying, even though he was quirkless and only held one small pocket knife with him.

Midoriya rushed forward, vaulted over Shoji, before running into the fray.

"Midoriya, stay back!" Shiozaki yelled, concerned for the quirkless boy, "You can't fight them!"

Midoriya may have won the Sports Festival, but fighting against his classmates one to one while quirkless was nothing like fighting against a hoard of blood thirsty villains while quirkless.

He wouldn't stand a chance,_ or so they thought._

Some villains had decided to take on the winner of the first year stage Sports Festival, but Midoriya was perfectly capable of holding his own against five villains at a time. He dodged, paried, dishing out deadly accurate kicks and punches as he did so.

Bakugou, Kaibara, Kamakiri and Todoroki were still going strong, with Honenuki dragging villains into the ground to buy them some time. Kirishima and Monoma were starting to slow down, exhaustion from their constant quirk usage taking their toll, and Shiozaki and Rin pulled the back to rest before they dropped and became sitting ducks. Kuroiro was unfortunate to be smacked into a tree, and Dark Shadow quickly brought him back to their not-really-so-safe-anymore safe zone.

Villains had started to converge of Midoriya, as the rest of the hero course students were slowly being worn down, but Midoriya was still going strong, knocking out villains that were near him as well as defending his peers from cheap shots that the villains decided to try.

And then, almost like someone had flipped a switch, Midoriya started ploughed through the villains like a hot knife through butter, taking out villains left and right at an absurd pace. The villains were kind of helping, crashing into each other and tripping over themselves for absolutely no reason.

* * *

Something about Midoriya left Jiro confused. Her knees had buckled while she was stuck in the Frost Zone, and the only useful thing she could do was to blast villains with soundwaves from her speakers while sitting on the ground.

Midoriya fought like a well-oiled fighting machine, and while it was terrifying because _why did a quirkless kid need to learn how to fight so viciously like his life depended on it_, but also because of _how_ he fought.

She had grown up with music from a young age, knowing how to play a variety of different instruments, but the most important thing she had learnt was tempo. She found out that pretty much everyone fought with a certain tempo, an internal beat that they kept to no matter the fight. In a match, being the first to attack and to set the tempo of the fight was almost vital, because forcing someone to fight at a pace they weren't used to made it much easier. The only thing the victim to this could do was to try and pull back, to create some space, before attacking and being the one to set the pace of the fight.

Midoriya was the same, but not exactly. He fought at his own pace, and changed his pace to adapt to other people's fighting tempo, which was impressive in itself. He could handle fights of all different types of speeds, so it would be difficult for anyone to force him out of his comfort zone.

Those villains were idiots, letting Midoriya set the pace of the fight, though to be honest, unless they knew about tempos, it would be difficult to fight against.

But then, something changed. Midoriya's tempo seemed to stay constant, except that it was fluctuating continuously, subtly, speeding up and slowing down just the tiniest bit that it was pretty much noticeable while close up. It confused her, her sense of balance was off even just _looking_ at the fight from a distance, and it was no wonder that the villains were also unconsciously changing the tempo they moved at, except that unknown to them, their bodies were already moving at a different tempo, which resulted in them tripping over each other like a bunch of idiots. He didn't even need to use his pocket knife against so many villains, and was just using his fists and feet as he twirled around graciously and mowed down villains like a machine gun.

The only problem was that even some of the students were getting dragged into it. Kamakiri had literally tripped over his own feet, luckily crashing into a villain and taking her out.

But this was something that Midoriya had not used in the Sports Festival. He wasn't even fighting to his full capacity, and he had mowed both Bakugou and Todoroki down.

That was the scary part; he didn't need to fight the strongest students in 1-A with his full strength.

_Who knew what else the boy was hiding up his sleeve?_

* * *

Shigaraki watched the ensuing fight with mild interest in his eyes. He would let the kids fight, let them think they could win. But the second he ordered the Nomus to enter the picture, it was the end. Eraser Head was no longer a threat, the man was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and the black Nomu was just sitting on him, content.

But the second that Midoriya entered the fight, everything changed. Midoriya felt… familiar, somehow, but Shigaraki couldn't put his finger on it. That fighting style definitely looked familiar, and it was not the one that the boy had used while fighting during the Sports Festival.

He decided it was time to step in, figure out just how Midoriya fit into this little puzzle. Plus, he was mowing down the villains much more effectively than his peers, even while quirkless, so that curiosity to figure out what power ups Midoriya was using was gnawing at Shigaraki.

But he needed an opening. He didn't want to go near Honenuki, Tokage, Todoroki, or Bakugou, since the first could go underground, the second could split apart, and the other two have somewhat ranged attacks. The Nomus and Kurogiri could definitely deal with them, and if worse comes to worse, even he was fast enough to beat them..

He could definitely deal with Kendo, Shinsou, Tetsutetsu and Kaibara now, but they were all busy with villains, and Shigaraki was content with standing back and watching the chaos.

Until Shinsou finally crumpled, almost being strangled, tanking hits from villains and exhaustion taking hold as the boy was nailed harshly with a knee to the stomach, and Shigaraki struck. He weaved between the few remaining villains, his hands outstretched, aiming for Shinsou's neck. The boy wouldn't even know what hit him.

Shinsou literally had no idea what had hit him. He was trying to desperately catch his breath as a villain got a lucky hit in, possibly breaking a rib or two, before something had crashed into him like a freight train. He was literally smacked aside, and Shinsou barely had the energy to stop himself from rolling aside.

That was, until he heard a chorus of yells from several of his classmates, but he couldn't really make out what they were saying.

Shinsou winced as his muscles burned and shrieked in agony, but he still pushed himself up to see just what was going on.

He was _not _expecting to see Midoriya lying on the ground, where he stood, blood pouring out from his back, biting his lip and squeezing his shut as Shigaraki thrust his hands into Midoriya's back.

* * *

Midoriya didn't know why he had decided to rush in to defend Shinsou. Probably because the boy had stood up for him, and had tried to befriend him, but Midoriya knew that the friendship would never last. He would wait, try and break down Midoriya's walls, and the second that Midoriya let him in, would break his already broken heart, just like everyone else had done.

But he was still more important than him. He had an awesome quirk, he was a decent guy, he didn't deserve to die to a piece of shit like Shigaraki. He was more important than Midoriya; Midoriya was just a useless, worthless Deku.

He shoved Shinsou aside, and felt Shigaraki place both his hands on his back, shoving Midoriya to the ground in the process.

And it burned.

Shigaraki's hands disintegrated his shirt, dig into his back, destroyed his spine and his insides. Midoriya bit his lip to prevent himself from making a sound.

_I've snapped my neck countless of times before. Endeavor's punched me all the way through before. This is nothing._

And he could feel his stomach regenerating, his back slowly fixing itself, his ribs healing itself, and there was that initial flash of fear that someone would see him healing himself and realise that he had a quirk.

But lucky for him, Shigaraki's disintegration quirk worked faster than his regeneration, and his back was probably so bloody and mangled that no one could tell the difference. At least, Shigaraki seemed amused that he wasn't screaming in agony to noticed him healing.

Until he finally felt the regeneration spluttering to a halt, like a car that had run out of fuel, and that feeling of fear died down.

Midoriya exhaled. The skin on his back was definitely destroyed, but Shigaraki's hands had moved during the process of disintegrating him and was no longer directly pressing on his spine. He wasn't sure if all his insides were intact, but that was okay; it wasn't like he could die from them anyways. His back still hurt like hell, but it was manageable. It was better that suffocating in his own puke while being burrito wrapped with thick, stuffy blankets with an unbearable weight sitting on him, pressing down on him, preventing him from breathing.

A foot to the stomach sent him rolling a fair distance away from Shigaraki, rubbing Midoriya's back against the grass and ground, but once he came to a halt, Midoriya tried to push himself up, stumbling slightly but managing to regain his balance, ignoring the looks of horror pretty much everyone was shooting him.

"Midoriya Izuku. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much of you, but you seem like a lot of fun!" Shigaraki cackled, eyeing Midoriya with a glint in his eyes, before shooting forwards again. Midoriya ignored the burning sensation on his back, and tried to kick Shigaraki, only for Shigaraki to catch his foot firmly with his hands and disintegrate it, painfully and agonisingly slowly. Midoriya didn't even make a single sound as his skin peeled off, followed by his muscles as they disintegrated to dust.

Feeling it was one thing, but seeing its effects first hand was, in some masochistic way, somewhat intriguing. Midoriya found himself wanting to analyse that quirk, figure out how it worked. Seeing it work on metal, and seeing it work on organic material was two completely different things. He wanted to know, he needed to know; that was the only way he could be useful to Nezu, _by knowing._

"He's gonna die at this rate!" Tokage reformed and yelled, "We should go help him!"

She almost got whacked in the face by a fire punch, but Kamakiri covered for her, "Focus on the villains first. If we can't even take them down, we can't make out way to him to help him."

Just at that moment, the damned portal decided to throw a few more villains into the fray, as Bakugou cursed to the heavens.

Midoriya decided that it was enough, and pulled his leg back towards him. Shigaraki promptly lost his balance, and stumbled forwards, allowing Midoriya to twist his injured leg, ignoring the pain that flared through his veins. Supporting himself with his arms, Midoriya kicked Shigaraki away using his free foot, knocking the man away from him.

_Thank goodness I know how to fight with broken bones…_ Midoriya thought to himself.

_Five year old Midoriya swung his foot the wrong way, and he felt something break as his foot made contact with the punching bag. He fell to the ground, clutching his leg in agony._

_"Come on, Izuku. Just twenty more kicks." Hisashi encouraged, and Midoriya looked up at him with tears in his eyes, "Papa... my foot..."_

_Hisashi merely sighed, "Do it with the broken foot, Izuku. Try and block out the pain._

_Midoriya stared at his father his shock, and Hisashi bent down to ruffle his son's hair._

_"We don't have a choice, Izuku. You don't have a quirk. If your body fails on your, you'll be completely defenceless. Villains aren't going to care if your foot is broken or not. Fighting and making an injury worse is better than dying. You need to get used to the pain, block it out, and continue fighting. I promise you, finish up the exercise, then we'll go see a doctor about your foot, okay?"_

_Midoriya nodded, wincing as he stood back up, trying to ignore the pain that shot up from his leg, and kicked the punching bag once more, trying to repress his screams of pain as his injured foot made contact with the punching bag._

"Interesting! You're the mini boss, I see!" Shigaraki cackled, "You know, something about you is familiar, but I don't know why. Something annoying, probably. Have we met before, some time in the past? Are you some kind of recurring main character in my life?"

Kurogiri warped beside him, whispering to him, "The heroes got out faster than expected."

"Yes, they think they got the upper hand, but we'll still crush those NPCs! Let them call for backup! The students are falling, we'll need a new challenge soon! The Nomu's need something to play with."

* * *

Nezu knew that something was going to go wrong. But he was thinking that the students on the buses got caught up in a villain attack, or some of the third year hero students were involved in something during their internships and the situation had escalated. All the teachers that were going along with the second and third years had strict instructions to reports back to him every hour, or when something out of the ordinary cropped up. Even if they were stuck in traffic for longer than usual. Nezu wanted, no, he needed to know what was going on. Midoriya had told him that he had the same uneasy feeling, so it was possible that this was something completely unrelated to UA, but still, the security systems that were supposed to conduct checks to ensure that everything was alright once every ten minutes had been changed to once every thirty seconds; increasing the rate further would just put the entire system into overdrive and cause it to overheat, and Nezu could not let that happen. Nezu didn't care that he was getting annoying alerts that everything in UA was going along normally every thirty seconds rather than every ten minutes; the safety of his students were more important than whether he was getting annoyed or not.

And an attack on the USJ was the very last thing that Nezu had expected. After all, when sane people fail, they usually don't go about doing the same thing again because it was probably going to fail again. Seeing how successful Hosu was, Nezu didn't think that they would attack the USJ again, and would move on to other locations.

Everything seemed to be okay, until Yamada had run into his office, Iida by his side, telling him that the USJ was under attack. He had broadcasted the announcement to all the teachers, which were pretty much just the first year teachers since _everyone else was out and not in UA_, told Shezenji to get ready in case anything happened, and forced Iida to tell him everything that had happened.

He did find it weird that everyone was warped away in the USJ after Iida escaped, but seeing as how Iida had noted that the portal man had stayed to fight Thirteen, it was highly likely that all the students were scattered around the USJ, which was bad no matter how he looked at it. He temporarily chalked up the weirdness as Iida being too fast to be warped away, but he was certain that this wasn't the plan at all.

The second all the teachers had made it to the USJ, they saw Thirteen's broken form, the monster destroying Aizawa by tossing him around like a limp ragdoll, as villains littered the central plaza. They heard screams and shouts from all over the place, boulders falling, fires raging, explosions ringing out.

Nezu swore he heard the emergency alarm ringing in the distance.

_And suddenly it was all silent._

No one was in sight, not a single villain, not a single student.

Only Thirteen, lying on the ground, injured, the only remnant, the only reminder that something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.

And this was something he absolutely hated; having no information at all. Without anything to analyse, without any plans to pick apart, he was useless. While Nezu could defend himself, he wasn't a front field fighter, and would never be one. He could make plans and analyse his opponents, but he couldn't do any of that without any fucking data.

And there was that other thing he hated; people assuming he had an unlimited brain capacity to remember everything. His quirk was called High Spec, god dammit, which was literally short for High Speculation, meaning that he could analyse and put data together to create a theory that had an extremely high chance of being correct, _not_ that his analysis were perfect, or that he could remember everything that he was told word for word.

His quirk was like Shiretoko's; he could take in a lot of information, but feed him too much information and he wouldn't know what data is unnecessary, and he would end up analysing everything down to their details and in the process, overlook something that could potentially be important.

He just makes the _speculation_ that makes the most amount of sense and is _highly_ likely to be right. It doesn't mean he's always right, he was just right most of the time if given sufficient data. And it was impossible to know everything; the one constant in the world was that everything was changing. He may have sufficient data to make the correct speculation, but the whole thing could be wrong the very next second due to the change in some small, random variables here and there. The world wasn't a computer game where every single thing, every single variable was included and coded into the game; no one knew what would really happen in the future.

And Nezu had this problem where he whenever he was given any information; he wanted to squeeze it dry, analyse it down to its finest details, just to make sure that he didn't miss anything important before noting everything down in a journal and just being done with the information given to him because if he didn't do so, he'll have to keep referring back to data from ages ago and it would just pile up and create an even bigger mess that would be utter shit to sort through. Sieve through the entirety of the data and then, just be done with it. He didn't have the time to go through every single drop of information throw at him over and over again; there was just too many things to do without running the risk of burning out.

People just assumed he was like some kind of supercomputer, able to retain everything that was told to him, able to process everything perfectly, able to remember everything. But even supercomputers have a limit to their RAM and memory, even though it was much higher than regular computers. Supercomputers even had defragmentation processes where they physically organize the data it has, and sorts them into the smallest number of continuous regions, much like him and his note taking.

Nezu growled to himself in frustration, as he turned around, only to find that the doors slammed shut, locking in place.

A hulking figure with an exposed brain lumbered up to them, screeching.

"Vlad King, Cementoss, Snipe, kill that thing and protect Iida and Thirteen. Aim for the exposed brain." Nezu ordered, a silent fury burning in his eyes as he quickly formulated a plan, "Midnight, Mic, Ectoplasm, Hound Dog, check to ensure that there are no students or villains left, and if you need to, make sure that the monster stays here and doesn't go to the other zones. Power Loader, come with me, we need to go to the control room."

None of the heroes objected. When Nezu used that kind of tone, he expected to be obeyed, because things were seriously out of hand and he had come up with the fastest and most effective method with all the information he had.

"Wait.. kill!?" Iida spluttered, "You're heroes… right? You don't ... you shouldn't kill -"

Nezu snapped, "Change of plans, Iida, follow us. I'll explain as we go along."

Iida followed, not wanting to anger the principal any further, as Nezu hopped from Ishiyama's shoulder into Maijima's, and they made the trek to the control room.

"Right now, all your friends back in the main UA building are in danger. Over two hundred students now are at the mercy of these villains, and this thing is literally a brain dead monster, just like the ones in Hosu. It's literally an overpowered genetically modified undead zombie that probably only takes orders from a select few people. This place was reinforced to contain villains on the inside, that means we can't just blast out way out, plus we need to take out that monster or it will just be more of a threat to your friends."

Iida nodded at Nezu's explanation; it made sense, and he felt sorry for making Nezu explain it to him even though he was already pretty upset over this.

"I knew something was going to happen, why didn't I think that they would attack the USJ again!?" Nezu growled, running his paws through the fur on his head in frustration, as Maijima came up to the control room, and easily knocking out the lone villain inside it.

"Dammit, our systems are hacked." Maijima growled, "It's going to take some time for me to get through the firewall -"

"Give it to me." Nezu hissed, and Maijima backed away, scared of the angry principal, giving Nezu access to the control board. He tapped away at the keyboard, accessing a protocol that Maijima was sure did not disable the USJ's security system, and he couldn't help but ask, "Uh… Nezu, that's not the pathway to -"

The lights flicked back on. All the facilities in the USJ promptly shut off, and the door snapped open in an instant. Nezu tossed the keyboard aside angrily, and Iida looked around in amazement.

"Go back down and tell everyone that we need to get back to UA as fast as possible, but if the monster is still there, keep out of sight until it's safe to do so." Nezu ordered, as Iida was much faster than both himself and Maijima. Iida saluted, and raced off, leaving Nezu to hop back onto Maijma's shoulders as they made their way back down.

"Emergency disable protocol. I added it a couple of days ago into the programs of every area in UA to disable any facility in case we get trapped in it, but in order to keep it hidden, the code had to be very short and could not be connected to UA's main systems or the signal will be easily detectable. I can only disable a facility if I'm in it physically. Only I know about it, now you know about it." Nezu grumbled in frustration.

"Stop beating yourself up over it. We all know that you're not perfect; it's okay to make mistakes. This just happened to be a horrible mistake, but you've bought us some time given how you had a personal emergency protocol that the villains overlooked and no one else knew about." Maijima tried to comfort Nezu, resisting the urge to pat him on the head because Nezu would definitely not appreciate the gesture.

* * *

Even with an injured leg, Midoriya was a beast in fights.

Shigaraki was trying to attack him again, but Midoriya was evading all his attempts to land a hit on him. Both of them lunged at each other, side stepped, twisted, turned, attacked and defended, and if their lives weren't at stake, Tetsutetsu was sure he would be mesmerized.

Midoriya had already shown himself to be a competent fighter, being able to fight blinded and could take on a horde of villains on his own, but being able to swallow the immense pain he must be feeling from his back and leg, and still being able to fight through it and still be on par with what must be one of the fastest villains he had seen that did not possess a speed quirk was on a whole new manly level.

Midoriya had managed to land a hit on Shigaraki's leg, before somehow noticing that a villain was about to hit Tokoyami behind, and had decided that defending Tokoyami was more important, opting to knock the villain down instead. This, however, had left Midoriya open to an attack by Shigaraki, and red eyed villain clamped his hand down on Midoriya's arm, partially disintegrating it before Midoriya managed to kick Shigaraki in the sides to dislodge his grip.

But Tetsutetsu could tell that Midoriya was tiring. The boy was starting to pant, and sweat dripped from his brow, though Tetsutetsu couldn't tell if it was from fighting in a uniform or from the fighting. But his injuries looked horrible; his entire back was covered in his own blood, dying his shirt red, and he could see the muscles of Midoriya's arm and leg, maybe even a bit of bone if he looked properly.

And seriously, Midoriya was being very manly, but had absolutely zero self preservation. He just wanted to tell, "Stop defending others and look after yourself!" after Midoriya had shoved Kendo away from an incoming attack, only to be nailed in the back, right where his injury was, and Shigaraki used that distraction to shove his hand into Midoriya stomach and shoulder, before kicking him right where he had just disintegrated, sending Midoriya tumbling to Shoji's feet.

Much to the larger boy's horror, Midoriya arm shook, and the smaller boy winced, desperately trying to push himself up, even as blood dripped off his tiny frame.

Shigaraki stalked closer and closer, snapping his fingers and ordering the monsters, the _Nomus_, as he called them, to attack. The students were all busy with their own fight, but the two smaller monstrosities shot forwards, forcing the students to turn their attention away from Shigaraki. The Nomu's were definitely not as strong as the ones from Hosu, but even with the eleven remaining hero course students fighting, they couldn't even put a dent on them. Luckily for them, the Nomu's seemed content being punching bags, just smacking some of the students away lightly every once in a while. The larger, black one was still sitting on Aizawa, much to Shinsou anger, but the lavender haired boy didn't have the energy nor the strength to do anything about it.

"Tell me, Midoriya Izuku, why do you even bother trying?" Shigaraki asked, and Midoriya tried to look up at him. "The world took everything away from you, ripped you to shreds, putting you back together just to tear you down again. Everyone thinks that they were better than you, everyone betrayed you, broke your heart time and time again, and crushed the broken pieces underneath their feet. I can see it in your eyes, and I've seen those eyes before. I see them in myself every time I look at myself in a mirror. We're not too different, are we, Midoriya Izuku?"

"Leave him alone!" Shiozaki growled, attempting to attack Shigaraki with her vines, but Shigaraki just grabbed them and disintegrated them in no time flat.

"You're just an NPC, don't interfere." Shigaraki snapped, before turning his attention back Midoriya, who was still trying to push himself up, "Oh well, you're kinda out of the picture now, aren't you? I guess I don't have to bother about you anymore. Kinda impressive how you're still conscious though, but eh. You probably have more Health Points than I expected."

Shigaraki started to rush at Shiozaki and Awase. Tsuburabu desperately created a Solid Air barrier, but Shigaraki just smashed through it without a problem. Yanagi tried to control the rubble, but the smaller piece went completely ignored that Shigaraki easily disintegrated the larger pieces, and continued making his way towards the hero students' defence line.

_No, I can't let them get hurt… They don't deserve to get hurt…_ Midoriya thought, and with a desperate, final shove of energy, he pushed himself up and lunged forward. Shigaraki brought his arms out to disintegrate him, but Midoriya ignored the pain that shot up his injured foot as he twisted, grabbing Shigaraki's arm with his good hand.

Shigaraki's other hand shot out, aimed directly at him, but Midoriya swerved, evading the hand clearly meant to disintegrate his face and clamped his teeth down on Shigaraki's wrist.

Shigaraki hissed in pain as Midoriya's sharp teeth dug into his flesh, though he was well aware that while Midoriya probably had powerful jaws, he definitely didn't have enough power to break anything; he could only grab his hand and inflict pain, but that was about it. And he could tell that Midoriya was getting desperate, and was doing everything, anything he could to protect his peers.

Midoriya pulled him towards him, digging his knee into Shigaraki's gut, before he flipped the villain over completely, smashing him into the ground. Shigaraki picked himself off the ground in anger, as Rin stared at Midoriya's shaking form, unsure of whether to be horrified that he was getting himself torn apart, or amazed that Midoriya was still standing.

Midoriya took a deep breath. He reached out, and found that mental switch, and flipped it. His head cleared, no longer foggy with pain, and he glared at Shigaraki. Unknown to him, his pupils had contracted as he focused on the villain right in front of him, as everything faded into a dull buzz in the background.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and Shigaraki jumped back just in time before he got hit by a bullet.

* * *

Nezu was undoubtedly pissed when he heard about the attack on the USJ. He was upset when he realised that the attack was just a ruse, a ruse to draw the teachers away from UA. He was even more angry when he found out that their systems had been hacked and bugged, and that the attack was probably planned on that very day when most of the staff and more experienced students were gone. That damned thing about All Might was probably even staged just to lure him away from UA.

But when they returned to UA, when he saw his students injured, trying to protect those who couldn't protect themselves, that the villains were hurting them, that pissed Nezu off even more.

And upon seeing Midoriya, the poor child and vigilante who probably suffered more that most heroes did in their lifetimes, bloodied and battered, and yet, still trying to desperately to protect his classmates, rage bubbled up from his gut.

_His kid was getting hurt. The vigilante he had befriended, the boy that he took under his wing, the child that he had promised to protect..._

He had failed. Midoriya was hurt because UA's security wasn't good enough, he was hurt because Nezu failed to think, to consider that the villains would choose to attack the USJ once again.

He couldn't let him get even more hurt than he already is.

"Ectoplasm, Midnight, Hound Dog, evacuate the students. Mic, Snipe, Power Loader, go help the students deal with the monsters. Cementoss, leave Thirteen here and go help them fight, I already called Recovery Girl and she'll be here soon. Vlad King, go help Izuku get away from the hand guy. Iida, help get your friends out of there." Nezu ordered.

Snipe had immediately aimed a shot at Shigaraki, creating some space between the villain and the injured boy, but his attention was immediately taken away as one of the smaller Nomus charged at him. Ectoplasm had created copies of himself, and was slowly ushering the non-hero course students away, and Nezu looked at his phone and growled.

He had called for help, but they weren't here yet.

_Why the heck were they so god damned slow!?_

Nezu watched the fights, unable to do anything. He didn't have the physical power or mobility to fight off villains without any weapons and equipment; he could only defend himself with his claws and sharp teeth, and there was no way he was going to ask Yaoyorozu to make something for him to use. The poor girl looked like she was suffering from hypothermia already.

Now that the teacher had taken the Nomu's attention off the students, the villains had moved in. The villains that the students were dealing with weren't just simple fodder; they weren't strong, but they knew how to use their quirks effectively and proved to be a challenge for the students. Bakugou and Todoroki were wearing out fast, and the villains that Honeuki had dragged into the soil were starting to free themselves. Kendo was running low on stamina, and Kamakiri and Tokoyami were going to drop soon, as they were surrounded, and Tetsutetsu and an exhausted Shinsou were trying to help an equally exhausted Tokage away from the chaos.

The Nomus were just toying with the students, but they were definitely not playing around when going against heroes. They were taking on the heroes effectively, but Ishiyama's cement walls were definitely slowing them down, giving Maijima, Yamada, and Snipe ample opportunities to whittle away at them.

Midoriya had somehow decided to engage Shigaraki again, weaving between Shigaraki's attempts to disintegrate him, and lashing out with kicks with deadly accuracy as he twisted and turned, moving like he was dancing.

But all that action just allowed Nezu to assess Midoriya's physical state completely. His back was disintegrated, and bleeding heavily. His stomach, shoulder, arm and leg were also disintegrated, but while they weren't as bad as his back, it was still horrible to see Midoriya dripping blood like a leaky faucet.

And suddenly, Shigaraki tripped over his own two feet and crashed into the ground for some reason. He immediately got back up, and attempted to attack again, only for him to miss by a wide berth as Midoriya dodged his attack.

Instead of trying again, Shigaraki stood up, and laughed.

"Ah. That's why you're so familiar. I couldn't really tell during the Sports Festival, but observing you in Hosu, and observing you here… You have the exact same fighting style that somehow allows you throw your opponents off balance. The same desperation to protect anyone who wasn't yourself."

Shigaraki looked at Midoriya straight in the eye, as his next statement made Nezu's blood run cold.

"You're Void, aren't you, Midoriya Izuku?"


	21. Chapter 21 - The monster you made me

Midoriya stared at Shigaraki with a completely blank expression, as the villain continued to cackle.

"You are, aren't you. I wasn't expecting you to be here, Void. But now I can take out two birds with one stone. Double the EXP, you might say!"

Midoriya merely kept his gaze on the villain, as he heard Ectoplasm herding the students away some distance behind him, as well as carrying some of the injured and knocked out hero course students away. He heard Snipe firing bullets at a Nomu, Yamada and Kan trying to take them down, Ishiyama trying to slow the Nomu's down, Shuzenji treating Thirteen and the rest of the students, Nezu barking out orders left and right to Maijima, and Kayama to round up all the fallen villains and save the students who were still fighting.

Midoriya was well aware that he wasn't fighting at full power, and this was on purpose.

After all, he had to keep an eye out for all the other villains and students that were fighting all around him, and he couldn't pour all his focus into the fight. It had never crossed his mind to hold back simply because he wanted to hide his vigilante identity; that was just illogical.

He had held back during the Sports Festival, but he didn't want to break everyone's bones and utterly humiliate them in front of the entire world. It was a logical course of action that allowed everyone to benefit.

But now, the teachers were here. The pros who could handle themselves better and weren't on the verge of collapse. They could take care of themselves, right?

He needed to hurt Shigaraki, hurt him badly enough, but not damage his jaw, or he wouldn't be able to talk and order his Nomu around. He needed to hurt him and annoy him to the point of frustration so that he would get his stupid Nomu to turn its attention away from Aizawa and to himself instead.

Aizawa's life was far more important than his. He would gladly give his life up for the downed pro hero, if he were able to die in the first place.

So it wouldn't hurt to go full throttle, wouldn't it? He couldn't die from snapping his neck multiple times, or getting a hole burnt through him; blood loss would probably not do anything to him. He kept his focus on Shigaraki, before he shot forwards, aiming a jab at Shigaraki's side.

* * *

Todoroki didn't know what to think when he heard Shigaraki's statement. He was busy freezing several villains in place, when Shigaraki's voice rang out.

_Midoriya was Void? Midoriya was the one that knew about his past? That knew about Enji? The one that had saved him and Iida from Stain? The one that his dad had fucking torched!?_

He didn't want to believe it, that Midoriya was the one his father tried to kill, that he was the same one that tried to encourage him to use his fire.

Until Midnight knocked the villains in his vicinity out, and he was allowed to take a breather and observe the ongoing fight between Midoriya and the man covered in hands that had introduced himself as the leader of the League of Villains, the one that he heard someone call Shigaraki.

He had considered the fight between Midoriya and Bakugou as a total brutal annihilation of the blonde pomeranian, but this, this was true brutality. Midoriya, beaten and battered and pretty much dripping blood like leaky faucet, suddenly gave off this menacing aura that made Todoroki freeze in his tracks. It was like the one Midoriya exuded during the Sports Festival, while defending Shinsou, while fighting against Bakugou, except that it felt infinitely stronger.

He wasn't even anywhere near Midoriya, nor was he Midoriya's intended target, and yet, Todoroki felt like he was suffocating, his throat tightening for absolutely no reason as he observed Midoriya from a distance.

Then, Midoriya threw himself at Shigaraki in an instant, faster than Todoroki could process, aiming for his side, at the villain was also similarly frozen in place. Midoriya expertly twisted on the ankle that Shigaraki had partially disintegrated, swiftly ducking under a disintegrating palm to his face, and nailed his heel into the back of Shigaraki's knee.

Shigaraki's leg buckled, and Midoriya took that opportunity to land on his arms and swing his body, kicking Shigaraki directly in the face and knocking him backwards.

As frail and skinny as Shigaraki looked, the villain was much more resilient than anyone had expected, and could actually take a few hits, and got right back up.

And then there was Midoriya. Todoroki had no idea how he was still standing, given the extent of his injuries, let alone leaping around landing attacks like it was nobody's business.

Midoriya proceeded to punch Shigaraki, but he managed to dodge it in time, and tried to grab Midoriya's hand. Midoriya immediately pulled back, causing Shigaraki to overexerted and lose his balance, leaving him open to a knee in the stomach. He immediately put his foot on the ground, and whacked Shigaraki's back with his injured foot.

Shigaraki stumbled forwards, falling to the ground, slamming his chin against the ground, before he scrambled to his feet once again.

* * *

_This shouldn't be happening._

Shigaraki felt his entire body tense up, no, freeze up. Void was just a quirkless General Education student. There was no way a kid like that should be exuding that kind of pressure, let alone a kid who was seemingly half dead.

Something had changed. Void's eyes seemed to glow under the shadows cast by his hair, his pupils slit, staring at him like he wanted to tear him apart. They were exactly like name, empty, endless voids of green, and Shigaraki found it hard to breathe, to comprehend what was even going on.

And then, before he could even process the change, Void was on him. Shigaraki hastily tried to defend himself, but Void swiftly evaded his attack and whacked him in the knee. And no matter how much Shigaraki tried, he couldn't even land a single hit on the small teenager as he leapt about, twisting past his attempts to attack in ways that should aggravate every single wound he had.

This wasn't Midoriya Izuku. It couldn't be Midoriya Izuku. Midoriya Izuku was a simple, quirkless, General Education student, who is somehow stronger and much harder to fight against than the Hero Course students.

This being in front of him was a _monster_, an unfeeling, emotionless fighting machine _that fought with not only broken bones but a broken and bleeding body._

Shigaraki could barely keep up with him. Void weaved around him effortlessly, and no matter how hard Shgaraki tried, Void's movements just threw him completely off balance. Shigaraki had shifted his attention from attacking to defending, trying his best to dodge Void's attempts to focus his attacks on his joints.

But he knew he couldn't dodge forever. Dodging wasn't his forte, attacking was. Shigaraki was used to being able to control the pace of his fights, but somehow, Void had his fighting rhythm wrapped about his little finger, controlling the pace that he fought at however he pleased, forcing him off balance as and when he liked.

Shigaraki snarled, as he tripped over his feet again, and used that opportunity to roll away from Void, creating some distance between the vigilante and himself.

The next thing he knew, there was a knife flying at his face.

* * *

_"Remember, Izuku." Hisashi gestured to the beach of garbage and trash in Dagobah Municipal Beach Park Beach, "On a battlefield, anything can be a weapon. No one is going to make sure that the fight is fair; you have to balance the playing field yourself."_

_Hisashi hooked his foot under a decently sized rock, tossing it into the air and kicking it out to sea in one swift movement, "Always keep an eye out. Most people use weapons to attack with the upper body. Usually, unless a person's quirk is related to their legs or their legs are armed, most people would use their hands, and even then, their arms are usually required to support their body. It's better to keep your options open; kicking rocks or any other random trash and being able to aim them at the soft spots can get you out of a pinch."_

_Six year old Midoriya nodded in understanding. No wonder his dad had asked him to wear his boots instead of his normal shoes._

_"If you can learn to do it right, it opens up a lot of options. Sand, rocks, metal poles, fallen knives. We'll start uh... with this."Hisashi dug around in the trash, and pulled out a very deflated volleyball, and placed it in a clearing of sand, "Now, see the tip of your shoes? Extend your foot, and try to slip it under the ball, and flick your ankle upwards quickly. You should be able to get the ball airborne."_

_It took a couple of tries for Midoriya to understand what Hisashi meant, but in about half an hour he could kick the ball upwards, but it just flew all over the place. Yet, Hisashi just looked at him with pride on his face when Midoriya turned to get some sort of confirmation from his father._

_"Alright, good job, Izuku. Practice the movements a bit more, and we'll work on getting the ball up straight."_

Midoriya expertly hooked his foot under a knife that one of the villains had been using, flicking it up in the air. He aimed a kick at the handle, and sent the knife rocketing in Shigaraki's direction. Shigaraki dodged it, but Midoriya used that opportunity to get in close and smack his elbow into Shigaraki's throat, knocking the wind out of him, as the dismembered hand that was located on his face fell off.

Shigaraki's blood red eyes glowed with anger, and he snarled from his position on the floor, coughing as he did so while desperately reaching for his deceased father's hand, "Nomu!"

Midoriya, as fast and as skilled as he was, didn't even get a chance to even twitch. He didn't even feel the monster move. One moment, the large, black Nomu was sitting on Aizawa like it was a boulder, and the very next moment, the Nomu's fist was slammed into his back, right where Shigaraki had disintegrated him, smashing his entire body against the ground.

Midoriya's jaw snapped shut as his chin met the ground, and the pain that Midoriya had pushed away slammed into him. Midoriya bit his lip to prevent himself from letting out a whimper of pain, and desperately tried to push himself up.

Except that through the pain, he didn't notice the Nomu rearing up to attack again, and once more, his entire being was slammed into the ground, before the Nomu stepped down on his arm. He was pretty damned sure that the monster had snapped his ribs, and the arm that hadn't been disintegrated by Shigaraki was a meat sack of broken bones at this point, and he couldn't stop himself from spitting out some blood.

* * *

"Keep them occupied! Ectoplasm, get Aizawa out of there and go help Izuku!" Nezu yelled.

_Where the hell were Kamui Woods, Death Arms and Ryukyu? They were the ones that had responded to his emergency broadcast signal. Or All Might for that matter!?_

Speak of the devil, and they shall appear. Nezu's phone started vibrating in his paws as he saw the huge body of Takeyama walking towards UA in the distance.

_"Nezu, we're on our way."_ Nishiya's voice rang out, _"We're bringing Mt Lady with us as well, since she happened to be nearby. We should be there… uh… now… OH MY GOD DEATH ARMS IT'S THE MONSTERS FROM HOSU!"_

_"I can just stomp on them, right?"_

_"NO DON'T STEP ON THEM MT LADY THEY'RE STRONGER THAN THEY LOOK!"_

Nezu wasn't amused by the fact that he heard Nishiya shouting twice, once from Takeyama's palms as she easily stepped over UA's gates, and the second time through the phone. Heroes shouldn't be panicking in the face of any situation, Nishiya should know that. Maybe he should drill it into the hero once again like he had done when he was a student in UA.

He promptly hung up, as Tatsuma leapt down from Takeyama's humongous palms and turned into her dragon form immediately. She slammed into one of the Nomu's that Ishiyama and Yamada were fighting. Her much larger size let her grapple with the Nomu evenly, allowing Ishiyama and Yamada to disengage and fight off the straggler villains in the distance.

The teachers' fight with the Nomus had pretty much leveled the trees near UA's entrance, giving Tatsuma more room to fight. Takeyama had the other Nomu in her hand, though she was wincing in pain as the Nomu bit and scratched at her hand with insanely sharp teeth. She clenched her fists shut, trying to restrain the wriggling Nomu as best as she could.

"See this, Void?" Shigaraki cackled, as he placed the hand back on his face, much to Nezu's anger, "This Nomu was made to fight All Might! You think that you can take him on!?"

"Wait, Void's here?" Nishiya cursed under his breath, as he picked up a couple of villains and slammed them to the ground, "Dammit. We need to get him out of here."

Nezu saw Nishiya wince as he saw the Nomu pick the kid up, before slamming him into the ground once again, as a sickening crack rang out, this time, coming from the boy's leg.

"Cementoss! Put up a wall between the kids and the fight!" Nezu ordered, looking around erratically, trying to see if there was any other effective way to save Midoriya besides waiting for Yagi to appear.

"You're quirkless, Void. Even with a quirk, you'll be no match for Nomu!" Shigaraki cackled, as Midoriya still tried his hardest to get up even with the weight of the Nomu on top of him, "Just give up! It's game over for you! Your Health Points are depleted, you don't have any items to use, and the rest of your party is occupied! This is the final boss!"

A sonic boom was heard, as a voice echoed out, "Do not fear, for I am here!"

Someone, shot out of the sky and slammed into the Nomu that was sitting on Midoriya.

* * *

"So, if we attack here, we can flush them out of their hideout, and -"

_"You have a call! You have a call!"_

Yagi promptly turned red as his phone rang, and Tsukauchi laughed at Yagi's ringtone. Yagi whipped the phone out of his pocket, and his eyes widened when he saw what it was.

"Shit. I'll have to go back to UA, Nao. Nezu sent out an emergency signal. Something's going on." Yagi quickly pocketed his phone, and looked around for a deserted alleyway where he could turn into his hero form without being seen.

"Go. We'll talk later." Tsukauchi nodded, "I'll get a squadron of police to UA as well."

"Thank you." Yagi nodded, as he rushed out of his seat, and stumbling into a dark alleyway. He promptly transformed into his hero form, and leapt into the air, and with one more powerful leap, he was well on his way back to the school he was supposed to be teaching at.

He saw Tatsuma grappling with a Nomu, Takeyama struggling to keep hold of another Nomu, before he honed in on the lone Nomu that was currently smashing the ground, the very same Nomu that he recognised from the first invasion of the USJ that had gone in the heroes' favour.

His followed his instinct; smash the Nomu.

He tackled the Nomu, his impact with the monster causing a shockwave that rippled outwards.

"All Might, you idiot! Be more careful!" Nezu screamed at him, and out of the corner of his eye, noticed that the Nomu, in fact, was not smashing the ground; it was smashing a student into the ground. The poor kid was sent tumbling from his attack on the Nomu, and was just lying on the ground in a pool of their own blood that was slowly getting bigger and bigger.

"Cementoss, give Snipe a proper vantage point to kill those things." Nezu snapped, "Then go help Ectoplasm defend the kids! Kamui, drag that tree behind the Nomu that Ryukyu is fighting!"

Nishiya obeyed without hesitation, and Tatsuma gave the Nomu one final shove, forcing it to step on the tree trunk and slip. Nishiya immediately restrained the Nomu as Tatsuma pinned it to the ground.

Nezu was tempted to go check on Midoriya, but he couldn't; Midoriya was too far away for him to reach on his stubby little legs, and even if he could reach him, he couldn't help him; Nezu didn't have the physical strength to bring Midoriya away from the battle, and the two pro heroes who weren't fighting had to defend roughy two hundred and twenty students.

Snipe took the clear shot, and fired a few bullets directly at Tatsuma's Nomu, going straight through its brain, effectively killing it, before he leapt into the air. A block of cement erupted underneath him, courtesy of Ishiyama, pushing Snipe upwards towards Takeyama's Nomu.

Meanwhile, Yagi and his Nomu were currently brawling it out, matching each other punch for punch, attack for attack, with Shigaraki in the background gloating about how superior the Nomu was.

Nezu swore he saw Midoriya twitch, ever so slightly.

Snipe leapt up onto Takeyama's arm, and raced upwards towards her hands. He aimed his gun at the Nomu, and like the previous one, shot a couple of bullets through his brain, killing it.

"You know, our toys are all broken." Shigaraki sighed, scratched at his neck, "I think it's time to end this."

Yagi tensed up, prepared to battle the Nomu once again. His time was up, and it was taking everything Yagi had to not just deflate there and then. He needed to end this fight fast.

His throat ran dry from Shigaraki's words as he pointed in Midoriya's direction, "Let's give UA a gift that they'll never be able to forget. Nomu, go!"

Before Yagi, or any of the other heroes could react, the Nomu had sped off towards Midoriya, as the poor kid lay on the ground, unmoving.

* * *

Midoriya knew that Shigaraki's finishing blow was going to be aimed at him. Shigaraki hated him; he had foiled the League's first attempt to attack the USJ, and had turned out to be a wild card in his current invasion of UA. He had made him temporarily lose the hand that he was attached too, had annoyed Shigaraki enough to make him sic the Nomu on him.

Shigaraki was a stubborn person. If he wanted Void dead, he wanted him dead. No one, not even All Might, was going to get in his way. Shigaraki's original intention for the USJ attack was to kill All Might, but now, he wanted to kill Void; kill the pesky kid that constantly disrupted his plans.

Midoriya discreetly reached out for the knife that was just within his reach; it probably belongs to a villain that had brought knives to this fight and was defeated by one of the students.

He swallowed, trying to push the pain away once again, to clear his mind once more, for one last final attack. He was lucky; his spine, somehow, was still intact through everything that had happened. His ears were ringing, his eyesight was blurring, and he could feel his breaths coming in fast.

He felt it. He felt thundering footsteps. He could see the rough outline of the Nomu speeding towards him, hands outstretched, and his hands tightened around the knife.

_He waited._

If he got the timing wrong, his plan would fail.

_"Villains aren't going to just step back when they see you fall. They're going to take any opportunity they have to kill you. But once they get tired, once the battle had gone on for some time, they get impatient. Use this against them. Wait, wait for them to do something stupid, to make a mistake. That's your chance."_

His father's words rang in his head. He forced himself to concentrate, to clear the buzzing sensation in his ears, to shove everything unrelated away to the back of his mind, to focus on his sole task at hand.

The Nomu's left hand was almost reaching him. The monster had too much momentum due to the rushed attack by Shigaraki, leaving its right side open, a direct path to the monster's head.

_Now._

With one last final burst of energy, Midoriya shoved himself upwards, biting down the pain that erupted from his torso as he wasn't fast enough, the Nomu's sharp knife-like claws ripped through his chest like tracing paper, abusing his already broken ribs, and bringing the knife downwards. The Nomu did the rest of the work for him; the momentum the Nomu possessed forced the monster to ram itself right into Midoriya's knife, impaling its brain all the way through.

Midoriya let his grip on the knife loose, and let himself fall to the ground. His eyesight was fading to black, as static buzzed in his head, his head feeling like it was filled with cotton.

He had done his job, but Shigaraki and Kurogiri were still there.

* * *

"No! Void! How dare you!" Shigaraki spat, but the ground under him rumbled, and Shigaraki jumped away before the ground caved in from under him, courtesy of Maijima. Shigaraki swiftly dodged a bullet, before two more bullets found themselves embedded in his hand and shoulder. There weren't any other fodder villains left either; all of them were either taken out by the students, knocked out by Kayama's quirk, or restrained by Death Arms and Nishiya.

"We should retreat, Shigaraki." Kurogiri snapped, protecting Shigaraki with more portals, "The kid will die from his injuries. All Might has been pushed beyond his time limit like Sensei had said. UA's students are scarred, and their reputation will fall. We've done what we were supposed to do."

"Tch. Fine." Shigaraki muttered, nursing his injuries, as Kurogiri teleported both himself and Shigaraki away. Almost immediately, Snipe and Maijima went to go check on Midoriya.

Kan quickly picked Nezu up and rushed to Midoriya's side, before gently depositing the principal down next to the downed student, Tatsuma and Takeyama not too far behind him.

"He's not responding." Maijima quietly said, as Nezu watched Snipe try to coax Midoriya, his shallow breaths coming in fast, to just do something, anything, just to show that he was alive.

Nezu squatted down beside the boy, his ears drooping as he took in the poor, injured state that the child was in, "Izuku?"

Midoriya's eyes opened, ever so slightly, as those dull, dark green orbs looked up at Nezu. He shifted, trying to reach out for the principal, and let out a small whimper of pain as he did so.

_"Shi...ga...ra...ki…?"_ The boy desperately whispered, his fingers shaking.

Nezu's heart ached as he tried to comfort Midoriya, "Shh. Just relax, Izuku. It's over. They're gone. It's all over. Just hold on, okay? Help's coming real soon, just hang on."

"The ambulances are coming, give or take a minute" Nishiya reported, as he walked towards the group. Midoriya let out a soft, weak whine, and proceeded to close his eyes, but Nezu reached out to pat Midoriya's cheek gently.

"Can you stay awake, please, Izuku?"

Midoriya opened his eyes again, accidentally letting out a whimper again, as Nezu sat down next to the boy, as close as he could without the chance of accidentally hurting him even more. None of the other heroes could even try to perform first aid on him; Midoriya had too many injuries and probably so many broken bones that he should be long gone at this point.

_"…Sor...ry…."_

Nezu's heart was pretty much broken at this point.

Why was Izuku apologising for something that wasn't his fault?

Unless he blamed himself for this.

"It's not your fault, Izuku. Help's coming real soon, just hang on, okay?"


	22. Chapter 22 - In the silence

Ever since he met that vigilante that eventually led to him being rescued from his former abusive household, Shinsou had always wished that he could see Void again, to thank him for giving him hope and another chance. To thank him for everything that he had done.

He had searched all over the internet for anything about Void, skimming through forum posts, scanning through pretty much any article he could get his hands on to see if Void had popped up in it, and had even hammering his parents with questions about the mysterious vigilante, only to find out that he had more interaction time with the vigilante than both Yamada and Aizawa combined. In fact, Aizawa hadn't even met Void before, and had heard about Shinsou and Void through Yamada.

And Shinsou had gotten even more curious about Void. He still tried to find out more about Void, and was hoping that anything he found out about Void was true. He had seen the article about Enji trying to attack him, and Enji's second attempt on the boy's life through Iida and Todoroki. He was glad Void still seemed to be doing fine, and hope that he would one day get another chance to speak with the boy who had changed his life.

But that one piece of information, Shigaraki's words about Midoriya being Void, was one piece of information that he hoped was utterly wrong.

Because that would mean that the boy that had saved his life once had saved him once was saving him again, by literally getting tortured by Shigaraki right in front of him.

Once again, Midoriya was saving him while he was sitting back uselessly.

Guilt pooled in Shinsou's stomach as he watched Midoriya get torn apart mercilessly; as he got up, time and time again, only for Shigaraki to rip him apart over and over.

_It was cruel._

And yet, Midoriya's expression didn't even change, besides from the occasional wince in pain. He continued to fight on, despite the fact that his broken body was leaking blood and dyeing the ground red.

It was as if he was used to pain being inflicted on him, as if he was used to being torn up and left for dead.

He didn't care that Midoriya was able to fight.

He just wanted them to stop. He wanted the fighting to stop. He didn't want his friend to get ripped apart, to self destruct, to tear himself apart from the inside out simply to protect someone else.

_And then the Nomu struck._

And he felt like his heart was getting ripped apart as the monstrosity smashed Midoriya into the ground over and over.

That was all he was able to process until All Might tackled the Nomu away, and Ectoplasm herded him away with the rest of the hero course students. He just followed along blankly as the teachers coaxed him to get the multitude of cuts and bruises that he had obtained from the USJ checked.

He rubbed his eyes, but couldn't erase the image of Midoriya's broken body, lying still in a puddle of his own blood that seemed to be growing bigger as time ticked by, and the weight in his chest only grew heavier.

And the fact that he actually liked Midoriya, despite the younger's lack of emotions, didn't help at all. He felt like his heart had gotten ripped out of his chest and doused in acid.

Midoriya wasn't even in the hero course, and yet, he sported injuries much, much worse than all the hero course students combined. Shinsouwas the closest, and yet, Midoriya had to put his life on the line to save his once again.

Shinsou felt like he had utterly failed Midoriya.

* * *

Most of the hero course students, as well as Midoriya, Aizawa and Thirteen, had to go to the hospital in some way or form. Shuzenji, whose healing quirk was required, had gone with the students to the hospital, which meant that the teachers, much as they hated not being able to check on their students immediately, had to find their own ways to get to the hospital.

Nezu gave the teachers the go ahead to visit the hospitals first, before taking out his phone to finish some important tasks, which mainly consisted of calling every single parent of the first years to inform them of what had happened, minus Shinsou's parents cause Yamada and Aizawa were there.

But first, he needed to pull a few strings to keep all of Midoriya's files, everything about him, any articles, school records, anything that even mentioned him, under wraps. Midoriya was registered as quirkless, and no doubt that the attack on UA was going to be the hot topic for the next week or so.

Anyone who didn't participate in the fights, mainly the Support, Business, and General Education courses, had been checked on by paramedics, and they were free to go home. Ectoplasm and Ishiyama were staying with them, waiting for their parents to pick them up, and Nezu made a mental note to make every single student, especially the hero course students, and Midoriya, to talk with Inui, or another hero or counselor, at least once. There was no way any of them were going to be getting out unscathed.

After what seemed like hours, calling and informing the parents of the all the Hero Course, the General Education, Business, and Support Course students, Nezu paused, his paw hovering over the contact listed under Midoriya's name in the school database.

Nezu sighed, and pressed the call button.

He waited, as he waited for his call to get through, only for his call to be sent to voicemail.

Nezu stared at his phone, before taking a deep breath, and walking back to his office.

* * *

Reiko pawed at the door desperately.

She could see the battle going on outside, through Nezu's humongous window, and could hear explosions and yelling, but she couldn't tell who was who when she was looking down from ten floors up. There was no way she could even break the huge window that sat between her and the fight; let alone surviving a fall from such a height.

She wanted to figure out what was going on. _Why was there a fight? Why did Yamada and Iida rush into Nezu's office in such a panic? What was going on? Who was fighting who? What were those giant hulking monsters?_

But more importantly, _where was Izuku? Was he okay?_

Sure, the vents were still an option, but she had no way of removing the grate; her paws weren't dexterous enough to use a screwdriver, and she didn't have a way to get one anyway. Plus, she didn't have any idea how to navigate the vents, and Ryuto was just sitting on Nezu's desk, completely confused as to what was going on as he flapped his stubby wings wildly.

He hopped down onto Nezu's chair, before jumping onto a stack of papers in an attempt to break his fall. He fell onto the floor, but quickly righted himself, before hobbling awkwardly to the window in curiosity. Reiko wrapped her tail around Ryuto and pulled him in, and the two animals looked down through the window at the ongoing fight, trying to figure out just what was going on.

Reiko saw the teachers popping out of nowhere, and Takeyama storming in, followed by All Might, and from then on, it didn't take too long for the fight to wrap up.

There was a lot of blood though, and Reiko was seriously hoping that for all of Midoriya's suicidal tendencies, that it wasn't his. There were a few ambulances to take some of the students who had been fighting to the hospital, coupled with the teachers dismissing the majority of the students directly.

She wanted to know what was going on, and Reiko immediately turned back to paw at the door. She finally felt a presence, and she immediately stood back as the door opened, revealing Nezu in the doorway, looking around forlornly.

_"What's going on? Where's Izuku?"_

"In the hospital. Come on." Nezu replied, as he quickly grabbed a folder off his desk, and scooped Reiko and Ryuto into his other arm, before running out of the room.

Ectoplasm and Ishiyama were waiting at UA's main entrance, by Ishiyama's car, while the UA building itself was crawling with police officers. Maijima had, according to Ectoplasm, opted to stay back to fix the bugged security system. The two heroes said nothing as Nezu climbed into the backseat with Reiko and Ryuto in his grasp, before Ishiyama started the engine and they started to make their way to the hospital.

Nezu quickly texted Yamada that they were going to be at the hospital soon, but he didn't get any reply from Yamada.

That was how bad the situation was. Usually, Yamada would reply almost immediately, spamming the group chat with a multitude of emojis that made no sense to anyone. He had never not replied to a message at all, whether it was directed to him or not.

Nezu stuck his phone back in his pocket and sank into the car seat, Reiko nuzzling his neck and Ryuto remaining eerily quiet throughout the entire ride as he sat by Reiko on Nezu.

* * *

Tensei stared at his phone. He had just been released from the hospital, still on crutches but overall feeling pretty good, due to not being cooped up in a hospital room, and his parents had told him to pick Iida up from the hospital a few blocks away from UA. Apparently, there had been another attack on UA, and unlike the first one, this one had been successful.

Tensei stuck his phone back in his pocket, and proceeded to hail down a taxi to the hospital.

When he got there, he told the taxi driver to wait for a few minutes, before he hobbled out to find Iida. He was expecting Iida to immediately call out to him, waving his arms wildly while complaining that he shouldn't be moving around while still injured, but all he saw was a group of students, Iida included in the group, huddled together, with Kayama supervising them.

_This was way worse than he thought._

"Hey, Nemuri!" Tensei greeted, as he made his way to Kayama's side with the aid of his crutches, and Kayama just looked up from her phone and raised her eyebrows at him. Iida, as well as several others, looked up when he spoke up, but other than that, the students didn't do anything at all. He recognised Shinsou, the kid that Aizawa and Yamada adopted a few years back, Uraraka, who his brother teamed up with in the second round of the Sports Festivals, and a couple others like Todoroki and Shiozaki.

"Really, Tensei? Did your mom tell you to pick up your little bro again?" Kayama sighed, trying and clearly failing to lighten the mood. Tensei hobbled over to them, "Who you texting, Nemuri?"

"Midoriya's guardians. We've sent an email as well, and I'm trying to call them to alert them of Midoriya's current situation, but they aren't picking up. It keeps being sent to voicemail."

Tensei swore that Midoriya was in the General Education course, and shouldn't be involved in whatever was going on. He chose to ignore it, and tried to focus on his little brother first, moving to Iida's side, supporting himself one one crutch, and using the other to tap Iida's leg slightly, "Ready to go, Tenya?"

Iida nodded, not saying a word, as Tensei led him back to the taxi. They settled down in the backseat, before the taxi headed off towards the Iida Household.

Tensei was curious. His parents didn't know what was going on, and Kayama hadn't been eager to share any details with him. Despite liking to talk a lot, when there was something she wanted to hide, she will quickly switch topics and start talking so much that one would forget what they were initially talking about.

And he didn't want to force Iida to talk about it. If his baby brother wanted to talk, he'll let him talk. But this must be something very, very serious if even Iida wasn't saying a single thing, whether it be about his classmates disheveled uniforms, his brother hobbling about on crutches or upholding their reputation as UA students.

But the second they closed the door to their house behind them, Iida had wrapped his older brother in a hug, and shoved his face into Tensei's chest. Tensei ignored the feeling of Iida's glasses pressing against his chest, and ran his fingers through Iida's hair.

"What's wrong, Tenya?"

Iida remained quiet, but Tensei could feel his shirt becoming slightly wet. Eventually, Iida finally spoke up, "He got hurt."

Tensei patiently waited for Iida to continue.

"Midoriya. He isn't even in the hero course… but he had to fight that man with all the hands on him…"

Tensei carefully manoeuvred the duo around the house, despite being on crutches, until they were both sitting on the sofa.

"Hey, he'll be fine, right? I saw the Sports Festival reruns. He's pretty good."

Iida shook his head, "He got hurt… the monster got him… and there's so much blood…

Tensei swore under his breath. He really hated those damned Nomu. First in Hosu, then in UA. And those damned things seemed to have multiple quirks, as if a regeneration quirk wasn't hard enough to deal with, those damned things had wings, super strength, and they were just pretty messed up in general.

And there were at least four of them; three in Hosu, and at least one in UA. They weren't just mutations; someone had to be making them, or at least, could influence their development. Tensei just hoped that they wouldn't have to fight more of them any time soon; many heroes were still injured from the Hosu Incident, and he had no idea what state UA was in.

Iida tried to take a deep breath, as if he were trying to keep his cool, "He looked like he was dead… but Midnight-sensei said that he's still in surgery..."

"Hey, don't worry about him, okay? He's a strong kid; he'll pull through. If you want, I'll text Nemi and once I get some news, you'll be the first to know, okay? Just calm down, drink some water, get some sleep and we'll probably get some good news by tomorrow morning, how's that sound?"

He gently patted Iida on the back, before the younger finally nodded and made his way towards the kitchen.

Tensei quickly fished his phone out of his pocket, before the opened his private chat with Kayama.

_"Nemi, Tenya told me about Midoriya. How's he? Also, anyone else hurt?"_

It took some time for Kayama to reply.

_"Besides Midoriya? The rest of the kids are fine. Some have to stay overnight in the hospital but they're pretty much okay. Shouta and Thirteen are injured, though they're already patched up and resting. Only telling you cause Nezu said it was okay."_

Tensei heaved a sigh of relief, and slumped into the sofa, forgetting that his arms were still injured as he winced in pain.

At least no one else was hurt.

He really hoped that Midoriya would be fine. He really wanted to meet the kid who managed to change his hard-headed little brother's mind.

* * *

The nurse at the front desk stared at Nezu as he ran in with a cat and a baby bird in his paws.

"Sir, you can't bring animals into the hospital." She stated, eyeing the cat in particular.

Another nurse came up from the hallway, patting the lady who was sitting by the front desk on the back.

"It's UA's principal. I think two small animals are fine. They seem well behaved." She sighed, and Ryuto gave her a small chirp.

"Come on. Mic said you'll be coming over." She stated, turning around to walk back down the hallway. Nezu, Ectoplasm, and Ishiyama followed close behind her, as their footsteps echoed solemnly throughout the hallway.

They saw Tatsuma and Nishiya sitting down on the chairs, waiting by a door with the word "Emergency" glowing in bright red capital letters.

"Aizawa had gotten out of the operation theatre some time ago. Present Mic went to check on him. Mt. Lady had gotten called back to the agency she was working with." Tatsuma spoke up at once, her voice almost as quiet as a whisper. Nishiya remained completely quiet, as he gazed at the ceiling absentmindedly.

"What about Izuku?" Nezu asked almost immediately.

Tatsuma looked down towards the ground, and sighed, so quiet that they could barely make out what she was saying, "He's not out yet."

Reiko struggled out of Nezu's grasp and hopped onto the chair between Tatsuma and Nishiya. Nezu gently placed Ryuto down on the chair, and she curled up around the baby bird, letting out a sad purr. Ryuto nuzzled the cat, and buried his head in her neck, before waddling over to Nishiya. He let out a small chirp, and rubbed his head against Nishiya's hand.

Nishiya gently rang his fingers through Ryuto's feathers.

"If what the villain said was true… and he's really quirkless…" Nishiya started, but he was cut off almost immediately by the Dragoon Hero.

"Not the time, Kamui." Tatsuma grunted, and Nishiya froze, before turning his attention back to the bird.

Ectoplasm and Ishiyama sat down on the chairs, as Nezu paced up and down the hallway, his tail twitching erratically as he contemplated how the hell everything had gone so wrong. His phone vibrated, and he irritatedly pulled his phone out of his pocket to see who had contacted him.

To his confusion, it was Kayama, who Tensei had apparently contacted for details about the USJ attack. Nezu gave her the go ahead to tell him; Tensei was a responsible pro hero, and was Iida's older brother. He would find out about it sooner or later.

It felt like an eternity before the illuminated "Emergency" sign was shut off and the door open. The doors finally opened, and Shuzenji walked out, with a small stack of papers and a collar in her hands.

Reiko perked up almost immediately, as Nezu made his way in front of Shuzenji, the other heroes following behind him, "How is he?"

"He's alive. We did manage to fix up the worst of the damage, but I'm honestly not sure he'll make a full recovery. There may be injuries that linger, and there's no doubt he will feel pain, even after he recovers. He's suffered from way too much physical trauma, not to mention that we're unsure of his mental state when he wakes up."

The heroes heaved a sigh of relief, but Nezu felt that Shuzenji was still hiding something from them.

"First… there's this." Shuzenji quietly passed over the collar to Nezu, and the principal inspected the item carefully.

"An abuse case?" Ectoplasm asked, but Shuzenji shook her head, "I doubt it. One of the nurses in the ambulance tried to remove it so that we could assess the damage. He tried to fight her even in his weakened state, and let me tell you, even in his current condition, he can land a nasty left hook. It clearly means something to him."

"Alright." Nezu pocketed the collar, making a mental note to give it back to Midoriya when he woke up.

"He's currently being moved to room 7B, right next to Eraser Head's room. Can you lead them there, please?" Shuzenji addressed one of the nurses who exitted behind her, and she nodded, before leading the rest of the heroes away.

Nezu could tell from Shuzenji's tone that she was definitely hiding something from them, but she just tapped Nezu on the shoulder and whispered to him, "Later. When the rest of the teachers are here and the other heroes have left."


	23. Chapter 23 - Don't let me go

The elevator ride and the walk to Midoriya's room took an agonizingly long time. Nezu flicked his tail in annoyance, internally wishing for the damned lift to _just move faster._

He wasn't the only one. Nishiya was tapping his foot on the floor of the elevator, Ectoplasm was fidgeting on the spot, Ishiyama was fiddling with his fingers and Tatsuma's fins were twitching. Reiko was lying limply in Nezu's grasp, while Ryuto sat in the crook of Nezu's arm and pressed himself against Reiko.

The seventh floor was reserved for underground heroes, but none of them were questioning why Midoriya was placed in the very same ward as Aizawa. After all, very few people knew that he had been involved in the USJ attack, let alone getting injured to the point where he looked like he should have bled to death on the spot. But then again, Thirteen was sharing the room with Aizawa, so they probably just wanted to keep all the UA patients together.

Yamada was standing outside a room, and the heroes could Aizawa lying on the bed in the room, wrapped from head to toe in bandages. He nodded at the incoming heroes, and the nurse led them to the next door, and carefully pushed it open.

They found Midoriya inside, lying on the bed. An oxygen mask was placed over his nose and mouth. His dark eyebags stood out even more prominently against his pale skin, and he was covered in a thick, white blanket from the chest down, but his forehead and arms were wrapped with snowy white bandages. He had an IV connected to his hand, and a multitude of other machines were beeping incessantly, creating a cacophony of sounds that made up a discordant melody, repeating over and over, reminding Nezu that _this was the outcome of his failure._

Reiko let out a strangled sounding chatter when she laid her eyes on Midoriya, and would have lunged at him had Nezu not tightened his grip on her. Ryuto perked up, and gave a small squeak, but didn't make a move.

Tatsuma's fins drooped further when she saw Midoriya, and Nezu quietly walked forward, and placed Reiko and Ryuto down on the bed. Reiko poked Midoriya's cheek gently with her paw a few times, giving a pathetic sounding whine, as Ryuto waddled forward. He nudged Midoriya weakly, before giving a sad sounding trill, before huddling down and tucking himself into the crook of Midoriya's neck. Reiko curled up next to him, and just lay there, unmoving.

Yamada walked into the room behind them quietly.

"How's Aizawa and Thirteen?" Ishiyama asked.

"Shouta's probably going to be up soon. You know how much he hates the hospital." Yamada mumbled. "The second those damned painkillers and the anesthesia wears off, he's going to demand to go back to teaching even if he looks like a mummy. Thirteen, according to the doctor's just now, they're fine. They just needed a couple of doctors with healing quirks to fix them up. Just a couple of days of rest and they'll be as good as new."

"That's good." Nishiya stated, as he settled down in one of the chairs and gazed at Midoriya, "The rest of the kids are fine, right?"

Yamada nodded, "Yep. Some of the students got hypothermia, but that's like, the worst of the injuries besides Midoriya."

"We're lucky, then. Three Nomu and a huge batch of villains ambusing a school filled with teenagers, and only three serious casualties, with only one being a student." Nishiya sighed."This could have been so much worse."

"Just keep quiet, okay? I know you mean well, but it's not the time for this conversation." Tatsuma grumbled. Nishiya just slumped back into his seat, before Tatsuma's phone vibrated, and she quickly dug it out of her pocket.

"Sorry, looks like something's going on. Some of my sidekicks want me back in the office." Tatsuma apologised, as she turned towards the exit to leave, "Kamui, let's go."

"Alright. Hope he gets better soon." Nishiya bowed slightly, before he followed Tatsuma out the door. There was some beeping from Aizawa's room, and Yamada quickly turned around to rush to the other room to check on the other two heroes.

"So… about Midoriya?" Nezu asked, as Shuzenji sighed, with a grave expression on her face. Ishiyama and Ectoplasm looked towards Shuzenji worriedly, as Snipe and Kan brisk-walked into the room.

"I want to wait until Aizawa gets better, since he's getting transfered, but -"

Yamada quickly poked his head into the room, "Shouta just woke up. I think some doctors are gonna come and check on him."

It didn't take long for the doctors to quickly check over Aizawa, as the Erasure hero lay there boredly, grumbling all the while. Meanwhile, Snipe reported, "Er…. All the 1-A and 1-B kids except Shinsou have gone home. Midnight's still with him. We couldn't bring him in here; the nurses didn't let us."

"Alright. Thank you." Nezu replied, "Should we let him in? I think Midnight should here whatever Recovery Girl has to say as well."

"I think so." Yamada sighed, "I bet you he's worried about Midoriya as well."

It took a couple of minutes of Nezu talking with several nurses as doctors rushed in and out of Aizawa's room, but it didn't take too long for the doctors to check up on Aizawa and for Kayama to rush in, dragging a completely drained Shinsou behind her.

The second Shinsou saw Yamada, he ran forward, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste, and latched onto Yamada, wrapping his arms tightly around his adopted father.

"Hey, it's okay, Hitoshi. It's alright now." Yamada wrapped an arm around Shinsou, before using his other to run his fingers through the purple haired boy's hair, "Shou just got up. Ya wanna see him?"

Shinsou nodded, and Yamada slowly pulled him into the room, and Shinsou quietly watched as the doctors finally left, and Aizawa huffed and grumbled, "... Hitoshi?"

"Hey, Dad." Shinsou swallowed, and inched closer, "I'm fine… everyone's fine and has gone home…. But I don't know about Midoriya..."

"How's…Midoriya? I swear… that monster -"

"Ah, yes. Shinsou, Midoriya's in the next room. Can you stay with him for a couple of minutes while we talk?" Nezu spoke up, and Shinsou nodded, quietly exiting the room. Aizawa looked irritated that at that, but Kayama just closed the door after Shinsou had left.

Shuzenji took a deep breath, and sighed, "I'm going to be completely honest with you. His injuries… all of them… they aren't pretty. It's a lot worse than you may think."

Nezu didn't like the tone of Shuzenji's voice. He just looked at Shuzenji, not knowing at all what to say as his heart dropped. He finally found his voice, and tried to control his heart rate, "Alright. What is it?"

"The worst of his injuries consisted of broken ribs, some of which pierced his lungs, severe blood loss, a damaged spine and a cracked neck. He's also suffering from a serious bacterial infection, and his insides are completely messed up, especially his stomach, and lungs; they're a complete wreck. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Nezu had a sneaking suspicion of what Shuzenji was talking about, but he didn't want to believe it. He refused to believe it, "No. What are you talking about?"

"If a person with injuries like that were treated immediately, even with the most sophisticated medical equipment and the best healing quirks, it would still take nothing short of a miracle to save them. Even then, they would probably be crippled for the rest of their life and would need all sorts of machinery to keep them alive. There is no way Midoriya that should have survived all those injuries for such a long time." Shuzenji gravely stated.

Nezu felt his heart sink to his stomach.

Ishiyama blurted out, "But… you just said Midoriya's alive and that you fixed up the worst of the damage."

"Exactly. His spine was the first to be damaged during the fight, as far as I know, and an injury like that should have killed him immediately. Take a look at this."

Shuzenji pulled out an x-ray, and pointed to it, "This is Midoriya's lower back, where it was damaged. It looks completely fine, but look at it and compare it to that." She pointed to another portion of Midoriya's back. The only difference Nezu could make out were a few black pixels not present where Shuzenji claimed it was damaged.

"Calcification occur when a lot of calcium is deposited, mainly between joints, and these can cause pain and other problems, and depending on the person's body type and quirk, the amount of calcium deposits can differ. What most people don't know is that everyone has a miniscule, almost unnoticeable amount of calcium deposits between the spine vertebrae, mainly being a response to infections, but here, there are no calcium deposits at all. Not even a small speck. It's like it's brand new."

Nezu breath hitched, and Aizawa mumbled, "Regeneration. Zashi and I… saw it... Void..."

"I don't think it's just that. We all know that the injury that he received from Todoroki in the Sports Festival didn't heal, but Endeavor's first attack on him, as Void, did heal. I think his quirk can only heal injuries that would kill him." Shuzenji replied.

"But he received a lot of injuries that could have killed him, and he clearly wasn't healing either. I saw it. He was just lying there in a pool of his own blood... " Nezu was trying his best to stay calm and figure it out, but he was finding it very hard to do so. He was still shaken up by the fact that _Midoriya should have died in that very attack on UA._

"I have a theory that his quirk is similar to Yaoyorozu's. The more food she eats, the more items she can make. Since Midoriya is clearly malnourished and doesn't eat a lot, there's a limit to how much he can heal before he runs out of resources to use. After all, he needs to get the nutrients to heal himself from somewhere." Shuzenji dryly stated, "Not only that, his quirk keeps him alive no matter the condition of his body. Any normal person would have died just from the amount of blood that he's lost over such a long period of time, and that was the least of our worries at the moment."

Nezu took a minute to process everything that he had been told, before he tried to give a brief summary of what she had said, "So you think that Izuku's quirk doesn't let him die no matter what, and can only heal injuries that would no doubtedly kill him, and even that has a very low limit."

Shuzenji nodded.

"Well, he has a quirk, and he clearly knew about it before the entrance exam." Kan stated, "That means that he lied."

"Can you blame him for hiding it, though?" Ectoplasm replied, "He'll have no way of proving it unless he really got into a situation where he would lose his life. And imagine that you've been made fun of and mocked your entire life for not having something that you actually have. It would be extremely hard to accept it."

Nezu wanted to resist the urge to throw up, "So… assuming he had a bad experience in trying to prove that he had a quirk… it is possible that he had tried to kill himself before, and failed."

Shuzenji nodded again, before speaking up again, "Yeah. His cracked neck, I believe it was a suicide attempt, given the amount of force required for a break like that isn't something you encounter on a daily basis for no reason. It wasn't a recent injury, and it seems like it's from a few months back, more precisely, a month before the UA entrance exams. Not only that, it is cracked in several places which suggests that it wasn't just one; it was several suicide attempts."

Nezu froze, and his blood ran cold, as he made the connection between Shuzenji's words and what had happened that day,

_He had smelt blood. Midoriya's blood._

_Midoriya's hoodie wasn't stained with mud; it was blood._

_Midoriya had told him he had a quirk, one that was related to life and death._

_Midoriya had tried to kill himself, and had gotten the confirmation that he had a quirk that didn't let him die._

Nezu didn't know what to feel. He's dealt with suicide cases before, many, in fact, so while his heart did ache slightly for the loss of a talented individual, other than that, Nezu didn't know any of them personally, and it didn't really mean much to him. It was just a death that could have been prevented if society wasn't so shitty towards the quirkless or the weak, and it harboured his resolve to teach all the students in UA to be caring towards everyone and not discriminate against anyone.

But now, with Midoriya, knowing that he had tried to kill himself left Nezu with a horrible taste in his mouth. He felt like he had completely failed Midoriya; the poor kid felt like his life wasn't even worth keeping, and had a quirk that didn't let him die.

None of the other teachers were better off either. Kayama and Yamada looked like they wanted to throw up, Ectoplasm and Snipe had frozen on the spot, while Ishiyama and Kan just gaped at the school nurse. Even Aizawa's eyes had widened in horror at the revelation.

"To make things worse… I don't think Midoriya knows the details behind his quirk, or at least, didn't know until recently. He just knew he had one, probably when Aizawa reported that he had encountered him, and had spent some time trying to figure it out." Shuzenji mused, "I honestly don't think that he's dumb enough to try and commit suicide if he knew that it wouldn't work."

Nezu's shoulder's slouched, and Ishiyama reached out to pat his shoulder, "It's fine. Recovery Girl already said that he'll get better. Once he does, then we can all help him."

* * *

Shinsou carefully pushed open the door.

Reiko immediately lifted her head and bolted up, alert, hissing in his direction until she realised who it was. She relaxed, nudged Midoriya's cheek gently, before meowing sadly and settling back on the bed. Ryuto shifted slightly, before settling down again, as Shinsou made his way closer to the bed.

He eyed Midorirya's unconscious form, before he pulled up and chair so that he could sit beside the bed. He leaned backwards, and closed his eyes, trying to sort out the whirlwind of thoughts that occupied his mind.

_If Midoriya was in a room, that meant that he was okay, right? Maybe the damage wasn't as bad as it appeared to be…._

But Shinsou still couldn't shake the memory of Midoriya shoving him aside to tank Shigaraki's attack for him, as the smaller green haired boy's back erupted into blood.

"I'm so sorry, Midoriya." Shinsou whispered, as he melted into his chair, physically and mentally drained from what had occurred.

It took some time until Yamada entered the room to bring him home, promising that he could visit whenever he wanted to. Shinsou just staggered up from his chair, trailing behind his adoptive parent. He turned around to take one last look at Midoriya, before he gently closed the door behind him.

* * *

Nezu sighed, as he exited the hospital. It was already dark, the sun having set some time ago.

Midoriya's foster parent still hadn't picked up any of their calls, nor did they seem to acknowledge that Midoriya was injured at all.

So Nezu decided to make a house call. After all, he knew where to go, and he still had all of Midoriya's papers with him. Midoriya had already agreed to the change in custody; his foster parents just had to agree to it.

He made his way up to the apartment, and knocked on it gently.

"Who is it?" He heard a familiar voice, before the door opened. Midoriya's foster mother opened to door, looked around, before her gaze trailed downwards, finally taking notice of the principal.

"Oh dear. What did Midoriya do wrong this time? He was supposed to be back ages ago." She sighed.

"Nothing, actually. There was an attack on UA and he's involved in it." Nezu dryly stated, "We called you several times, and even sent a couple emails, but we didn't get any responses so I decided to come here personally."

She just raised her eyebrow, "Seriously? If he's even got the principal of the school pulled into this…. Tell me the truth. Just what exactly did Midoriya do?"

Nezu just frowned, "There was a villain attack. I'm not hiding, and Midoriya's currently in the hospital right now, _after he got severely injured._"

She still didn't seem convinced, "Okay? Assuming that this is actually true… which it probably isn't, how much are the hospital fees?"

"It will be covered by the school. And you don't really seem to care that he's injured."

"The boy's always getting injured, and they're always his fault." Midoriya's foster mother grumbled in irritation, "He disturbs his classmates, constantly tries to cause trouble, picks fights with other students… I won't be surprised if the villain attack was actually his fault, even though I have no idea what they'll want, with him being quirkless."

"I can assure you that Midoriya has done nothing wrong and this has nothing to do with his quirk." Nezu hissed, starting to get frustrated with every single bad thing that she had said about Midoriya so far.

"Midoriya Izuku will be under my custody from now on." Nezu growled, finally getting pissd off with the woman. Much to his surprise, she merely shrugged, "Okay. Do you have the papers?"

"Aren't you going to let him have a say in this?" Nezu asked.

"He doesn't have a choice."

_She didn't care about him_, Nezu realised,_ in this world, no one has ever taken Izuku's side. Simply because he was quirkless, everyone stood against him. It wasn't just his classmates, the entire world had pushed Izuku down, constantly oppressing him. He could only take what everyone threw at him._

Nezu grit his teeth as he pulled the papers and a pen out of his folder, handing it over to her to sign and trying to calm himself before he lost his temper completely. She quickly added her signature to the papers, "Well, once he gets out of the so-called hospital, you can stop by to pick up his things."

_Izuku doesn't want to cause any trouble…._ Nezu told himself, reminded himself why he wasn't going to outrightly arrest this woman. If Midoriya didn't want any necessary actions to be taken, he wouldn't do it. He wanted to give him a choice, to tell him that his opinion deserves to be heard, that his choice _matters_.

"Thank you." Nezu carefully placed the papers back in his folder, before he turned to leave.

He won't let Midoriya feel that he's alone anymore.

_He won't fail Midoriya again._

* * *

Nezu was currently having another problem with Reiko and Ryuto. They absolutely refused to leave Midoriya's side to eat or drink, though if according to Snipe, when any of the other teachers tried to feed them, Ryuto ate readily enough as long as he remained close enough to Midoriya, though he still didn't eat much. But Reiko, she just lay there, barely moving, only getting up occasionally to nudge Midoriya lightly, before settling down again. The most she did was take a small nibble of whatever she was given, before giving up and curling up again, and that was with Ryuto constantly nudging her towards the food. Some of the teachers had tried to just pick her up to bring her out, but they had gotten clawed by the tired stubborn cat.

Nezu barely had time to check on Midoriya in the hospital, only managing to pop in for the last ten minutes of the visiting session given that he had to sort out to profiles of all the students in the school, upgrade the security of the school and fix all the facilities with Maijima, and trying to analyse whatever data they had on the teleporting villain to prevent another attack from happening again, alongside the police force. Not to mention that he had to talk with all the higher-ups about what had really happened, as well as upgrading all the firewalls and securing every single database that they used.

And Nezu finally decided to take a break, and after sitting in Midoriya's room for half an hour, he brought Ryuto and Reiko out for some fresh air. Reiko had protested weakly, but he had somehow managed to get them out of the hospital without too much trouble.

"Come on. You both know that Izuku wouldn't want you to be like this because of him." Nezu chidded them gently, as he sat on the bench in the park, which ironically, was the very same bench that he used to meet Midoriya at.

Reiko shot him a guilty look, before she sluggishly took a nibble of the canned tuna that Nezu had also brought along with him. Nezu gently ran his paws through her fur as the small feline sluggishly consumed her food. Ryuto let out a small chirp, and huddled against Reiko, bumping his head against hers gently.

"He'll be fine. Don't worry about it. He'll wake up soon."

Nezu wasn't even sure if that statement was direction to Reiko and Ryuto, or himself.

He really hoped that Midoriya would be fine.


	24. Chapter 24 - Dark skies that hang above

It took a week for UA to be back up and running, with its updated security system and facilities, and the students were currently back to school on Monday.

Surprisingly, UA's reputation was barely tarnished, even though Midoriya's involvement in the incident had somehow gotten out, though the details were not disclosed to anyone. The Hosu Incident was fresh in everyone's memory, and everyone knew that the presence of three Nomus had caused the sheer number of injured and dead heroes and civilians.

With only a fraction of the number of heroes that had been in Hosu, coupled with four Nomus, with one made to take out All Might, and a huge hoard of villains, it was considered a miracle that only three people were severely injured from the attack on UA.

Thirteen had taken an extra few days off to continue recuperating, but Aizawa was insistent on returning to his position as 1-A's homeroom teacher despite being wrapped from head to toe with bandages.

Midoriya, while currently stable, with most of his injuries all healed up from Shuzenji and other doctors' quirks, still hadn't woken up, and given that he was officially under Nezu's custody at this point, had been transferred to UA's infirmary so that Shuzenji could keep a closer eye on him even during her shifts in school.

Shuzenji hated that she had to use her quirk on Midoriya while he was unconscious. Regaining energy was important to the human body. It was something that she rarely did, but she didn't have a choice. She didn't like to force Midoriya's injuries to heal without letting him regain any energy, but the other option was to wait for him to wake up, and by then, the damage would probably be permanent and irreparable. She couldn't risk it; Midoriya still had his entire future ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Nezu wasn't sure that he had made the right choice. Sure, he wanted to respect Midoriya's choices, but something about just letting his foster mother go didn't sit right with him.

She didn't care about him. She let him suffer. She neglected him, she didn't care that he was injured, she didn't trust him at all. She was nowhere near what a foster parent should act like, even if they were just temporary caretakers until the children were adopted.

Nezu had also dug into the records of all of Midoriya's past schools, from preschool all the way to middle school.

Every single school had records of Midoriya being a problematic child. There were multiple reports of him constantly agitating his classmates, provoking them, being an attention seeker, lying, not handing in his homework on time, and generally being clumsy and falling down the stairs quite a few times.

At least, her reaction made some sort of sense, in a weird, twisted kind of way. If there were so many incidents, it was no wonder that she thought that he was fabricating yet another story. Nezu wasn't saying that his foster mother wasn't in the wrong, just that her nonchalance towards Midoriya's hospitalization didn't just come out of nowhere.

But none of it lined up. Midoriya wasn't the kind of person that all the records described him to be. On the contrary, it was the very opposite; Midoriya was a kind, overly selfless child who couldn't hurt a fly. He hated attention, shied away from it, in fact, and was very punctual in handing in his homework that was leagues above the quality that the rest of his peers handed in. There was no way that he was anything similar to what he was described as in the school reports.

Everyone was against Midoriya. Not just his classmates, but even his teachers. They just assumed that he was always in the wrong, simply because he was quirkless; that he wanted attention because he wouldn't be able to garner any without a quirk.

His head was starting to throb from the lack of sleep; he hadn't been sleeping well the past few days, having to worry about pretty much everything ranging from the security of the school to student records to publicity to the fact that Midoriya still hadn't woken up yet.

Nezu curled up on the small couch that was placed in the infirmary, and rubbed his temples, before he looked up to gaze at Midoriya's resting form. Shuzenji had already fixed up any life threatening injuries, and Midoriya no longer needed any other equipment other than an IV drip that was connected to his hand.

Ryuto had fallen asleep quite some time ago, nestled against Midoriya's neck, while Reiko was curled up against his shoulder, shifting ever so slightly every now and then.

Nezu rubbed his eyes, and pushed all his papers onto the table beside the couch. UA was opening the next day, he was tired, there were too many things going on and Nezu seriously wanted to just sleep and get some rest before he needed to deal with the students and media again.

Nezu hopped off the couch, before walking quietly over to Midoriya's bed. He raised his paw, and gently patted Midoriya's head.

"Get well soon, okay, Izuku?"

* * *

The day started off terrible, in the students' opinion. The entrance of their school was swamped with rabid reporters and camera men, shoving those horrid microphones in their faces as they tried to ask them about the USJ incident.

It wasn't pleasant at all, people trying to interview them about an incident where one of their friends had looked like he was dead, bleeding out in front of their eyes.

Then, they had to wait for whichever teacher was designated to replace Aizawa temporarily, because Aizawa had gotten injured in the USJ attack. There was no way he was going to come teach them until he had recovered sufficiently, right?

Wrong.

Aizawa had ambled into the classroom like usual, dragging his signature yellow sleeping bag behind him.

"Aizawa sensei! Shouldn't you be resting?!" Uraraka yelped, as she saw her mummified teacher enter the classroom.

"I'm fine." Aizawa snapped, before Iida asked, "I apologise for interrupting, but how is Midoriya?"

Aizawa sighed, waiting for the chaos in the room to die down, before replying, "He's stable, but he still hasn't woken up yet. He's currently in the infirmary, and Recovery Girl isn't allowing visitors for the time being."

The mood soured almost immediately, until Aizawa's sleeping bag moved on its own. Reiko popped out of the opening, and shook herself, fluffing her fur up. She stuck her paw into the sleeping bag again, and lifted the opening, allowing Ryuto to stick his fluffy head out of the sleeping bag.

Ashido swooned when she saw the two animals.

"Also, it appears we have ... guests." Aizawa mumbled, eying the animals.

Iida frowned, "Aren't those Midoriya's pets?"

"Yeah." Aizawa bluntly replied, "But they actually make Midoriya feel better, and the "no pets" rule was in place cause they tended to distract students, and there may be other reasons but Nezu didn't say so but honestly, I don't really care. As long as they don't make a ruckus, they can stay."

"Uh... can you pass a few... cards to him?" Yaoyorozu asked, trying to bring the topic back to what it was before, "Some of us.. uh... made him "Get better soon" cards..."

"Yeah!" Kirishima piped up, raising a few envelopes, "Some of my neighbours and some other kids heard that Midoriya was involved, and wanted me to bring him a couple of cards."

Reiko hissed quietly as he did so.

Aizawa merely sighed, and closed his eyes, "Just put them on my desk later. I'll deal with them somehow."

"Not to be rude, sensei... but besides from talking... you don't seem like you can deal with anything." Shinsou deadpanned, staring at Aizawa's bandaged form. "I don't think you can even move your arms in that state." While he was glad that his father was fine, he did not like the fact that he was up and about.

Aizawa just glared at Shinsou, before replying, "I'll get Present Mic to deal with them later, okay? Yaoyorozu, can you collect whatever cards you guys have and just dump it on my desk?"

Yaoyorozu stood up, and made her way around the classroom. However, upon reaching Kirishima's table, Reiko suddenly gave an enraged sounding yowl, and leapt up Ojiro's tail, landing on his desk, before jumping off Kaminari's desk and pouncing on one of the envelopes that were in Yaoyorozu's hands.

"Eh?" Yaoyorozu yelped, and Koda shot out of his seat to try and reason with the feline. Aizawa just stared at Reiko, stunned, before he turned to Ryuto, who was seemingly as confused as they were.

Reiko snarled at Koda, and tore the envelope open with her claws. Kirishima tried to grab Reiko, but Reiko immediately grabbed the card in the envelope and leapt off his desk onto Sero's.

Dark Shadow immediately popped out to try and stop the cat, startling her, and Reiko leapt onto Jiro's desk, dropping the card in the process.

The card had opened as it fluttered to the ground, by Shinsou's desk. A newspaper article had fallen out. Shinsou reached down to pick it up, and his eyes caught onto its title.

It was about a recent suicide by a quirkless teenager in another district, and Shinsou ignored it in favour of the of the card.

It chilled him to the bone, and his hands shook as he turned to read the contents of the card.

_"You're still alive, Deku? When is it going to be your turn?"_

* * *

Midoriya felt like he was drowning. His mind was drifting around aimlessly, sieving through thoughts and memories, dreams and nightmares that Midoriya didn't want to face.

_"We died because of you, Izuku."_

_"I hate you!"_

_"It's all your fault!"_

_They died because of him; he deserved this._

Midoriya knew that it was just his mind talking, forcing the remaining figments of the memory of his parents to spit such hateful things at him, to make him even more guilty about their deaths. He knew deep down that his parents loved him, but the mere thought that they would hate him... that they would blame him for their deaths...

_The very thought of it was breaking him apart._

Midoriya wanted to escape this nightmare. At least, as much as reality hurt, it didn't hurt as much as the hissing and cursing that his mind created, taking every single happy memory he had and twisting it into some hellish, nightmarish realm that he was forever stuck with.

He forced himself to open his eyes, and his vision was flooded with absolutely nothing.

He bolted upright, taking in a gulp of cool air, hot searing pain flaring throughout his entire body, coursing through his veins like lava. He hunched over, coughing, his fingers tightening on the blankets.

His mind was foggy, and he felt like his brain had turned into mush. But there was one thing that he comprehended almost immediately; there was a thick blanket resting on his body.

And he was swamped with memories.

_"Come on, is that the best you can do?"_

_"I... I can't breathe... please help me..."_

_"Are you really that useless, Midoriya?"_

_"... Mama...Papa..."_

_"Can't you understand? They're dead already. Now get out from under there."_

_"...I'm sorry... It's ... too heavy... I can't..."_

_"Is that what you want? To just die in there, quitter?"_

He could almost smell the stench of his own puke, and he felt the air around him tighten in an attempt to strangle him.

He threw the blankets off his thin frame, ripping off the IV drips in the process, trying to push the horrible memories that filled his life after his parents' deaths as the most recent memories rushed back to him.

_The Nomu, the fight with Shigaraki, his teachers, his classmates, all the blood..._

He couldn't feel the collar around his neck.

_You're just a failure._

He couldn't see a single thing. His vision was pitch black.

_Where's Reiko and Ryuto?_

He could vaguely register someone patting him on the back, saying something that he couldn't understand.

_I can't fail again._

He did the first thing that his body told him to do, despite the pain that flared with every action.

He attacked. He brought out his right arm and delivered a right hook, smacking against whoever happened to be there.

_It's not safe. You can't trust anyone. They'll just hurt you. That's all they want to do._

He threw himself out of the bed, his legs failing him almost immediately, and he collapsed on the ground.

He pushed himself up, and staggered out of the infirmary, pressing his hand against the wall as he hunched over, coughing violently as pain flared through his entire being. He could feel something sticky on his palm, but ignored it when he heard footsteps coming up behind him, and he hastily made his way forward, trying his best to regain his bearings while unable to see.

_Where am I?_

He could hear the door being slammed shut right in front of him, and he growled, desperately reaching out in an attempt to find the door handle. He could hear footsteps behind him, and quickly turned around, lunging at whatever it was that was in the same room as him.

* * *

Yagi rubbed his lower jaw where it had made contact with Midoriya's fist, watching as Ectoplasm's clone closed the door to prevent Midoriya from running out.

He was already guilty enough for causing the boy unnecessary pain when he didn't take notice of him and attacked the Nomu, injuring Midoriya even further.

Midoriya had woken up in a panic, and without even thinking of how his actions may affect the boy, he tried to physically console him, even though it was very clear amongst the teachers that Midoriya didn't do well with physical contact.

He had made the boy panic even more, and even though there should be no way that Midoriya would have any energy left to move, Midoriya had panicked enough to whack him in the jaw hard enough to send him sprawling, and would have run out of the infirmary had Ectoplasm not stationed a clone outside the room and closed the door before Midoriya could get anywhere.

Yagi didn't blame him for panicking, to be honest. Midoriya had been in a fight, and his vision was obscured; he was probably scared and had no idea what was going on around him.

In his skinny form, he really couldn't do anything else but dodge as Midoriya lashed out, being fairly accurate with his hits even when blindfolded.

The door to Shuzenji's office opened, and she walked out, seeing the commotion.

"Midoriya, calm down!" She called out, but the injured boy quickly turned to her and lashed out. Yagi quickly pulled him back before he could hurt anyone, and had gotten his hand bitten for his efforts.

Shuzenji fished out his phone and quickly texted the group chat.

_"Midoriya is trying to fight Yagi."_

* * *

Nezu stared at the new notification on his phone.

Reiko and Ryuto had popped into Aizawa's sleeping bag before the hero had left for his homeroom class, probably wanting to get some fresh air. The smell of antiseptic and alcohol was horrible and irritating, especially for animals, and Nezu admitted that even he couldn't spend a few days straight sitting in the infirmary due to that.

Meanwhile, he had to go deal with the stupid press that was harrassing his students and asking them about the attack where Midoriya should have died if not for a trauma induced quirk that his kid had somehow acquired.

Needless to say, Nezu wasn't exactly in the best mood when he chewed the fifty reporters and camera men out for harassing his students and being inconsiderate, annoying, being completely oblivious to the students' feelings on the matter.

Shuzenji had updated him that Midoriya had also suffered some minor trauma in his eyes, since he had literally been smacked into the ground by the Nomu a couple of times. It shouldn't affect his eyesight at all, unlike Aizawa, which combined with his dry eye, reduced his quirk usage even more, given that he wasn't smashed into the ground as many times and as hard as Aizawa had. But she had still decided to cover his eyes just in case there were other complications that she hadn't noticed.

With Nezu having to deal with the press, pretty much all the other teachers are busy with their homeroom classes, and Shuzenji having to deal with all the medical records of the students in her office, that left only Yagi available to keep an eye on the injured boy. Even though it was probably a bad idea, given that the last thing Yagi had done was to hurt Midoriya, albeit unintentionally, Midoriya shouldn't have any energy to do anything at all with how much Shuzenji's quirk sapped his strength, so even if he woken up, it should be fine.

And that had gone wrong too.

Nezu rushed back to UA's main building as fast as his legs could carry him. He quickly made his way to the infirmary, seeing an Ectoplasm clone, with Shuzenji standing outside the room worriedly.

"How's Izuku?" Nezu asked.

Shuzenji replied, "He probably got spooked by Toshinori and attacked out of instinct. Toshinori is trying to calm him down, but it isn't working. He isn't familiar with him; he's probably scared and won't listen. I think you should go in there; he may listen to you."

Nezu bit his lip, and gently pushed open the door, finding Toshinori crouched on the ground, "Come on, Midoriya, I'm not going to hurt you."

Nezu couldn't see what was going on, but Toshinori suddenly flinched backwards, before he stood up, noticing the principal.

The worried expression on Toshinori's face immediately melted to that of relief, and he pushed himself up to his feet and made his way towards Nezu slowly.

"Thanks goodness. I think I startled him, and now Midoriya's hiding under the bed, and I can't get him out. He tried to bite me a few times."

"Leave the room. I'll deal with it." Nezu ordered, and Toshinori quickly yanked open the door and left the infirmary, leaving Nezu alone in the darkened room with Midoriya.

Nezu quietly made his way over to Midoriya, and crouched down, spotting the child curled up in a ball under the infirmary bed, shaking.

"Hey, Izuku. It's just me, no one else's here."

The tremors that emanated from Midoriya's body died down slowly, and Midoriya slowly turned to face Nezu.

"Just calm down, okay? No one's going to hurt you."

Nezu slowly inched closer, until he was close enough to reach out his paw and ruffle Midoriya's green curls gently.

"Where…. Reiko? Ryuto?" Midoriya hoarsely whimpered.

"They're fine. They're taking a breather with Aizawa right now." Nezu gently coaxed the boy out from under the bed, "How are you feeling?"

Midoriya gave a small nod as Nezu tried to get him back on the bed, but the small wince of pain on Midoriya's face when he accidentally put too much pressure on his wrist didn't go unnoticed by the principal. Midoriya was shivering due to the cool air in the infirmary, but Nezu noticed how Midoriya sat as far away from the fallen blanket as possible, and made a mental note of that.

_He didn't want to force Midoriya into an even more uncomfortable situation, but Shuzenji needed to check up on him._

"Recovery Girl's right outside. Can I call her in to check on you?"

Midoriya hesitantly reached up to his neck, before he froze, feeling his bandaged but otherwise bare neck, and Nezu stilled, remembering that the collar Shuzenji had given him in the hospital was sitting on his desk. Midoriya had a sharp intake of breath, and curled up into a ball on the bed, shaking like a leaf in the wind, as Nezu reached up to reassure his poor kid.

"Izuku, calm down, okay?" Nezu coaxed gently, "Recovery Girl just wants to make sure you're okay. Aizawa should bring Reiko and Ryuto back soon enough, and I'll give you back your collar later, okay?"

Midoriya slowly nodded, forcing himself to try and ignore the fact that he couldn't see and that it reminded him of the time when a few of his classmates locked him in a cupboard for an entire weekend.

_I'm already enough of a burden. I have to be good, or Nezu will hate me. They'll all hate me even more. I can't be more useless than I already am._

Nezu quietly made his way towards the door, before letting Shuzenji back in.

The first thing that Shuzenji did was to remove the bandages around Midoriya's eyes, making the boy relax slightly. She quickly checked his eyes, before moving on to the rest of his injuries. Nezu had hauled himself up onto the bed to get a closer view at what Shuzenji was doing, but to also reassure Midoriya should something go wrong. He noticed that there were small specks of red in Midoriya's pupils, but Shuzenji had already reassured him that it was normal.

"He should be fine. Everything's healing up well. Your eyes are fine, but they may still be a bit sensitive to bright light while you're recovering. You're on painkillers, so you may not feel much pain right now. Just don't stress yourself out too much. You'll have to stay for a while, though. I want to make sure you're fully healed before you go home."

Midoriya nodded quietly, letting Shuzenji reattach the IV, before he attempted to curl up in a ball again. Shuzenji glanced at the blanket, and moved over to it to drag it back onto the bed, but Midoriya glared at the blanket, growling at it slightly. Nezu noticed that while Midoriya was still shaking, probably from how cool the room was and the bandages he was wearing, he seemed to be scared of the thick blanket.

"If you don't like it, we're not going to force you to use it." Nezu spoke up, before turning to Shuzenji, "Can we turn the temperature up?"

"We can, but not for long periods of time." Shuzenji stated, "It's really warm now, and the students' uniforms aren't exactly the best for losing heat."

"True." Nezu replied, "Don't worry, we'll figure that out later."

He patted Midoriya on the back, "Think you'll be alright on your own for a few minutes? I'm going to grab your stuff real quick and tell Mic to bring Reiko and Ryuto."

Midoriya nodded once more, and Nezu hopped off the bed. He turned back to look at Midoriya, as Midoriya continued looking at him, his emerald eyes gleaming in the darkened room, before Nezu walked out of the infirmary.

Shuzenji was waiting for him outside. Yagi wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"He's scared." Shuzenji admitted, "All his senses are important to him since he doesn't have a useful quirk to rely on. He couldn't see, and coupled with being with a stranger and being in a foreign environment, I'm not surprised that he freaked out, especially since he was in a fight before he passed out. In hindsight, leaving him alone with Toshinori was a bad idea."

"I sense a "but" there." Nezu stated.

Shuzenji sighed, "I'm worried, honestly. I don't know how this may affect his mental state. I'll have to keep observing him for a while. But even before all this happened… something's not right. You remember Shinsou, right, when Aizawa first brought him in. He was shy, never talked, always hid behind Aizawa or Yamada and just tried to avoid everyone. I.. get the same kind of feeling from Midoriya, except it was much, much worse. He was never treated with kindness, negligence, bullying…"

Shuzenji shook her head.

"He's bottling everything inside. One day, he's going to break completely, and when that happens, it'll be too late." Nezu finished for her, his ears and tail drooping.

He knew that Midoriya's foster mother hadn't been good to him. But he hadn't even stopped to consider Midoriya's original family.

_How were they like? Did they treat him well, or did they throw him away because he didn't have a quirk?_

_And what about his former classmates? Did they still bully him outside of UA?_

Nezu was shook himself out of his thoughts, and made his way to the 1-A classroom. Reiko probably knew more about Midoriya's situation than he did, and Midoriya was no doubt worried about her and Ryuto.

Then he could go back to his office, retrieve Midoriya's collar, and proceed to camp out in the infirmary once more.


	25. Chapter 25 - The lost are the heroes

Shinsou nearly dropped the card; his hand was just shaking so much.

_Who sent the damned thing? Kirishima was way too nice to do something like this, and it was nowhere near his handwriting anyways. Who would tell Midoriya to go kill himself? Why would anyone do something like that?_

"Shinsou, are you okay?" Yaoyorozu asked, and Shinsou shakily nodded. Bakugou glanced at the newspaper article on the ground.

"What the fuck?!"

He turned towards Shinsou, and snatched the card out of his grasp.

"Bakugou, stop looking at other people's letters! It's very disrespectful!" Iida yelled, but Bakugou just snapped, "Shut up, Four-eyes. Whichever fucking asshole sent this doesn't deserve any fucking respect!"

Uraraka had picked Ryuto off the ground as Aizawa slowly made his way to Bakugou's desk.

"Bakugou, stop swearing. Give me that."

Bakugou angrily handed the card to Aizawa, while Shinsou picked the newspaper article up and passed it to the teacher.

Koda was holding onto Reiko, and while she had stopped struggling, she was hissing at the remaining letters on Kirishima's desk.

Aizawa quickly skimmed through both items, before he turned to Kirishima, "Which one is yours? And who gave you those letters?"

"This one," Kirishima picked out an envelope with his name written on it, in his usual handwriting, "I told you, some other kids and a few neighbours."

"How well do you know them?" Aizawa asked.

"My neighbours? Pretty well. But the other kids, I just happened to meet them on the way to school. They saw my uniform and asked me to pass them along."

"Yaoyorozu, pass me the remainder of the letters in another stack. They're going through Nezu before they go anywhere near Midoriya." Aizawa ordered, before he pocketed the card and the newspaper article. He gestured towards the shreds of the envelope that Reiko had torn up, and Shinsou picked them up and handed them to him.

"Wait, what happened?" Kirishima asked, completely confused, "What was on the card? It can't be that bad, right?"

"Not bad, my ass! That fucker told Midoriya to go kill himself!"

Bakugou was surprisingly mad over the entire matter. Shinsou was still trying to process what he had read.

The entire class was stunned into silence, before a chorus of "What!?", "Who would do something like that?!" and "Eh!?" rang out.

"Quiet down. All of you go back to your seats." Aizawa ordered, his quirk flaring, making everyone shut up almost immediately. "Bakugou, this is sensitive information. Don't go yelling it around. I don't want to hear a peep about this from any of your outside this classroom. I don't want anyone else hearing about this. I will bring this matter to the teachers and Nezu, and we'll deal with it."

"I…. Sensei… I'm sorry…" Kirishima looked downwards, "I.. I didn't know… they would give me something like that to pass to Midoriya… It's so unmanly…"

"This isn't your fault, Kirishima. It's the fault of whoever gave it to you." Aizawa sighed, "I'll tell you guys how we'll deal with it later. Reiko, can you calm down first?"

Reiko let out an irritated sounding meow, but she did stop hissing and just lay there in Koda's arms, glaring at Kirishima. Koda carefully put Reiko down, before she made her way to Uraraka's desk. She pawed at Uraraka's leg, and Uraraka gently placed Ryuto on the ground next to her.

Reiko nuzzled Ryuto, before she curled up around the bird, settling down on the ground.

Yaoyorozu finished collecting all the cards and placed them on Aizawa's desk, keeping the unnamed letters and the small pile of cards that Kirishima had obtained in a separate stack.

"Anyways, moving on to what we were supposed to do today." Aizawa continued, "All the first years are required to have at least one counselling session with Hound Dog, especially the students who were fighting in the front lines. You're still children; what happened on that day shouldn't have happened."

"We're fine!" Bakugou snapped, "We don't need stupid counselling. We're going to fight villains sooner or later as heroes anyway."

"Fighting is one thing. Did you see Midoriya?" Aizawa merely stated, and Bakugou froze at the mention of Midoriya's name.

"Exactly, my point." Aizawa sighed, "It's something that none of you were ready to see. Even the best pro heroes would need therapy and counselling after something like that. Anyways, some of you may end up having sessions during lunches or homeroom lessons. You guys can also book your own therapy and counselling sessions with Hound Dog outside of school hours, if you wish. Now, I believe you have Modern Hero Art History right now with Midnight, and she wants you to go the library. If you want to talk more, you can come and find me after lessons."

Aizawa sank into his chair as he watched his students leave the room, their shoulders tense, and rested his head against the table. His phone had vibrated during the lesson, indicating that he had a message, and he slowly fished his phone out of his pocket. He quickly read the message about Midoriya and Yagi, and sighed in relief.

At the very least, Midoriya had woken up. He was okay, for now.

He pulled out the malicious card, the newspaper article and the torn envelope as Reiko slowly walked up to the teachers table, Ryuto trailing behind her, and rested by Aizawa's sleeping bag. She heard footsteps, and she perked up, curling around Ryuto protectively as she glanced at the doorway. Aizawa looked up in curiosity, as Nezu appeared by the doorway and walked in.

"Hello, Aizawa…" Nezu glanced at the torn envelope in Aizawa's hand, "Your students were… upset... What happened?"

"See for yourself, Principal." Aizawa mutely handed the letter and the article to Nezu, and the principal skimmed through them both. He narrowed his eyes, and growled, "Who sent this?"

"No idea. A student from another school asked Kirishima to pass it Midoriya." Aizawa grumbled, "Kirishima mentioned that his neighbours also asked him to pass on a few cards. I separated the letters from the students from those that came from an unknown source or his neighbours. It may be an invasion of privacy, but I think we should go through all of them to make sure that Midoriya doesn't any malicious letters."

"Who opened this one?" Nezu asked, and Aizawa nodded at Reiko, and just growled and hissed.

"Ah." Nezu stuffed the letter in his pocket, and walked over to Reiko. He reached down, picking both Ryuto and Reiko up, and grabbed the second stack of letters off Aizawa's desk.

"I'll deal with this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention."

Nezu walked back to his office, remaining quiet along the way.

_Who would be so cruel as to send something to Izuku?_

_What did he do to deserve this?_

* * *

Nezu dumped the letters on his desk, keeping a tight hold on her in case she decided to shred any more letters. He placed Ryuto on his table, and the bird sat down obediently, before pecking at one of the pens on Nezu's table.

"Reiko, what tipped you off about that card? How did you know it was… about this?" Nezu asked.

Reiko hissed.

_"Smell. Familiar smell. Bad person. Hits Izuku. Always hurts Izu. Always told him to die."_

"Who is this… person? A foster sibling, an old classmate?"

_"Some school person. Don't know name. Doesn't matter if they live with him or they're from school. They're all the same."_

Nezu bit the bottom of his lip, "What do you mean by "They're all the same"?"

Reiko let out an enraged yowl.

_"They call him useless, they tell him to die, they only hurt him! Says he has no powers and he's lower than them, less than human. They take his things, they get him in trouble. Teachers know, they don't care. They never care! Nobody else cares about Izu."_

Nezu blanched.

It wasn't just a select few that hated Midoriya and tried to make his life a living hell.

It was everyone.

Everyone discriminated against him for being quirkless. Everyone threw him aside and discarded him, treated him like trash, simply because he didn't have a super power.

It was _sickening._

"Reiko, do you know anything about Izuku's parents? Not the woman that he used to live with, his real parents?" Nezu desperately asked. There had to be at least someone in his life who saw Midoriya for who he really was and loved and cared for him.

_"Don't know. He was with the bad woman when he found us and she hurt him. She only hurts him."_

Nezu sank back in his chair, his ears drooping.

_Why were people so cruel to the poor kid?_

Reiko leapt out of his grasp, landing on the table, and started sniffing each envelope, pushing some of the cards to the left and to the right. Nezu watched on wearily, and sighed, rubbing his head.

Nezu blinked, before he bent down to dig Midoriya's english essay out of his drawer. He flipped through its pages, reading every single word that Midoriya had written, with the context that Reiko had given him.

_People hurt others to feel happy._

Everyone had hurt Midoriya because it made them feel better about themselves. They hurt an innocent child simply because he didn't have a quirk.

_Every death, every kill, they will lose a piece of themselves, until there is nothing left of them to save._

_There's so many people on this planet. So many people with problems worse than yours. Why should people waste their time on you?_

_They shouldn't._

_Humans are like glass._

_You can hurt them, break them, make them crack._

_But once they shatter, no matter how hard you try, they're beyond repair._

_Even if you find every single glass fragment, and put all the pieces back together in the right place, all the weak points are still there. Weaknesses that can be exploited by others for their personal gain, weaknesses that still hurt no matter what._

_An injury that cannot be truly healed._

_Emotions are a liability._

Midoriya wasn't just referring to every other murderer and villain out there. He was referring to himself. Every suicide he attempted, he broke himself more and more. He didn't think that he was worth saving, considered himself a lost cause, and had long given up trying to ask for help.

_Emotions are worthless._

_No one cares._

_Happiness makes one blind to what's going on around them by making them complacent, and it allows them to fall into obvious traps right in front of them._

_Positive emotions are just a drug, something that people get addicted to. And when that feeling is gone, they crave it, wanting it more and more, until they snap, and give in to that urge._

_They will do anything to feel that way again._

_Combine them together, and all you have coming for you is the imminent pain and horror, that you made such a mistake, that the people you once thought to be friends are the ones causing the pain, that in reality, no one cares about you._

_Then, they'll flock around, playing nice, pretending to be your friend until they get what they want, before they dig into your carcass like vultures._

_All you can do is wait for the eventual betrayal, but is it betrayal if you both agree on it, if you both agree that one person does not deserve anything, not friendship, not companionship, not anything at all?_

They had played with Midoriya's emotions, very literally pretending to befriend him, making him happy, making him fall into the trap that they had created. Then they stabbed him in the back, hurt him, broke his heart over and over again, until finally, it completely shattered. And Midoriya, desperately wanting to be accepted as a person, had naively tried time and time again to make friends.

And time and time again, they broke him, more and more.

Until even Midoriya gave up on trying to be accepted. He believed everything that everyone else had said, that he was useless, that he didn't deserve anything at all, or maybe he had believed that all along, and his interactions with his classmates and foster family only reinforced it.

This was _messed up._ And Nezu wasn't sure how to help Midoriya at all. He was emotionally stunted; he didn't want to show his emotions because he considers it a weakness. A weakness that would just allow people to hurt him again, over and over.

His entire life, the poor child had been neglected, ignored, bullied, suicide-baited. He had been lied to, time and time again, until he was no longer able to trust anyone, heroes or civilians alike.

Midoriya was afraid of being hurt again. So he locked his emotions away, and put up a facade to make it appear that nothing could hurt him anymore.

_But he was still hurting horribly inside._

Reiko gave a loud meow, catching Nezu's attention.

_"The stack on the left are the okay ones. The ones on the right smell wrong."_

"Alright, thanks Reiko. I'll check through all of them just in case." Nezu nodded, and fished Midoriya's collar out of the drawer on his desk, placing it in his pocket. He grabbed a stack of paperwork off his table, before snatching up the oversized fluffy jacket that Yamada had gotten him a few years ago for April Fools.

"Come on, let's go back to the infirmary."

* * *

Midoriya had fallen asleep by the time Nezu had gotten back to the infirmary, curled up in a small, tight ball. It wasn't surprising; Midoriya was still recovering from injuries that _should have killed him._

Nezu placed his papers on the table, and scooped Reiko and Ryuto up, making his way towards the bed.

Midoriya blearily opened an eye when Nezu got close, and Nezu placed both animals on the bed. Ryuto immediately leapt forward and nuzzled Midoriya, and Reiko pawed over and licked him on the cheek. Midoriya let out a small squeak, uncurling himself slightly. He wrapped his arms around Reiko and Ryuto, before he looked up at Nezu tiredly.

Nezu gave him a small smile, and took the collar out of his pocket. Midoriya's eyes widened slightly, and Nezu passed the collar over to him.

Midoriya slowly reached out to take it, and sat upright, attempting to put it on.

Except that he couldn't.

No matter how much he tried, Midoriya just could not undo the buckle on his collar. His fingers were trembling, and his hands were shaking so much that he was having problems just holding it.

Nezu could tell that Midoriya was starting to get frustrated, as the kid bit his lip as he tried, again and again, to no avail. Nezu wasn't sure if it was because of his nerves, or his injuries, but he still climbed up onto the bed and reached his paw out, "Here, I'll help you."

Midoriya stopped fiddling with his collar, and turned to look at Nezu, a blank expression of confusion sitting on his face. He stared at Nezu, until Reiko gave a purr and nudged him. Midoriya hesitantly handed the collar back to Nezu, and he quickly undid the collar.

Nezu passed the collar back to Midoriya, and with a quiet, hoarse sounding, "Thank you," the boy slipped around his neck. Midoriya managed to shakily slip the strap back through the buckle, but was unable to fasten it properly; his hands were still trembling too much. He finally managed to fasten it, after a couple long minutes of struggling, and exhaled slowly.

Nezu noted that Midoriya was definitely much calmer than before, and gave a small smile as Midoriya sluggishly lay back down, curling up around Reiko and Ryuto protectively as he did so. His eyelids slowly slid shut, and Nezu hopped off the bed, grabbing the jacket and draping it over Midoriya's sleeping body, before he picked up his paperwork and proceeded to finish it up in the infirmary.

* * *

Kayama wanted everyone to look up some old art pieces about heroes from books in the library, and Shinsou happened to be stuck in the same aisle as Iida, Uraraka,Todoroki, Kirishima, and unfortunately, Bakugou.

Uraraka turned to Bakugou, "Are you okay? I honestly didn't think you'd get so riled up over this matter."

"Midoriya is capable enough without a quirk. Midoriya beat me at the Sports Festival." Bakugou snarled, "Midoriya beat all of us. Telling him to kill himself for being quirkless is like telling all of us to kill ourselves for being weaker than him."

Bakugou stalked away from them, and Kirishima moved to follow him.

Shinsou stared at Bakugou's back as he walked away.

"I wasn't expecting that from Bakugou." Uraraka admitted, "I thought he hated Midoriya."

"He doesn't hate him. Bakugou is strong and he knows it. Bakugou knows that Midoriya's strong as well. Being beaten at his best by Midoriya, who is quirkless… Bakugou respects him for it. He wants to beat him fair and square." Todoroki said.

"You think we can visit him if we ask Recovery Girl directly?" Shinsou asked.

"Probably, as long as we promise to be quiet." Iida replied. "I hope we can see him."


	26. Chapter 26 - No one needs to hear you

The lessons passed relatively quickly. Modern Hero Art History, English, Mathematics.

Shinsou was seriously just waiting for the lunch bell to ring so that he could grab a quick bite before going to the infirmary; his parents would kill him if they found out that he had skipped a meal, and the fact that they worked at the school he attended didn't help.

It wasn't like he needed to listen in class anyways. Kayama had given them some homework, Kaminari and Ashido were struggling with their grammar, and he was really good at permutations and combinations, which was the topic that Ectoplasm was covering. Once they had been released, Shinsou, Koda, Iida and Uraraka had made a beeline for the cafeteria, aiming to eat as fast as possible, before heading to the infirmary.

What they weren't expecting, though, was for another group consisting of Shoji, Kaminari, Kirishima, Jiro and Yaoyorozu following them.

"I guess everyone is worried about Midoriya, huh?" Uraraka gave a small laugh, scratching the back of her head.

"No surprise there." Yaoyorozu sighed, "He jumped into the fight protect everyone, to protect us…"

They finally reached the infirmary, and Kirishima knocked on the door gently. Shuzenji opened the door, and sighed, "I figured you'd be here even though I specifically told all the teachers to tell you guys not to visit. Midoriya woke up earlier today, but he fell asleep again. As long as you're quiet, and _don't_ touch anything, you're welcome to visit."

Iida bowed slightly, "Thank you."

Shizenji nodded, "Nezu's inside as well; you should be on your best behaviour. Also, be careful. If you shock him, Midoriya _might_ attack you? He doesn't come to the infirmary as frequently as you hero course kids, he's a bit jumpy in a foregin environment."

Shinsou replied, "Yeah, we understand."

Shuzenji pushed the door open wider, and the group of students carefully walked into the infirmary. To their confusion, the blanket had been hastily shoved into a cupboard, and Midoriya was curled up on the bed under a fluffy jacket. Why he wasn't using the blanket when there clearly was a clean one available, nobody knew.

Nezu was reading over some paperwork, and he raised his head when he saw the students enter, nodding in acknowledgement.

Shoji was roughly a couple arms length from Midoriya, and he took a step closer to avoid bumping into a cupboard.

Midoriya's eyes shot open, and he let out a strangled yelp as he tried to push himself up. He faltered, and Shinsou saw a miniscule wince on the boy's face as his arm gave way slightly. Yaoyorozu and Jiro gave a small yelp in surprise and took a step back as Shoji flinched at the boy's sudden movement.

Midoriya's emerald green eyes were clouded with pain and confusion, and he glanced around, eyeing each student warily, almost like he was trying to figure out who they were. He finally seemed to figure out what was going on, and he relaxed slightly, before lowering himself back down on the bed gently.

Shinsou could see his arms shaking visibly with the effort, and guilt pooled in his stomach.

_He had been injured much more because of him. If he had more stamina… if he had noticed Shigaraki targeting him…._

He pushed the thoughts away. It wasn't the time for him to be wallowing in self pity.

Midoriya curled back up around Ryuto and Reiko, and the cat nuzzled Midoriya in an attempt to calm him down.

"Hey, Midoriya, how you doing?" Shinsou asked.

Midoriya reached out a bandaged hand in an attempt to sign, but his hand and fingers were trembling too much for Shinsou or Koda to make out what he was trying to sign.

"You're still recovering, right?" Uraraka waved her hands at Midoriya, "You don't have to reply if you can't. Just rest first, okay?"

Midoriya glanced at her, and reluctantly nodded.

"Well… you won the Sports Festival, didn't you, Midoriya." Yaoyorozu started, "You'll probably be transferred into the hero course next year… are you excited for it? I think it's really amazing that you managed to get so far without a quirk."

Midoriya glanced at her briefly, before he turned his gaze away from her and curled up even tighter, pulling the jacket over his body. Yaoyorozu didn't really bring it up, but Midoriya was completely covered in bandages from the neck down. She felt a shiver down her spine, and clenched her fists.

_She was in the hero course, dammit, and a recommended student to boot. And yet, the quirkless General Education student without any proper training was the one that suffered the brunt of the physical and psychological damage and trauma._

"Well, he's going to have to catch up with the lessons, right, if he's going to transfer?" Jiro asked.

"No, not really. The only difference between the Hero and General Education courses are the Foundational Hero Studies and access to the different facilities." Yaoyorozu stated, "He might have to catch up on those lessons, and maybe a bit of Modern Hero Art History with Midnight sensei, but that should be it. How are you doing in lessons?"

Midoriya blankly glanced at her again, before he gave her a small shrug even though he was curled up in a ball.

"Well… I guess he's doing okay?" Yaoyorozu sighed, "I suppose you wouldn't have any problems keeping up. If you do need help, feel free to ask us. We can help you."

They stood there awkwardly, not sure what to do next.

"Ahh… you guys should be heading back to class right now, shouldn't you? The bell would ring soon. I don't think Aizawa would tolerate you being late, even though he's all wrapped in bandages. He always was a stubborn one." Nezu stated, breaking the silence, not even looking up from his paperwork.

"My apologies, sir!" Iida saluted, before he started ushering everyone out of the room, "We shall head back right now! Midoriya, take care of yourself, okay?"

Todoroki turned to leave, before the stopped. He took and deep breath, and bowed, "Thank you…. For saving Iida and I in Hosu. I don't think we would have come out unscathed if you didn't do so… and I apologise for what Endeavor did in the beginning of your fight with Stain. I… I tried to tell him that you were on our side and -"

"That wasn't your fault." Iida insisted, "You couldn't control what Endeavor did. But I also have to thank you for saving us back there, Midoriya. And for… what happened in UA…"

Midoriya weakly shook his head. He did not want to remember being bashed into the ground over and over again, his broken bones piercing random organs left and right. Bleeding out from all over the place was a much worse experience from what he had thought, and he wasn't eager to recall what had happened.

Ryuto bumped his head against Midoriya's, and Reiko licked Midoriya's cheek, before letting out a meow. Koda quickly signed, Reiko says not to talk about it, and Shinsou translated it for the rest of the group.

"Get well soon, Midoriya!" Uraraka waved, as she left the room.

Yaoyorozu stood outside, waiting for Iida and Todoroki to exit and close the door, before she hissed, "Midoriya fought Stain!?"

* * *

Midoriya sat up on the bed. Shuzenji had updated him on his condition and had healed him up again, and while her quirk supposedly was supposed to drain his energy, Midoriya had been sleeping far too long and was used to operating under minimal energy for him to actually feel tired again.

He was sick and tired of just sitting around and doing nothing, even though his veins still felt like they were on fire and his head spun whenever he made any violent movements.

He didn't care, though. If he didn't do anything, then he was as good as useless.

_If he were useless, then he should just go and die._

Nezu had left the infirmary for some sort of staff meeting, which probably meant that he wouldn't be back for another hour, at the very least.

Midoriya swung his legs off the bed, and tried to push down his nausea from his sudden movement.

Reiko leapt onto his hand and latched onto it, whining, but Midoriya just shot her a tired look. Reiko stared back at him sadly, and Midoriya slowly reached out to pet her, before he pushed himself off the bed.

Pain flared through his entire body, and Midoriya bit his lip, trying to steady himself as he swayed unsteady on his feet. His head was spinning, but he just squeezed his eyes shut and willed it away. The pain eventually subsided, and Midoriya took another step, then another.

Shuzenji was right. His injuries were pretty much healed at his point, and it was his torso and upper body that had taken the brunt of the damage. He just needed to get used to moving about and walking, though she did mention that he should get some sort of supervision when he did so.

"Stay … here, Reiko. Take care… of Ryuto…" Midoriya croaked out, before slowly made his way out of the infirmary. Walking was gradually getting easier, although he was still aching all over the place.

_Maybe I should go to the classroom and find my bag… Ectoplasm Sensei did give us some math homework… and Nezu did give me some extra exercises…_

Midoriya walked through the hallways slowly, before he turned a corner, almost walking right into Yaoyorozu. Jiro, Iida, and Shinsou turned as she stopped, before they gaped at Midoriya.

"What are you doing here!?" Jiro gasped, "You should be resting… how… Aizawa sensei said it should be a few more days before you should be able to move around…"

Midoriya blearily looked at her, confused, before he raised his hands in a failed attempt to sign.

"No, stop. You may be able to walk, but more precise actions like that will definitely be harder for you, especially while you're still recovering." Yaoyorozu reached out to grab his hands in an attempt to stop him.

She didn't expect Midoriya to flinch so harshly, recoiling violently at the slightest touch, and he fell back onto the floor. Midoriya gave a small wince as he hit the ground, and he hunched over, coughing.

Jiro quickly bent down to try and help him up, but Iida managed to pull her back in time before she startled him even more.

Midoriya's coughing fit finally wore off, and the boy desperately tried to get up. He placed his hand against the wall, and tried to push himself up. Shinsou carefully made his way over to Midoriya, and crouched down, offering his hand, but Midoriya just ignored him.

Shinsou took a step back as Midoriya staggered to his feet, leaning against the wall, but he could clearly see the green haired boy straining himself. His entire body was trembling from the effort, and Shinsou could see the wince of pain and weariness written on the boy's face.

_He never showed any emotions whatsoever,_ Shinsou realised, _but he does express pain and exhaustion, though he does his best to hide it._

This wasn't anything surprising to him. Shinsou had personally experienced that want, that need to hide his true feelings from everyone, to put up a facade and wear a mask to try and pretend that everything was fine.

Because if you appeared to be affected by what everyone did to you, they would just hurt you more.

It had taken Aizawa and Yamada over a year to gradually break through his shell, and even then, there were times where Shinsou wanted to throw the mask on and stop being a burden to the two heroes who not only had two jobs, but also had to take care of an abused child.

Given the letters from past classmates that he would have received had Reiko not sniffed them out… It was no surprise that Midoriya was wary, hell, probably terrified about trusting other people. Midoriya had no one to fall back on. If all everyone did was hurt him… no doubt Midoriya would try to put up a front to protect himself, except that the line between the mask that he put up and the real Midoriya was blurry, almost indistinguishable.

Midoriya staggered forwards, using the wall as support. Shinsou tried to stop him, but Midoriya weakly pushed his arm away. Yaoyorozu and Jiro moved aside to let him pass, worry written across their features.

Shinsou turned back to face him, "Where are you going? Are you going to get something? Can we help you?"

Midoriya merely ignored his question, and slowly walked towards the classrooms. He paused, bursting into another coughing fit, before he continued on his way.

Yaoyorozu worriedly gazed at Midoriya's back, "I can see why he wouldn't trust Jiro and I ... but why not you two? I thought that you guys hung around him a lot during lunches and even during the Sports Festival."

"I wouldn't be surprised that he hasn't warmed up to you." Jiro mumbled, "If those letters he was supposed to get were any indication… I wouldn't want to trust my peers either if they told me to kill myself."

Iida could only gaze at him helplessly, before he sighed, "We can't help him unless he lets us. All we can do at the moment is to let him know that we're willing to help, and just wait."


	27. Chapter 27 - It never works that way

Maijima sighed as he made his way back to the support course classrooms. He wanted to tweak the security systems again, and the remainder of the staff meeting didn't concern him, so he had been given permission to leave early.

He just happened to pass by the 1-C classroom, when he heard the sound of papers being shuffled.

_That's weird,_ he thought. If it were in 1-A or 1-B, he would understand; they were given a group assignment for their heroics lessons, and some had requested to stay back in order to get it going, but there was no reason for a general education student to still be in school.

Maijima carefully took a peek into the classroom, and much to his surprise, he found Midoriya rummaging through his papers that were sitting in the compartment under his desk. He had no idea what the boy was looking for, but given where he was looking, it was most likely his homework.

_Goddammit, kid. Just relax for once._

Maijima knew that he wouldn't be able to get close to the exhausted child without making matters worse. He had already heard how vicious the boy was with Yagi, and he really didn't want to do anything that may spook or harm the boy further.

He quickly walked away, and whipped out his phone to text Nezu. The mouse bear thing would know how to deal with the problem child. For now, all the rest of the teachers could do was wait and hope for the best.

* * *

Shinsou yawned, and stretched, as the four passed by the infirmary. Yaoyorozu figured that while they wouldn't be able to wrangle the boy back to the infirmary, but another authoritative figure, such as Shuzenji or Nezu, might. But they weren't going to go out of their way to inform someone and snitch, no, that would just break all the trust that Midoriya may have put in them.

But if they just happened to meet Nezu or Shuzenji and they asked…. well, it wouldn't hurt to tell them. Nezu was the principal and Shuzenji was the nurse.

_Speak of the devil... and they shall appear._

Shuzenji had almost barrelled into Jiro and Yaoyorozu as she exited the infirmary, mumbling, "Where on earth is he?!"

"Uh… are you talking about Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu stammered, "We saw him going by the hallway, but we're not sure what he wants. I accidentally startled him and he fell down, but he managed to get back up and continued on his way. He didn't want us to help him."

Reiko padded out of the infirmary, looking around before she faced Shinsou. She purred and rubbed her head against Shinsou's pant leg. The lilac haired boy squatted down and scratched Reiko under her chin, "Don't worry about him. He's strong, right?"

"He shouldn't even be able to move around, let alone leave the room, especially with all those painkillers." Shuzenji grumbled, "He's too stubborn for his own good. Aizawa really was right in calling him a problem child."

She looked up at the group of students, and sighed, "Go home first. I'll deal with Midoriya. Normally, I would be mad that you never helped him, but seeing how he is right now… It was a good call. At the moment… you won't be able to help him."

"Recovery Girl… What happened to him? I… I honestly have never seen anyone act like he does… I'm kinda worried… and I don't know enough about things like this to help him..." Yaoyorozu faltered.

Shuzenji bit her lip for a second, before she replied, "You should go talk to Hound Dog about this matter. I don't know enough about psychology in order to advise you on what to do. All I can say is to be patient with him; Midoriya's been through a lot, I honestly don't know the full extent of it."

Iida and Jiro silently nodded, not knowing what else to say.

"Anyways, Aizawa must have told you already, but you should go see Hound Dog regarding the… _other_ incident." Shuzenji continued, "Your mental health is just as important as your physical health."

* * *

"Cementoss, you can oversee the building of the student dorms right?" Nezu asked, and the hero nodded, "Power Loader is already trying to up the security systems. Mic, we're pushing the sign language lessons up."

"Ya sure? Some of them can't even speak English, or even understand it properly." Yamada asked, "We're not doing this because of Midoriya, right?"

"This has nothing to do with Izuku." Nezu replied, "Most of the students are going to be working in Japan anyways. It's more important for them to be able to understand sign language than English, especially for hero work."

Kayama piped up, "Yeah, you have no idea how grateful I am to have learned sign language when dealing with deaf and mute victims, or when villains try to communicate with each other using it."

Yamada slowly nodded, before making a quick note on his phone to change the schedule.

"Hound Dog… have you had any appointments with anyone yet?" Nezu asked.

"Hmm… I've talked with Monoma and Shiozaki from 1-B, as well as Ojiro just now." Inui replied, "I'm going to be talking with Monoma again next week, but I think they're all doing okay. Uraraka, Kendo, Iida, Kamakiri, and Shinsou have their sessions tomorrow."

"Alright… that's good…" Nezu hummed, as he tried to think if there was anything that he had missed, when his phone vibrated. Nezu quickly grabbed his phone to check who was messaging him, and groaned.

"What is it?" Aizawa frowned. He was currently seated on one of the couches in the meeting room, instead of at the table, but that was the only way anyone would let him attend the meeting.

"Izuku's in his classroom for some reason." Nezu replied, "He's probably looking for his homework. I think we've covered everything. If there's anything else that needs to be dealt with, I'll email you." Nezu stood up, "I'm going to try and get Izuku back to the infirmary and finish up the rest of the paperwork."

"Wait… I thought Recovery Girl used her quirk on him." Kayama pointed out, "Shouldn't she have noticed that he had gone out?"

She didn't get a reply from the worried principal.

"I'll come with you. I think my quirk will come in handy. Ectoplasm, you too." Kayama stated, standing up to follow Nezu out of the room.

* * *

Midoriya frowned as he finished looking through the papers in his desk. He didn't have that many papers, but none of them were the maths homework that Ectoplasm had given out.

Midoriya carefully stumbled out of the classroom. His head was starting to pound, and his legs were shaking under his exertion. He stopped and pressed his hand against the wall as he coughed, his arms trembling as he did so. He used his free hand in an attempt to cover his mouth, and he stood there.

He could feel pain flaring up in his chest as he continued coughing, and he slumped against the wall, trying to stabilize himself. His coughing fit finally died down, and Midoriya leaned against the wall.

He took a deep breath, before taking the next step forward.

He heard footsteps, and he immediately looked upwards, trying to find the source of the noise, but the sudden movement caused his head to throb.

Midoriya could blearily make out a short person with what looked like a pink helmet and a white coat walking towards him.

"Midoriya? Midoriya, are you okay?" The figure asked, and sped up their pace.

Midoriya wasn't sure who this person was, but it sounded like a woman. It was familiar, but he couldn't really place it.

He instinctively took a step back.

_You can't trust anyone. They just want to hurt you. She just wants to hurt you._

Midoriya bared his teeth, growling, and the figure stopped, "Calm down, it's just me, Recovery Girl."

Suddenly, Midoriya felt a wave of pain flood through his entire system, and he bit his lip, waiting for the wave of pain and nausea to pass. He could hear the figure walking closer, but he no longer had the strength to do anything else to try and chase them away,

Midoriya felt another coughing fit come up, and he desperately tried his best to hold it in, only for him to hunch over in agony as his body acted on reflex. His throat was burning, and he could distinctly hear more footsteps behind him.

There were three people; he could tell that much from the footsteps. One sounded like they were running in heels, another sounded like they were walking with peg legs. The last one seemed to be shorter than the other two, and it sounded like they were wearing shoes that were way too big for them.

Midoriya whirled around, trying to figure out what was going on, but it was much too fast for his weakened body to handle, and he lost his balance, falling harshly to the floor.

"Izuku, are you okay?"

Midoriya would have perked up at the voice, except that his head was pounding and he currently felt like throwing up despite having not eaten anything. He wrapped his arms around himself, almost as if he were cold, to try and stem his nausea, and Nezu couldn't do anything but crouch down and gently pull the boy in for a hug.

"Calm down, Izuku. No one's going to hurt you anymore."

He motioned for Shuzenji, Ectoplasm, and Kayama to stand back, and he waited, standing there patiently, until Midoriya finally relaxed, lifting his head ever so slightly, eyeing the principal with those dull, emerald eyes.

"Alright, feeling better, Izuku?" Nezu asked, getting a small nod in reply, "Do you think you have enough energy to make it back to the infirmary?"

Midoriya nodded again, and carefully, using the wall as support, pushed himself up. He leaned against the wall, taking deep, heavy breaths, waiting for his vision to clear before taking the next step.

"Come on, let's go."

Nezu looked towards Shuzenji, Ectoplasm, and Kayama, before putting a paw to his face, signaling them to be quiet. He didn't want them to spook Midoriya even further, and the only being that Midoriya trusted was the one that had absolutely no means of carrying him.

They made the slow, tedious trek back to the infirmary, and Ectoplasm couldn't help but wonder why the boy was so determined to come to get his homework when it had been very clear that he shouldn't even be able to get up without any help.

_Why was he pushing himself so far? Why didn't he ask for help? Doesn't he know that he can rely on others as well?_


	28. Chapter 28 - Into the dark below

Shuzenji really wanted to scold Midoriya for leaving the room without anyone's permission, but she really couldn't find it in her heart to do so. The boy looked completely worn out, and his gaze was so blank and empty that Shuzenji could only wonder what had happened to him to reduce him to such a state.

He had literally passed out out of exhaustion when he had gotten back to the infirmary, and she actually had to check on him to make sure he was okay. His face was pale, and even as he slept, he was trembling like a leaf in a hurricane.

Reiko and Ryuto were pressed up against his neck, and she draped the oversized jacket over Midoriya's small body. The fact that he didn't even stir even as she did so was evidence of how tired he was.

She really wanted to help him, but while she could do so physically, she didn't know how to do so psychologically.

Midoriya didn't trust anyone, and he only believed that people would hurt him. It wasn't because he was a violent kid that he attacked Yagi; he was afraid that Yagi would hurt him.

The poor child believed that he was worthless. He was willing to throw his life away for his classmates, willing to push himself beyond his limits, even if it meant breaking himself in the process.

Midoriya was also a vigilante, and that was another whole can of worms that Shuzenji didn't want to open now. She could see some scars that were stitched together rather badly, and she had specifically checked if Midoriya had gotten any check-ups for any of them before.

His last check up was when he was ten, for a head injury after "falling" off the school building.

That was utter bullcrap. No one could just _fall_ off the roof of a school; Midoriya was either pushed off, or he had tried to kill himself.

Given that he had to be admitted to the hospital that one time, his trauma induced quirk must have activated after the incident. Trauma induced quirks weren't rare, but they weren't exactly common either. And usually, the quirk that manifested was usually something that the person _would_ have gotten if they had developed a quirk normally; it was usually a mixture of their parents' quirks.

But Midoriya's quirk was nothing like his mother's weak telekinesis quirk or his father's fire breathing quirk; his ability of not being able to die and being able to somewhat recover from fatal injuries just seemed to come out of nowhere.

Shuzenji just hoped that she and the other teachers could eventually gain Midoriya's trust. That was the only way that they could help him.

* * *

"This isn't going to work."

Yamada turned around to face Aizawa.

"We can't keep relying on Nezu to help Midoriya whenever he's being stubborn and pushing himself too far. We're his teachers; we need him to be able to trust us if we want any chance of helping him." Aizawa lamented.

"Yeah, especially for you, right?" Snipe sighed, "You're to be his new homeroom teacher. I would give you tips on handling him if I could... but I'm as lost as you are when it comes to helping him."

"I'm also stumped as to how to help Midoriya." Inui admitted, "I have never seen a case as bad as his. There are also cases that are better than his that didn't...turn out well. As much as I hate to say it-"

"Midoriya's not a lost cause." Aizawa interrupted, "The fact that he's willing to talk to Nezu shows that he still has a chance of healing and getting better."

"I wasn't going to say that." Inui growled, "I don't think I can help him. His condition is beyond what I am capable of handling, but if Midoriya isn't even willing to trust us, his teachers, or his schoolmates, it's going to be even harder for him to trust an outside psychiatrist."

"Mental scars like this takes a lot of time to heal." Aizawa sighed, "Midoriya just has especially deep scars that were left to fester. Take suicide baiting and -"

"Wait, suicide baiting? Who would do that to him?!" Inui growled.

"You guys remember that Nezu told you to dump those letters in his office, right?" Aizawa asked, and the rest of the teachers nodded apprehensively, "Well, apparently, Reiko sniffed out a couple of letters, telling Midoriya to… kill himself….. They're probably from former classmates, and now, Nezu's probably going to get Reiko's help in checking through all the letters to make sure Midoriya doesn't get any letters like that."

"Well… Most of the letters were from the rest of the students." Snipe leaned back into his chair, "I doubt any of them would tell Midoriya any derogatory like that, but it's better to be safe. I don't think there's that many anyways; there's only like, one letter per class that everyone had written in. The hero course are more recognisable due to the Sports Festival, and were probably sought out for that."

"There's that other problem with Midoriya being a vigilante." Aizawa grumbled, "He actually talks when he goes around as Void. Not a lot, but still. I personally think that he's self-conscious and afraid of how people view him, and when he's Void, no one knows who he is and he can let his guard down a little."

"We're just lucky this hasn't gone out to the media. Midoriya's identity is still safe, and pretty much only heroes have met his vigilante identity, though he technically isn't breaking the law." Ishiyama sighed.

* * *

Aizawa hobbled to the infirmary, with the help of Yamada. His injuries weren't that bad; just a few broken ribs, a snapped arm, a slightly broken leg, and just some internal bleeding. Nothing that Shuzenji couldn't fix within a week or two. Shuzenji just wanted him mummified for a few more days before he was free from the offending white bandages, and Aizawa did want to talk to Nezu about some things.

"So… what do you think?" Yamada asked, "There usually aren't any transfers in the middle of the year."

"We don't have a choice." Aizawa hissed, "Midoriya's involvement with the League of Villains… both as himself as a student and as Void, has painted a huge target on his back. I was pretty much out of it when we landed back in UA, I'm not sure how Midoriya's fights, but given that he fights quirkless, he's going to need all the training he can get. We can't wait until next year; it will be too late."

"I honestly think that Midoriya… well… we should try to fix his mindset first." Yamada mumbled, "Putting others before himself is fine… but he such a skewed sense of self worth that he's breaking himself. Nezu wanted to put him in Vlad King's class, but it made more sense to put him in your class because he seems to be familiar with Shinsou, Iida, Koda and Uraraka."

"Zashi… what was Midoriya like when you saw him as Void? When he came to ask for help regarding Hitoshi?" Aizawa asked, "That was ages ago, but… was he different?"

"Well…" Yamada scratched the back of his head, "Now that you mention it… He was really different. He was definitely way more relaxed and outgoing, even though we were talking about a serious matter… Shouta, don't give me that face."

"My face is all bandaged up." Aizawa grumbled, "You can't see my face."

"I know you well enough to tell." Yamada grumbled, "You think we could have stopped this from even happening, don't you?"

"He was right there in front of you." Aizawa sighed, "He's dealing with so many problems, and yet, he only asked for help to help someone else. If we had known about it then -"

"It wouldn't have made a difference." Yamada admitted, "Midoriya's a stubborn kid, and clearly his mental state had severely deteriorated in that six year timespan. No one would have been able to tell that he's been suffering on his own. At the very least, we should be glad that he isn't alone; I'm sure he would be much worse off if he didn't have Reiko. Just calm down first, let Recovery Girl do her stuff, and then we can decide how best to help Midoriya."

* * *

Nezu carefully dumped all the notes and letters into a small paper bag, grabbed his paperwork and laptop, and made his way to the infirmary.

Midoriya was out like a light the second he had gotten back to the room, and Nezu had taken the opportunity to grab his stuff from his office. He couldn't just sit on his butt all day, not when his pile of paperwork was constantly growing, and he was constantly being sent data to analyse.

He had checked through the rest of the letters fairly quickly and found no problems with them; only 1-A and 1-B had sent in individual letters, while the remainder of the classes only had one giant class card that everyone signed, with the acception of Hatsume, who had included in her letter a blueprint to some kind of knife blade thing and Nezu was too tired to make out what it was.

At least, the 1-C students seemed especially apologetic for how they used to treat Midoriya.

Midoriya was still sound asleep, luckily, and Nezu picked up a piece of paper about school management. Aizawa and Yamada had popped in to see Shuzenji as well, and Nezu had to stifle his laughter as Shuzenji berated Aizawa for taking off a few of his bandages again in exchange for mobility.

Aizawa was finally released from Shuzenji's clutches, still with his bandages on, as the nurse sighed with exasperation at Aizawa's stubbornness.

It didn't take long before Aizawa and Yamada left the infirmary, and Nezu sank back into his chair. He too was at a loss as to how to help Midoriya. He had a pretty good idea of what Midoriya had gone through, but was that it? Was there more to the abuse that he didn't know about?

Knowing that problem was one thing, but solving it was a whole new problem altogether.

And even though Midoriya had wanted to let it slide… Nezu was not comfortable with just letting his foster mother go scot free. Sure, she may be a decent parental figure to the rest of her kids, but she still mistreated Midoriya, and Nezu was not okay with that.

At the very least, he wasn't going to just drop the matter when she had a clean record. He was going to discuss it with Midoriya once he was better.

* * *

It didn't take more than another week for Midoriya to get back on his feet. The green haired boy was restless, no doubt, having been confined to the infirmary for so long with nothing to do, though he did spend most of his time asleep due to Shuzenji using her quirk on him to help speed up the healing process.

Yaoyorozu had left several books in the infirmary, but they either contained information that Midoriya already knew, or was stuff that Midoriya could easily absorb. Needless to say, the books only occupied Midoriya for a few hours, and the boy was probably eager to get back to studying. Nezu had given him the letters that his classmates had given him, but Midoriya had practically skimmed through them all in record time, almost like he was searching for something, though he didn't seem to find what he was looking for. He did seem pretty confused when he was done, though.

Midoriya's mobility had also improved. He could actually walk around normally without anyone's help, though he did tire much faster than usual. While he didn't have any trouble doing regular things like reading and showering, he was having problems with dexterous, repetitive actions like signing, eating, writing and typing.

Not being able to write and type wasn't really a problem. Midoriya didn't really take notes in class, preferring to listen to the teacher and then going back to compile his notes. He could just listen in class and fix his notes when his mobility recovers.

Eating was another problem altogether. Midoriya seemed content with just soup for now, but still, he didn't eat a lot of it, not to mention that his hands still trembled as he held his spoon.

Midoriya was recovering physically, but mentally… Nezu wasn't too sure. In all the time he had been awake, Midoriya had not said a _single_ word. Not to the teachers, his classmates, Shuzenji, or even Nezu. Shuzenji didn't mention any problems with his throat, but then again, Midoriya didn't like to talk in general unless he was asked a question.

He did seem more tolerant of everyone's presence, though Nezu could see him tense up whenever they came too close to him. Nezu had talked to Inui about it, and they suspected that Midoriya had recovered sufficiently and was now much more aware of his surroundings, and wasn't so easily spooked as he was when he had just woken up.

And now, Nezu had a few more problems to deal with, the first being that he wanted to bring Midoriya back to his foster home, just to pick up his belongings. Snipe had volunteered to drive, so there was that.

The second was problem wasn't actually much of a problem. The 1-A student dorms were almost complete, in fact, Ishiyama had reported that it would be finished within the day, and they would need another day to inspect the building.

He decided that they would deal with those two first before moving on the other problems.

* * *

Snipe leaned back in his chair and killed the engine, before taking off his gas mask, "Alright, we're here. Do you need me to go up and help you grab your stuff?"

Reiko and Ryuto sat down at the backseat of the car, as Reiko started grooming herself. They had accompanied Midoriya on the trip, but they had to stay in the car since Midoriya was not keen on bringing them into the house, under the probable watchful eyes of his former foster mother.

Nezu would have to dig into that later.

Midoriya hesitantly shook his head. He didn't have much anyways; one or two bags would be sufficient for all his belongings.

"Alright, make it quick though. Lunch ends soon and you wanted to sit in for the training lesson, didn't you?" Snipe stated. He could tell that the boy wanted to sign, probably trying to state that they didn't have to rush for him, but his hands were still not strong enough for him to sign without his hands shaking.

They had specifically left for Midoriya's foster home in the middle of a school day, so that Midoriya could retrieve his belongings in peace. Only his foster mother was at home, and Nezu had already rung up ahead of time, ensuring her that it would only take up a few minutes of her time.

Nezu and Midoriya made their way to the door, and Nexu turned towards the green haired boy, "It's going to be fine, Izuku. We'll be in and out before you know it."

Nezu knocked on the door, and Midoriya's former foster mother opened the door, not saying a single word.

Midoriya led Nezu to his room, and pushed the door open. His room was practically empty, barren, with nothing but a table beside the bed. The blanket was stuffed in a closet with so few clothes it made Aizawa seem like a shopping freak, mostly consisting of torn and tattered hoodies and school uniforms. Midoriya didn't even seem to own a normal, casual t-shirt.

Nezu watched as Midoriya gathered up his belongings, and almost gawked at how fast Midoriya was done with packing. He had just taken a minute or two to grab his laptop and hard drives, which looked like they were all fished out of a dump, his toothbrush, his spare UA uniform, his hoodies, a couple of notebooks, a small box with sewing needles and thread as well as a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, and probably more knives and blades than necessary that had been hidden at the back of his closet.

"Is that… it?" Nezu asked, and Midoriya nodded, shoving them all in his bag.

"Leave the hoodies. We can get you new ones. And the toothbrush." Nezu ordered. He somehow knew that those were the hoodies that Midoriya used to wear as Void, and knowing that one of them had been practically soaked in Midoriya's own blood right in front of his face wasn't appealing to him at all.

Midoriya shook his head weakly, his voice hoarse from not using it for quite some time, "You don't… have to… waste money… on me…"

Nezu sighed, trying to come up with reasons to convince Midoriya on the spot, "Izuku, those clothes are already torn apart, and those needles, thread and toothbrush has been left here for so long, it's not hygenic to use it. We can easily get you as many hoodies and toothbrushes as you want, and it's not even that expensive. Come on, please?"

Midoriya's eyes drooped, and he wordlessly complied, digging out his toothbrush, makeshift first aid box and hoodies, which made the bag even more empty than it already was.

Nezu did a quick inspection throughout the room, but besides from the furniture and clothes, Midoriya literally did not own anything else. His records stated that he had been living here since he was seven, but Nezu couldn't even seem to find a trace of anything that seemed like something a child would.

Nezu made a mental note to ask Midoriya if there was anything he wanted, but knowing him, he'll probably not ask for anything. Plus, he was too old for toys. He'll find something to buy for Midoriya as a gift, eventually.

"Alright, that's it. Let's go, Izuku."

* * *

Shinsou was surprised when he found realised that 1-A and 1-B were having a joint training session.

He was even more surprised to see Midoriya standing at the side, wearing a short sleeved shirt and short pants, eyeing his surroundings carefully. Reiko was sitting by Midoriya's feet, while Ryuto, who looked like he had grown a tiny bit, was perched on Reiko's head. The bird _definitely_ was much fluffier than before.

"Hey! It's Midoriya!"Ashido whispered excitedly, nudging Kaminari, "Let's give him a surprise! I'm sure that he's bored from being cooped up the infirmary."

Kaminari giggled, shooting her a thumbs up.

"Guys, that isn't a good idea -" Shinsou tried to stop them, but they were off before he could even finish his sentence.

Luckily for Kaminari and Ashido's health, Iida had managed to grab them by the back of their shirts, dragging them back as he berated, "I don't think you should tackle him. Look, he still has his bandages on. If you want to say hi, approach him properly."

Shinsou heaved a sigh of relief as Iida held them back, before walking in Midoriya's direction. He had heard rumours, through his parents from other heroes, that Midoriya, as Void, was perfectly capable of dislocating joints and breaking villains' bones, and he doubted Ashido and Kaminari would be able to function with broken bones, unlike Midoriya and his twisted sense of self worth.

Ashido and Kaminari pouted, but they heeded Iida's words, following Shinsou from behind as he approached Midoriya properly. Shinsou had learnt from Aizawa how to walk without making any sound, but he purposely put a _bit_ more force into his steps to ensure that Midoriya could hear him walking towards him.

Midoriya caught onto the sound of his footsteps, and warily glanced in his direction, before realising who he was. The tension in his shoulders remained; he had caught sight of the electric blonde and the acidic pinkette behind Shinsou.

"Hey, Midoriya, you doing okay over there?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya looked at him, before staring hard at Ashido and Kaminari.

"Ah, that's Mina, and Kaminari. They're classmates. They're pretty energetic, and play pranks sometimes, but they're harmless for the most part." Shinsou tried to introduce them, and convince Midoriya that they wouldn't hurt him, and it seemed to be working until Ashido leapt up in front of him, pretty much sticking her hand in Midoriya's face, startling the poor boy.

"Hi! You saved me during the Sports Festival and you pretty much saved everyone's ass! You're really awesome! I'm Ashido Mina, but people I like can call me Mina! I know you're Midoriya Izuku, cause Uraraka and Iida and Shinsou talk about how cool you are and Todoroki also likes to talk about you and that's like pretty much the only thing he talks about and -"

She paused to take a breath, but found that Midoriya had jumped backwards, having adopted a fighting stance. His arms and hands were shaking, but Midoriya just hissed at her. Reiko had shot up from her position on the ground, her entire body tense and ready to attack at a moment's notice, growling at Ashido. Ryuto didn't seem to know what was going on, but the three week old bird was doing a pretty good job remaining on Reiko's head.

Shinsou and Kaminari didn't even notice that he had moved until they heard Reiko growling.

_Heck, even while not fully recovered, he's hella fast,_ Kaminari gulped. He had already seen Midoriya completely demolish his opponents, especially Bakugou, at the Sports Festival, but he had assumed that Midoriya had been fighting at the best of his abilities.

Apparently not. Midoriya could get even faster, and he was still recovering from his injuries from the mass attack on UA. Kaminari had been unconscious after he had fried the villains in the USJ, but he had heard from his classmates that Midoriya had been an absolute beast, mowing the fodder villains down, and even taking on the lead villain and the hulking pet monster that the villains had brought him.

Kaminari couldn't help but feel a _little_ guilty for Midoriya's condition. He had a quirk, a pretty powerful one at that, but Kaminari knew that he wasn't very smart when it came to strategizing. Maybe…if he hadn't attempted a kamikaze shock-everyone-in-salt-pool attack, he wouldn't have shorted himself out and potentially injured his classmates. And maybe, just maybe, he could have taken out a few more villains when they were somehow teleported back to UA.

"I think you startled him. You did just stick your hand in his face." Kaminari reached out to grab Ashido's arm, slowly dragging her away from Midoriya. The tension on Midoriya's shoulders disappeared, but his gaze never left the hand that Ashido had thrown in his face.

"Sorry man!" Kaminari grinned, shooting him a thumbs up, "Don't worry about it, if I were you I would have thought I would be punched in the nose too, so no biggie!"

Midoriya just straightened up, and blinked at Kaminari.

"Alright, leave Midoriya alone." Aizawa groaned, as Kan laughed teasingly at how uncontrollable 1-A was and how 1-B was much better. Aizawa's bandages were already off, though Midoriya could tell there was some discomfort as the older man moved around.

"I think the self introductions between the hero classes are unnecessary, but we have Midoriya here so we might as well just do it. If he already knows you or fought you in the Sports Festival before, don't bother introducing yourself. Then we'll start quirk usage practice." Aizawa blankly stated.

"I don't think that's necessary…" Monoma scratched his head, "I think he kinda knows all of us, somewhat."

"You think?" Komori asked.

Meanwhile, Midoriya was digging through his bag, much to the confusion of his peers, before he took out two labelled notebooks and handed them to the teachers.

_Well... I'm not getting those back... but I'm supposed to help them any way I can, right?_

Aizawa raised an eyebrow as he took the notebook labelled "1-A" and Kan did the same for the notebook labelled "1-B", before the teachers flipped open the books for their respective classes.

And Kan's jaw pretty much dropped. Aizawa would have had the same expression, but he was much better at controlling his facial features than his colleague.

Kan looked up at Midoriya, confusion and amazement and maybe even a small hint of fear glinting in his eyes, because Midoriya wasn't even in the hero course _yet_ and it _just wasn't possible_ for him to have seen all forty students fighting at some point or another and to have enough time to observe them _all_ in order to make such detailed and concise notes.

"Uh… Midoriya… do I even want to know how and why you have at least five pages of notes on all of the hero course students, including the strengths and weaknesses of their quirks and possible improvements and ideas for them, personality traits and how they can be beneficial or detrimental in being a hero, things to work on, support gear ideas, as well as possible combination moves among friend groups? How did you even find the time to observe everyone?"


	29. Chapter 29 - Stare right through me

There was silence as the students processed what the 1-B form teacher had said, before they all gawked.

Monoma was surprised, but not as much as his peers; Midoriya had already told him during the Sports Festival that he had kept an eye on them, but _wasn't five pages of notes per person a bit extreme?! How was he even able to get so much information in the first place?!_

Aizawa scratched the back of his head, before grumbling, "Problem child. I really shouldn't be surprised at all… Snipe's still not done marking that forty page essay you handed in weeks ago about me, and that other thirty-five page essay you did on Mic's speaker, and I don't even want to know you managed to figure out all the inner workings of Mic's equipment. Snipe's still trying to convince Power Loader for the blueprints."

The essay was so long because a third of it practically included sketches, diagrams, and mathematical calculations, and while it was just supposed to be an essay, it was still relevant and they were accurate.

Aizawa flipped through a few more pages, before sighing, "I have to say, though, this saves a lot of time. We know exactly what they should be working on. Do you mind if I photocopy it to give to the class?"

Midoriya blinked in confusion.

_Wait… did he imply that I did good?_

Midoriya didn't really know how to reply, and blankly shrugged. If Aizawa wanted to let the class see, Midoriya couldn't care less. As long as Aizawa wasn't handing it over to criminals, Midoriya was perfectly fine with it.

_He probably wasn't going to get his notebook back though. He never got anything back from the teachers whenever they "confiscated" his stuff, aside from tests and examination papers._

"Alright. Now, all of you go find a spot to practise. On your own or in pairs, I don't care, just don't be too noisy. Vlad King and I will come around to tell you guys what to work on." Aizawa ordered, "Midoriya, you're free to do whatever you want, just be careful, okay? There may be some stray attacks."

Midoriya have a nod of acknowledgement, before he stepped back to the side, carefully eyeing his surroundings as the students split off to find some space.

* * *

Training was going pretty smoothly. Midoriya was observing all the students as they practised their quirks, mentally noting down everything from the power of their quirks down to their forms.

_Bakugou's form is good, but he should concentrate the power of his explosions. Todoroki as well, but his form absolutely sucks, and he doesn't know how to fight without his quirk. Shinsou's form is okay, not too bad but could use some adjustments. Ojiro's form is fine, Iida's accelerating at the wrong times, Uraraka's form could also use some adjustments._

He turned to where Hagakure was supposed to be, and resisted the urge to facepalm. Hagakure's form was just terrible, though to be fair, no one could see her properly and correct her form, especially since she was pretty much naked. _Which idiot didn't make her a costume!? And not being able to make an invisible costume was just bullshit; that third year Lemillion had a costumed made based off his hair so that he wouldn't end up being naked._ He would need to get closer in order to get a better idea of how to correct her form, but she wasn't even pointing her toes in the right direction; Midoriya could tell that much at the very least from the Sports Festival.

He was about to get closer to take a better look, until something caught eye.

The purple sticky haired boy was slowly sneaking closer to Yaoyorozu. They were all wearing their hero costumes, and Yaoyorozu's hero costume was so revealing, it was revolting to think that it was actually made by grown adults who thought it was okay for her to have more skin exposed than covered.

Mineta was slowly creeping closer to her, but Yaoyorozu was so absorbed in trying to create lighter and stronger items that she didn't even notice what the pervert was doing.

Midoriya decided to focus on this problem at hand first. Hagakure could wait. This had to be dealt with now.

Midoriya made his way towards Mineta, neither the purple haired boy nor the Creation quirk user noticing his presence.

* * *

Mineta crept closer.

No one had noticed him; the teachers were occupied with other students and everyone else was busy working on their quirks. The only people close to him were Yaoyorozu and Shoji. He just had to get a little closer and -

A sudden pressure burst out of nowhere, freezing everyone in the near vicinity in place.

He couldn't breathe. He felt like the air was forcefully being pushed out of his lungs.

And Mineta slowly turned around to find the source of the terrifying aura, shaking in fear. He found cold green eyes looking at him, gleaming menacingly from the shadows. The air around him seemed to darken, Midoriya's hair casting a shadow over his eyes, an empty void of nothingness. His eerie green pupils were slit, locked on him.

Midoriya looked like he wanted to tear him apart.

And somehow, Mineta knew that he was only moving because he was allowed to.

He could only look up as the green haired boy helplessly as Midoriya gazed down at him, a silent flame of rage burning in his eyes.

_Shit shit shit shit…_

Midoriya didn't even need to say anything. What he wanted to say was obvious, his intentions were easily understood by anyone with even just a single mere brain cell, "Leave her alone."

And after what felt like an eternity, Midoriya finally let up on the pressure, and Mineta promptly fell on his butt, completely stunned and dazed.

_What was that?! Just who is this monster?!_

Midoriya took a step closer, and Mineta hastily scrambled up and hid behind Shoji, shaking the taller male out of his stupor. He hadn't been anywhere near Midoriya, and he wasn't even Midoriya's target, and the pressure he could give out already threatened to suffocate him, paralysing him, not letting him move even a single inch.

Yaoyorozu had also felt the pressure, locking her in place, and the second it died down, she whirled around, trying to figure out what was going on.

"What's your problem!?" Mineta whined meekly from behind Shoji, but one more glare by Midoriya sent the small helpless boy cowering as he spluttered, "I'm sorry, I won't do it again, I promise, please don't kill me, I promise I won't do it again! I promise! I'm sorry!"

Midoriya let out a growl, glaring harshly at Mineta for a good minute, before he stalked off towards Hagakure.

Hopefully, the purple midget learnt his lesson. If he hadn't…

"Uh… what happened…?" Yaoyorozu asked, completely confused.

"He tried to touch you while you were concentrating." Jiro pointed out, "I was going to stab him in the eye again, but Midoriya came up and settled it."

"Oh…" Yaoyorozu muttered, taking in her surroundings. She was located between Jiro and Shoji, and there was quite a distance between where they were practising and where Midoriya had originally been standing. How he managed to even catch Mineta in the act from that distance was amazing.

"I think… it wouldn't be much of a problem anymore…"Jiro laughed, nodding at Mineta. Yaoyorozu turned to face the purple haired boy, only to find that he was too terrified to even hold eye contact with her, opting to hide behind Shoji instead.

* * *

"Alright, you're all dismissed. Midoriya, before you head back to the infirmary… may I please have a word with you?"

Midoriya glanced up at Aizawa, and remained rooted in place, not even moving a single inch. The last time he had gotten fidgety around a teacher, the teacher had forced him to clean the bottom of the desks in his classroom for an entire month. The bottom of the desks were nasty enough, with mouldy candy wrappers and chewed up gum stuck all over the place, but when his classmates had caught wind of his punishment, they started to leave all sorts of nasty stuff and letters for Midoriya to see and clear up. He was not eager to go do that again.

Aizawa patiently waited until Kan ushered all the students back to the classrooms, before he turned to face the green haired boy.

"Midoriya… I know you don't trust us. Not me, not Vlad King, or Recovery Girl… heck, I'm pretty sure you still don't trust Iida, or Uraraka, or even Shinsou. I have a few things to say, will you listen? I would just like to ask for one thing." Aizawa started.

Midoriya just blankly looked at Aizawa, and internally sighed. Of course his teacher wanted something from him. He wasn't really sure where this conversation was going, and he was pretty sure it wasn't either of the three students Aizawa mentioned that started it; they all looked equally confused when Aizawa had called him to stay back for a while.

His blank, empty stare didn't change, but Aizawa figured that Midoriya was listening and continued.

"Can you please give us a chance?"

Midoriya looked at his teacher in confusion.

_Give you a chance? For what?_

"I know you've been through a lot, Midoriya, and I'm not expecting you to trust any of us any time soon." Aizawa continued, trying to choose his words carefully so as to not startle the traumatized boy, though he felt that in his request, he had already worded it incorrectly. "We just want you to feel better. All I ask for is for you to give us just one percent of your trust. We will earn the rest. Can you please, just give us just that? If not me, or the teachers, but your classmates, at the very least?"

Midoriya thought about Aizawa's request. It was an odd one, definitely. No one had asked, requested for him to trust them. But why should Midoriya trust him, even consider it, when all people did with his trust was to break it, smash it to bits, and grind the broken shards to dust? Aizawa may be a pro hero, one that he had once admired, but Aizawa had called him a problem child, something all his previous teachers had called him whenever he had been harassed by his peers. And Aizawa wanted him to trust them!?

Then again, Shinsou, Uraraka and Iida had stood up for him… but how much of that was a facade, and how much of that was real? Were they going to be like all the others, _pretending_ to be his friends, and one day, when they were finally sick and tired of their little game, finally tell him that he was useless, worthless, and should go and just kill himself?

He would pretend. Pretend that he trusted them, test the waters, see just how far they were willing to play with his feelings. It didn't matter, he had already thrown all his emotions out the window. He would just wait, wait until they were sick and tired of him, until they discarded him like the useless trash he was.

_After all, they could pretend, then he could pretend too, couldn't he?_

Midoriya didn't react in the longest time, and Aizawa, as much as he didn't want to push against Midoriya's boundaries, was worried that something was wrong and that Midoriya was non-responsive, until Midoriya nodded, slowly, almost hesitatingly, but it was no doubt a nod. Midoriya had given him, or more likely, his peers, the small amount of trust that Aizawa had asked for, and that was a start.

They had to earn the rest, but Aizawa was okay with that. He had done that with Shinsou, he could do that with Midoriya as well, albeit at a much slower pace.

Aizawa gave an internal sigh in relief, "Thank you. You can go back to the infirmary now, or would you like me to accompany you?"

Midoriya shook his head.

"Alright, then. Take care."

Aizawa could only watch as Midoriya headed back into the school building, before looking at the notebooks that Midoriya had given him. He also had the 1-B notebook, under Kan's request to help him print out Midoriya's notes, since Kan had been called out to deal with a batch of villains that night.

He better get those notes photocopied fast, and return the notebooks to Midoriya as soon as possible.


	30. Chapter 30 - When you left me alone

The second they had headed back to the changing rooms, Ashido immediately latched herself onto Yaoyorozu, "Oh my god, I heard that the grape shit tried to touch you! Are you okay?"

"Uh… who?" Kendo asked, and Hagakure whirled around, "Ah, Mineta Minoru. He's a major pervert. We keep trying to chase him away, but nothing we do manage to get him to stop."

"Ah, I'm fine. He didn't do anything, really." Yaoyorozu replied, "Midoriya stopped him before he could do anything."

"Wasn't Midoriya like, all the way on the other side of the field, though?" Uraraka scratched her head, as she changed into her UA uniform.

"Yeah. I have no idea how he knew about it. I only noticed it because I saw Midoriya walking towards Yaoyorozu." Jiro admitted. Her hearing was sharp, sharper than most of her peers, and she had no idea how she didn't notice Mineta creeping towards her friend.

"But Midoriya is like, scary observant." Hagakure piped up, "It's awesome! He somehow knew where I was the entire time he was looking at me!"

"But… you're invisible…" Kodai pointed out.

"Exactly! I have no idea how he managed to see me, and I have a feeling he was scrutinising me!" Hagakure waved her arms about.

"So! Spill! How did Midoriya kick Mineta's butt?" Ashido grinned excitedly.

"Nothing at all." Yaoyorozu replied, before looking at her female peers. She waved her hands in front of her frantically, "No, seriously! Midoriya just stood there and looked at him!"

"Maybe we'll ask Shoji… he was also there..." Hagakure hummed.

"No, Yaomomo isn't lying. I saw it. He legitimately just stared at Mineta." Jiro commented.

"Midoriya's pretty awesome, ain't he?" Ashido grinned, "I bet he's going to be really good friends with everyone!"

* * *

Iida turned back from his conversation with Uraraka, finding Todoroki walking some distance behind them, slowly, almost like he was lost in thought. Iida gave Uraraka a signal to stop talking, before he sneakily pointed at Todoroki.

Uraraka immediately understood what Iida wanted to do, and she smiled at him, "So, see you tomorrow then!"

Iida waited for Todoroki to slowly catch up, before he asked, "You doing okay?"

"After the Sports Festival, I told Midoriya that I wanted him to succeed, to get into the Hero Course, so that I could crush him under my foot. And despite everything I've done to him… he was still willing to help me out. He's already helped me so many times… and I feel that… It's not right. Whatever I told him before."

"How has he helped you? Besides from… Stain, obviously." Iida asked.

"He…" Todoroki paused, unsure of whether to continue, "Family problems. No one outside my family knows about it… but Midoriya… somehow knew. He told Nezu, and he's currently compiling a case about it. After I told him about the matter… that was after I told him I wanted to crush him… he redirected me to Nezu. There's actually a chance that this matter could be solved after so many years. He's saved us from Stain, and he's saved us when those villains decided to attack the USJ."

"So… you kinda feel bad for what you told him. Maybe you should go and apologise to him?" Iida deduced, though it wasn't too hard to do so once all the facts were on the table.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how to do so, or how he'll take it. He didn't even seem to take Aizawa-sensei's compliment regarding his work well." Todoroki sighed.

"Hmm… I think you should just go up to him and apologise directly." Iida offered, "It will feel more genuine, and due to Midoriya's past… I think it will be better. I also don't think he'll take it too badly. Just tell him directly."

* * *

Midoriya only had to stay in the infirmary for one more day, before Ishiyama confirmed that the 1-A dorms were ready for Midoriya to live in. It was a Saturday, plenty of time for Midoriya to "move in". Nezu had wanted to bring Midoriya out to buy some new stuff, but sadly, the Hero Public Safety Commission had just dumped a huge load of work on the principal that Nezu couldn't ignore.

Nezu also didn't want another teacher to go out with Midoriya instead. Aizawa had already told him of his request to Midoriya to give them a chance, and he was already hesitant to do so. Too many things were happening at once, and Nezu didn't want Midoriya to get spooked by the multitude of changes.

It didn't take too long for Midoriya to move it. The room itself already had a bed and a table, and Midoriya had so few things that it only took a minute or two before he was done. They had spent the rest of the day in the 1-A common room, Nezu trying to sieve through all the information he had been given, and Midoriya sitting on the couch, not very sure of what to do.

He stared at the television remote control, before staring at the television, before his gaze travelled to the busy principal, then to the empty kitchen, then to the hallway leading to the elevators, before glancing at the remote control.

He wasn't sure what he could do. He wasn't allowed to use the television at home unless someone else turned it on, and they usually watched useless cartoons instead of important channels like news, so Midoriya didn't even bother with the television most of the time and just checked up on the news on his laptop.

It was rude to go back to his room, and leave Nezu alone in the common room, but it wasn't like he could help Nezu with his work. Most of the hero and villain stuff that Nezu asked him to analyze for him were Nezu's personal projects, and Midoriya could tell that Nezu was purposely feeding him with information so that he could easily take out those villains. But these, these were projects that the Hero Commission had shoved at Nezu, and he wasn't a verified hero; he wasn't allowed to help, even if Nezu had asked him to.

Reiko was grooming herself, while Ryuto was occasionally preening, and jumping around on the sofa. He accidentally wandered too close, and would have fallen off had Midoriya not caught the bird in time. Ryuto gave a small chirp, nuzzling Midoriya's hand.

Based on his research, Midoriya had found out that Ryuto was a rough-legged hawk, and when he started growing in his flight feathers, his plumage would turn from white and black to predominantly brown in colour with speckling. Unlike most of his species, which had grey and yellow beaks as well as yellow talons, Ryuto's beak and talons were completely grey.

Midoriya looked up as Nezu yawned, and stretched, before hopping off his chair.

"Oh, I thought you would have gone back to your room, Izuku." Nezu grinned, "It's lunch time, let's go grab a bite. Maybe get you some fitting clothes as well."

Midoriya wasn't really hungry, despite not having eaten much the entire week, but he still complied with Nezu's request, moving to grab one of the few hoodies he owned that weren't torn to shreds. He was wearing an oversized blue t-shirt that Kayama had bought, as the hero had decided to go clothes shopping without his measurements and had gotten a few shirts and pants that were a size too big for Midoriya. They still fit, though, so Midoriya didn't really mind.

Midoriya placed Ryuto and Reiko the small hidden pocket in his hoodie, and Reiko and Ryuto poked their heads out of the front of the hoodie. He let Nezu tidy up his work, before he headed towards the door, "Come on."

* * *

Lunch took up less time that Nezu thought. They had gone to a mall near to UA, and headed for the food court, but the only thing that Midoriya seemed okay with Nezu ordering for him was a small plate of fried rice, and he couldn't even finish it. He had packed the remaining of it in a take-away box for dinner, and while Nezu wasn't really happy that Midoriya wasn't eating much, he couldn't do much to stop him. No one had cared for Midoriya, and it was obvious that Midoriya would take some time for him to get adjusted to someone willing to help him out and care for him. He didn't want to be too overbearing, and pushing Midoriya away in the process; he just needed to be patient.

Nezu had also tried to bring Midoriya clothes shopping, but most of the shops that they had come across were way too expensive in Midoriya's opinion, and he wasn't willing to even touch any of the clothes.

They had also gone to the supermarket in case Midoriya wanted some snacks or drinks, but other than a few cans of tuna and some raw meat, they didn't buy anything before going back to UA. Midoriya cared more about Reiko and Ryuto than himself.

Midoriya had insisted on paying for his own items, and Nezu could only look on helplessly at the stubborn boy. There was only so much he could do, and even Nezu wasn't sure how to best balance caring for Midoriya and not being overbearing.

_It's just a matter of time for him to get used to it, _Nezu told himself, _It'll be fine. I just have to be patient._

* * *

"Izuku?"

Nezu called out, expecting Midoriya to be sitting on the couch, like he had been doing in the morning, only to realise that Midoriya wasn't even in the common room. He definitely hadn't left the building, Nezu would have heard him open the front door.

He hopped off his chair, and made his way to the stairs. If Midoriya wasn't in the common room, he most likely in his room.

Nezu noticed that Midoriya's door was slightly open, and he could hear Reiko meowing from inside his room. He knew that he was invading Midoriya's privacy, but he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, and carefully pushed the door open.

Only to find that Midoriya was biting his lip, grabbing his right hand as his entire body shook. Midoriya was wincing slightly, glaring at his hand in frustration

"Izuku? Are you okay? What happened?" Nezu asked, as he rushed into the room to check what was wrong. Nezu noticed that Midoriya's pen had fallen on the floor, and there were some crooked writing on the paper on Midoriya's desk.

He cursed inwardly; _Midoriya had tried to write despite the condition of his hands._

Nezu gently cradled Midoriya's shaking hands, watching Midoriya carefully. His facial expression didn't change, but Nezu noticed that small glint of pain in his eyes.

"Just hold for a few minutes, okay? I'll get Recovery Girl here."

* * *

Midoriya really had no idea what he was supposed to do in the dorms. He had his own room, on the second floor, but he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it. Sleep in it, sure, but what was he supposed to spend the weekend doing?

His hands still haven't fully recovered, and despite efforts, all he did was get a muscle cramp in his hand, and his continuous attempts to write, resulted in him tearing a few muscles and worsen its condition.

Shuzenji had focussed her quirk on healing his hands, to the point where she said that he could start writing and signing by Monday, and he wanted to, he could participate in the hero course exercises, but he wouldn't be at full power and had to rest his hands for the entire weekend. He could do simple things like flipping pages in a book, but Shuzenji absolutely forbade him from doing anything that would require him to hold something with his fingers, which limited his meals to practically just a bowl of soup.

Not that Midoriya cared. Anything was better than being stuck on the bed like a useless, worthless idiot, even though there was nothing that he could do at the moment.

Needless to say, Midoriya was bored. Nezu was finished with his work and was currently watching the news on the couch, and Midoriya didn't want to bother the principal, especially after all the work he had done.

The boy sighed, and placed his head on the sofa, before curling up into a ball. He really didn't like just sitting around and doing nothing. Maybe he should just take a quick nap, regain the energy that Shuzenji had used for healing his hands. Reiko and Ryuto were playing with each other, but they had come over to Midoriya's side and nuzzled him. Ryuto chirped and playing fully tugged on MIdoriya's finger with his beak.

Midoriya had to admit, he was slightly tired; Shuzenji's quirk had taken a lot more out of him than usual, but that was probably because he was stubborn and refused to sit still and recover properly.

The front door to the dorms opened, and Midoriya looked up from his position on the couch, only to find that Aizawa had pushed to door open, closing it carefully.

"Ah, hello, Aizawa." Nezu grinned, waving to the taller man, taking his eyes off the television for a second to see who had entered, "I didn't expect you to still be in school. I thought you had gone home."

Midoriya pushed himself up as Aizawa started, "Well, I would have left earlier if the printer hadn't jammed; that idiot All Might had accidentally broken it and didn't tell anyone. I had to go get Power Loader to fix the damned machine before I could finish photocopying Midoriya's notes. Speaking of which, here, Midoriya."

Aizawa carefully procured the two notebooks from his pockets, and placed them on the table in front of Midoriya.

Midoriya's eyes widened slightly, staring at his notebooks, before shifting his gaze towards Aizawa, before looking back at his notebooks.

_He actually gave them back?_

Aizawa looked at the boy, confused by his reaction, not knowing that Midoriya was equally as confused as him, albeit for a different reason.

Reiko rubbed her head against Midoriya's arm, and the boy looked at his notebooks one last time, before looking back at Aizawa, and nodding slightly in acknowledgement.


	31. Chapter 31 - Down with the fallen again

Midoriya continued sitting at his table, thinking, before he stood up, and grabbed his hoodie.

Nezu had informed him that he had been called out for a board meeting with the Hero Commission, and would probably be back by dinner, since the principal did stay in UA most of the time and practically lived there, but several teachers such as Ectoplasm, Snipe, and Lunch Rush were still in the UA main building, so if he needed any help with anything, he could just go up to them. Lunch Rush already knew about his hands, so food wouldn't be a problem.

But Midoriya didn't want to spend an entire day doing nothing again. Plus, he had some other plans.

No, he wasn't going to go out fighting villains again; Shuzenji would be mad at him, and he could either choose to be crippled for one more day, or crippled for a whole lot longer. He would choose the former, and make up for it once he was finally allowed to fight.

Midoriya grabbed his wallet, before making his way out the door. He did leave his laptop on the table, with a message that he was going out, courtesy of Reiko who had typed out the note letter by letter with Midoriya's guidance. He also had the password deactivated; all his personal research and files were safely stored on his hard drives and weren't on the main device itself.

Midoriya tucked the two animals into his hoodie, before he made his way out of the dorms.

* * *

Nezu's eyes flickered to his phone, before he turned his attention back to the meeting at hand.

He had expected Midoriya to leave the dorms, especially when no one was around. He had also informed the teachers that Midoriya may do that, and not to bother him as long as he wasn't get himself into trouble, though he honestly did doubt that any of the teachers would want to do so.

Nezu wasn't sure where Midoriya was going, but that wasn't really any of his business; Midoriya was allowed to have his own secrets, and could do whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't detrimental to his health. He had brought both Reiko and Ryuto with him, and most likely wouldn't be doing anything dangerous with the bird around.

He was curious, though, but that didn't matter at this point in time. Giving Midoriya his freedom to do as he pleased was the only way to slowly break through his shell, to let him know that he could trust them. Nezu may have Midoriya's trust, but the other teachers didn't, and Nezu knew perfectly well that he couldn't be around all the time to communicate between the teachers and Midoriya.

He dragged himself out of his thoughts, and re-focussed on the meeting. The sooner they were done the sooner he could go back to his school.

* * *

Midoriya looked up at the sign in front of the flower shop, ensuring he was in the right place, before walking inside cautiously. He kept an eye on his surroundings as he picked out two pink anemones, and moved to the cashier to pay for them.

He had gotten a few coins as change, and he just swept them into the pocket after fumbling around with the zipper for a few seconds. He would deal with that later when he got back to the dorms.

Midoriya put his hood up and carefully crossed the road, walking past several streets, before turning a corner and walking for a few more minutes. Reiko and Ryuto popped their heads of his hoodie, enjoying the sights and the fresh air.

That was until a passerby puffed cigarette smoke directly into Midoriya's face, causing the green haired boy to recoil at the horrendous smell. He shook his head to try and ignore the smoke, as Reiko gave an annoyed yowl and hissed at the ignorant passerby.

Midoriya ran his fingers through her fur, careful not to put anymore stress on his hands, and continued on his way.

It didn't take him long to find where he wanted to go; it just felt like a long time since he hadn't fully recovered his stamina.

Midoriya finally walked into the park, before made his way to the graveyard that was located inside it. He wandered around aimlessly, trying to find the headstone he was looking for, having never gone to the field of tombstones in the day.

_"Here lies Midoriya Hisashi and Midoriya Inko. Rest in peace."_

He finally came across it; the old, moss-covered headstone that had been standing in the same spot for eight years. Midoriya never did notice how much moss covered his parent's tombstone; he was going to come and clean it all off one day.

The graveyard was mostly deserted; almost no one came to this deserted part of the park. Midoriya carefully took one of the anemones out of his pocket, and crouched down, gently placing the flower by the base of the headstone.

Midoriya straightened himself out, before taking a step back. He carefully scooped Reiko and Ryuto out of his hoodie and placed them on the floor, giving them a bit more freedom. Reiko remained at Midoriya's feet, staying completely quiet, and Ryuto was a bit more curious and started exploring the area, though he always remained in Midoriya's line of sight and never strayed too far.

Midoriya stood there, still, for almost half an hour, biting his lip, trying to keep all his emotions in.

_They died for you. You deserve to feel bad._

_It's your fault they died. If only you had a damned quirk! If only you weren't so useless!_

_You should have died instead of them!_

There was a voice roaring at him from the back of his head, and Midoriya didn't bother pushing it away. Why would he, when what everything the voice said was right?

Reiko looked at Midoriya, before rubbing herself against Midoriya's leg, shaking the boy out of his stupor. Midoriya tensed up, before he relaxed, looking down at the cat, "Thanks, Reiko."

Reiko rubbed herself against Midoriya's leg again, before letting out a small meow, catching Ryuto's attention. The bird immediately perked up, before running and jumping towards Reiko, flapping his wings as he did so. He tripped over a blade of grass once, but he pushed himself up and made his way back to the older cat.

Midoriya scooped up both the bird and cat, before he left the graveyard. He took one of the paths, and made his way towards the playground, before straying off the path, walking towards a fairly small, seclusive grove that was located just at the edge of the park.

Midoriya looked around, before locating one of the smaller trees and made his way towards it. He crouched down, placing both animals down again, and carefully swept some of the fallen leaves and twigs away from the base of the tree. There was a decently sized rock placed there, with some messily scrawled words written on it with a permanent marker.

_"Rikaru, Reiko's mom. Rest in peace."_

Midoriya placed his remaining anemone in front of the rock, before reaching up to touch his collar.

That collar had originally belonged to the older cat when Midoriya had found them. Then Rikaru had died, had been killed, and Midoriya had taken the collar as a reminder of his failure.

_"Oh, it's raining really badly. Are you okay?"_

_A black cat with cyan eyes looked up him from her position in the storm drain, curling up around a small white kitten protectively. Ten year old Midoriya reached out to pet her, but the soaked cat just hissed weakly at him._

_"Hey, I don't want to harm you…" Midoriya stammered, "You guys are going to get sick in there. I just want to help you, that's all."_

_Midoriya placed his small, tattered umbrella on the ground, before he carefully climbed into the drain. The water had come up to his ankles, and Midoriya wanted to get them out as fast as possible before the water got any stronger._

_The cat tried to protest, but she was already weak from the cold and hunger, and couldn't do much as Midoriya lifted both her and her kitten out of the storm drain, placing them down._

_"Man, you guys are lighter than I thought. And thin. Have you eaten anything at all?" Midoriya asked, as he clambered out of the drain, and picked the two felines up again. The larger cat couldn't help but press herself up against Midoriya's neck._

_"That tickles!" Midoriya laughed before trying to rub the water out of their fur, his fingers brushing up against something around the larger cat's neck._

_"What's this?" He asked, and carefully parted the wet fur to figure out what it was, "A collar? Your owner abandoned you guys?"_

_The larger cat meowed, as Midoriya attempted to read the name on the collar, "Rikaru, huh? That's a nice name. My name's Midoriya Izuku. My housemate brought a stray dog home the other day, and my guardian didn't seem too mad about it. I'll take you home for a while, get you guys all dried up and fed, then we'll decide what to do. Oh no… you're shivering!"_

_Midoriya carefully tucked the smaller white kitten into the hidden compartment he had sewn into his hoodie, warming up the kitten with his own body heat. He never knew when he would need a secret compartment, and now it was coming in handy._

_"There, nice and warm." Midoriya smiled, before picking up Rikaru, trying to warm her up as much as possible, "I'll keep you guys safe, I promise."_

_He then proceeded to make his way back to his foster home, trying to think of how to make his foster parent let him keep the felines. One of the other foster kids had brought a stray puppy back, and his foster mother was merely exasperated, so it should be fine, shouldn't it?_

_He didn't expect the first thing that happened when he got home was for his foster mother to yell, "How many times have I told you not to be late?!"_

_"I'm sorry… I found these strays and they were cold and starving so I thought I could bring them back and keep them until the storm died down before sending them to a shelter…" Midoriya timidly replied, just as a massive clap of thunder reverberated throughout the room._

_His foster mother caught sight of Rikaru, before snarling, and ripping the black cat directly out of Midoriya's arms._

_"Vermin! They all are! Filthy, dirty, disease spreading vermin!" She shrieked, throwing the cat out of the conveniently open window. Midoriya heard the sound of glass shattering and a faint yowl in pain echoing loudly in his ears. His foster mother quickly checked the pockets of Midoriya's hoodie, finding nothing, and growled at the stunned Midoriya, "You useless child! Back to your room! You're grounded for a month! How dare you bring vermin into my home!?"_

_Midoriya was on the verge of crying as he made a mad dash for his room. He quickly snatched his chair up and placed it under the doorknob._

_He wasn't allowed to lock or block his door, but he would deal with the consequences later; he had to check on Rikaru first._

_Midoriya threw his window open, before jumping out, grabbing onto the rope that was tied onto the tree branch by his window. That was how he always escaped whenever he went out as a vigilante, carefully climbing down, but time was of the essence as of now. He slid down, getting friction burns on his hands, but he ignored the pain._

_He quickly jumped to the ground, before turning a corner to where Rikaru should have landed._

_He saw a small body in the darkness, and he immediately rushed forwards, tears leaking out of his eyes. He lowered himself to the cat's side, and carefully rubbed his hand against Rikaru's ear, before he gently cradled the larger cat, taking notice of a large glass shard sticking out of her abdomen._

_The smaller white kitten poked her head out of Midoriya's hoodie, nuzzling Rikaru._

_Rikaru gave a weak meow, sniffing Midoriya's face, giving one last meow before she fell limp in Midoriya's arms, never to move again._

_"Hey…" Midoriya stammered, "Wake up, please? I've had enough of jokes from the people in school, please, wake up?"_

_But she didn't respond, and her body gradually became colder as the heat faded from the small body._

_Midoriya blankly stood up, still cradling the cat, as he inspected his surroundings. There was broken glass all over the ground, as well as several broken bottles, and he scowled; maybe if people hadn't been so inconsiderate and had thrown all their glass bottles in the trash instead of out the window; maybe, just maybe, Rikaru could have survived._

_Midoriya fished out his phone, dialing in a few numbers, before he pressed the phone to his ear._

_"Hello? Animal protection services, how may I help you?"_

_"Hello?" Midoriya quietly answered, "I have an injured cat here that landed on some glass and -"_

_"Ok, hold up there. It's probably just a stray, it would die sooner or later anyways out there on the streets. it's none of our business. Just leave it and go home kid. It isn't worth it."_

_The man promptly hung up on Midoriya, and the child lowered his phone, blankly slipping it into his pocket, before making his way to the nearby park where his parents had been buried._

_He quickly found an isolated grove by the graveyard, and dug a small hole. He slipped the collar off the cat, before gently lowering the small body into the hole. The white kitten stood by his feet as he did so, not even making a single sound._

_As an afterthought, Midoriya slipped the name tag off the collar and carefully placed it next to Rikaru. That was her identity; she wasn't just some stray._

_Midoriya carefully covered the cat's body with dirt, patting it down gently and evenly, before he sat down next to his makeshift grave._

_He curled in on himself, as tears started leaking from his eyes._

_"Why are people so cruel? Why don't people care?" He whispered to himself, and the white kitten padded over to him, climbing clumsily into his lap._

_"I'm sorry. I useless; I couldn't even protect a single cat! I'm worthless. Why didn't I just die from that fall from weeks ago?!"_

_Midoriya continued crying to himself, mourning the loss of an innocent cat's life._

_He wrapped his arms around the white kitten, and she stared back at him with her mismatched cyan and mint eyes._

_"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He tucked the small feline into his chest, before his small body was wracked with sobs as he cradled the kitten, "It's my fault, it's all my fault. I'm useless and I'm worthless and I can't even do anything right! I'm so sorry."_

Midoriya shook the painful memory away. That had been the day he had seen the worst that humanity had to offer, the day he snapped, the day he had truly broken.

Midoriya scooped up Reiko and Ryuto, and the cat lifted her paw, carefully wiping away the tears that had started to form in Midoriya's eyes.

* * *

Midoriya had just gotten back to the dorms an hour before Nezu, who was not only carrying tons of paperwork, but also a small paper bag.

"Alright, here you go!" Nezu grinned, putting the small bag on the couch, "Go on, Izuku."

Midoriya carefully opened the paper bag and stared at the brand new UA uniform inside it. The boy still felt guilty over the destruction of his old uniform, "I'm sorry about my old uniform- "

"Well, it isn't really your fault that the old one got wrecked, and the hero course has a _slightly_ different uniform from the general education course." Nezu stated, politely interrupting the boy, "You're officially in 1-A starting tomorrow, so you kind of needed to get the hero course uniform anyways."

Midoriya looked like he wanted to protest again, but Nezu just carefully pat the boy's hand, "Look, Izuku, there are some things that you can't control, so don't feel bad about it. If it makes you feel any better, we have tons of spare uniforms just in case students wreck theirs. You're definitely not the first one who needed uniform replacements."

The only person that had actually been the cause of all uniform replacements had actually been Enji, who often could not control his very literal fiery temper when he was a teenager, and often burnt his and his classmates uniforms by accident, but Nezu couldn't exactly say that to Midoriya; he already knew how much Midoriya hated Enji, and Midoriya wasn't even the type to like or dislike people because he felt it was a waste of time.

As much as Midoriya didn't want Nezu to keep providing for him, Midoriya knew he had to go for lessons in a proper uniform and he didn't even have the hero course uniform, even though it literally only consisted of an extra button on the shoulder strap.

He was going to have to pay Nezu back for his hospitality.

"Well, you're officially going to be a part of 1-A tomorrow. New classroom, new classmates. Rest up, Izuku."

* * *

Yaoyorozu had never appreciated a death glare so much up till today.

She was one of the few students who were pretty early for classes, along with Uraraka, Bakugou, Shinsou, and Iida, but much to her surprise, for once, she was the first to enter the classroom among that group.

The classroom was pretty much empty, but Yaoyorozu noticed that there was another table next to hers, right by the window. She frowned, confused, and did a headcount of all the tables in the room.

There were twenty-one tables. That meant… they were getting a new classmate. Yaoyorozu really hoped that it was Midoriya; he had practically stopped Mineta from doing anything disgusting and she hadn't even gotten the chance to thank him for it. But she also knew that UA usually didn't do course transfers in the middle of the year; they usually do it at the end of the year or between semesters.

So she could only wonder who their new classmate will be.

It wasn't long before Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou entered the classroom, followed by Bakugou, and the rest of the class slowly trickled in as the classroom became noisier and nosier with each passing second.

Until Aizawa finally pushed the door open and entered with a stack of papers in his hand.

"Alright, I guess by now, some of you have already noticed the extra table. Those who didn't, that's a lesson for you. Now, your new classmate is Midoriya Izuku, from the General Education course. Now, as you know, normally we won't conduct transfers in the middle of a semester, but given what had happened…" Aizawa paused, unsure of how to word the event, but everyone already knew what he was talking about, "We made an exception this one time. Midoriya, you can come in now."

The door opened, and Midoriya warily walked into the classroom, eyeing each of his new classmates carefully.

"Midoriya, your seat is right at the back, by the window." Aizawa stated, "Now, given that the seating arrangement is a bit weird, some of you are going to be moving a bit, so pack your stuff. Mineta, you're moving to the side. Grab your stuff and come here."

Aizawa glanced around as the students did as he said, before he continued, "Ojiro, you also come to the side. Kaminari, move up. You're not paying enough attention in class. Shoji, you will sit where Yaoyorozu sits, you're blocking some of the other students. Yaoyorozu, you will sit in front of Midoriya."

Aizawa quickly managed to coordinate the class to move their seats according to the new seating plan, and the students quickly got settled in their new seats. The first row on the left consisted of Mineta, Ojiro, Yaoyorozu, and Midoriya. The second row consisted of Hagakure, Bakugou, Shinsou, and Shoji, while the third row had Jiro, Sero, Tokoyami, and Todoroki. The fourth row had Kaminari, Kirishima, Koda, and Sato, and the row closest to the door remained the same.

"This is your new seating arrangement. Any other problems, come tell me or the teachers and we'll fix it. Now, you guys can unpack and get ready for your next lesson. Self-study until then, you can make groups but just stay quiet." Aizawa ordered.

Midoriya had started reading something that Yaoyorozu was sure was out of the syllabus, and Hagakure and Jiro moved over to talk to Yaoyorozu.

It wasn't long before homeroom was over and Aizawa left the classroom. And while Mineta was perfectly well behaved while right in front of the Erasure hero, the second he left the room, it was a whole new story.

Mineta leapt out of his seat, and moved over to the group of three girls.

Then, he froze.

Midoriya hadn't moved at all, but he had shifted his gaze until it rested on Mineta. That was more than enough to send the short boy scrambling back to his seat.

Midoriya didn't even react. He just went back to reading his book.

Yaoyorozu quickly remembered what she wanted, and whirled around, catching Midoriya's attention almost immediately, "Hey… Midoriya... Jiro told me what you did last week… thank you so much."

Midoriya just looked at her staring at her for a few seconds. Yaoyorozu was getting slightly unnerved, but Midoriya just blinked, before giving her a small nod in acknowledgment, turning back to his book.

"Man, he doesn't talk much, does he?" Hagakure sighed. "Has he ever talked before?"

Shinsou had overheard Hagakure's question, before he was lost in his own thoughts.

Midoriya was Void. And Midoriya almost never talked; he was nothing like the Void that Shinsou had met when he was nine. He talked about being quirkless, how he knew how the boy with the "villainous" quirk felt, before promising to save the lavender haired boy from his family.

The Void, no, the Midoriya that Shinsou had met was quiet, but at least, he still talked.

Shinsou could only wonder what happened to Midoriya to have such a huge change in personality.

* * *

"Alright, get to the field right now and grab your hero costumes." Aizawa ordered, "Midoriya, yours is case 21."

Shoji carefully picked out the box from the top of the shelf, handing it to the green-haired boy gently. He was the tallest in class, and usually helped his classmates grab their hero costumes when they were on the highest shelf. He didn't see why he shouldn't help Midoriya.

MIdoriya looked at his case, before looking up at Shoji, and Shoji was seriously considering if had done the right thing under Midoriya's suspicious, scrutinizing gaze. Midoriya finally took the case from Shoji, giving him a small nod, and Shoji heaved an internal sigh in relief.

Heck, he was sure that Midoriya wasn't even trying to be terrifying.

And he sympathized with Midoriya.

When Shoji was a kid, he had often been teased and bullied by the other kids for his "villainous" and "monstrous" appearance. That was, until he was shown to be much stronger than his peers when he easily lifted up a cupboard like it was nothing. His classmates stopped teasing him, but they did stray away from him, slightly scared of his powers.

He wondered if Midoriya had been treated the same for being quirkless.

* * *

"You guys are too slow. Midoriya was out ages ago." Aizawa huffed, as the boys for both 1-A and 1-B made their way out of the changing rooms. Kan had been talking to Kendo, and he just sighed when the boys finally made their way to the training field. He knew that the students were most likely chatting as they changed, and that Midoriya was, in a way, socially awkward, but MIdoriya had changed into his hero costume and had exited the changing room almost instantaneously.

Granted, his hero costume was pretty simplistic compared to some of the others, but still, it _shouldn't_ take them so long just to change. They took an even longer time than the girls to come out, and that was something that _shouldn't_ even happen. Aizawa swore that as long as Kayama took to change, it wasn't anywhere as slow as the hero course males.

Iida started bowing, trying to explain that Kaminari had accidentally activated the shower, which caused him to start sparking and electrocuting Kirishima and Bakugou in the process. While no one was injured, Bakugou had gotten pissed at Kaminari and there was just chaos in general. Midoriya had slinked out before anything had even happened.

Aizawa just sighed, and resisted the urge to facepalm. It was just a stupid accident; he should have figured it was something like that. He wasn't worried at all for those idiotic kids. Nope, not at all.

He looked over to Midoriya to check his hero costume, since he had been more concerned with why the students were taking so long to change.

Midoriya was wearing a short-sleeved black hoodie, with a mint green trim around the sleeves. He wore black tights, and much like Aizawa, he had black combat boots, as well as fingerless gloves with green cuffs.

_He must really like the black and mint aesthetic…_ Aizawa thought, slightly amused.

Midoriya still donned bandages around his arms and fingers, and he also had his collar fastened around his neck. Reiko and Ryuto were positioned securely in his hood, looking around curiously.

"Alright, we've wasted enough time." Aizawa declared. "We're going to start with stretching and warm-ups, then we're going to have you fight each other. Five minutes, then we'll start."

It didn't take too long for the students to get into pairs to start stretching.

Shinsou groaned as Iida pressed against his back, trying to get the lavender haired boy to touch his toes. He didn't think he was too inflexible; he just had long legs. Iida finally let up on the pressure, and Shinsou sat back upright, massaging the muscles that had been stretched.

"Hey, Midoriya need any… help…?" Shinsou asked, only for his voice to die down in disbelief as he stared at the green-haired boy.

Midoriya didn't need any help at all. Heck, he wasn't even having any trouble touching his toes or even doing splits.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one staring. Iida and Uraraka also had their eyes glued on the former vigilante, as well as Ashido, Kaminari, and Yaoyorozu.

They could tell that Midoriya knew they were staring looking at him; Midoriya was occasionally shooting glances at the other students, but more of the most part, largely ignored them and continued doing his own stuff.

"Damn." Ashido's jaw dropped.

"Alright, time's up. Gather around!" Kan hollered, and the students slowly huddled by the teachers.

"Now, we will pick one person from each class to fight, one at a time, until one is defeated or thrown out of the designated area." Aizawa started, pointing at the large white box that had been drawn on the ground,"The person who wins remains in the area, and the next person will come in, and we'll tell you when to start."

"So basically, like some mass Pokemon match without substitutions." Kaminari offered, and Aizawa sighed at the game references.

"Kamakiri, you're up first." Kan said, and Kamakiri gleefully entered the box.

Aizawa hummed, before he called out, "Midoriya."

Kan raised his eyebrow at Aizawa's choice, as the green-haired boy silently made his way into the box. The rest of the students made their way out of the box, standing on their respective teachers' sides.

"Really? Aizawa, just because he beat Kamakiri in the Sports Festival doesn't mean that Midoriya's going to beat him again. Kamakiri has improved by leaps and bounds! Plus, Midoriya still hasn't fully recovered yet." Kan proudly teased, but Aizawa merely ignored the other teacher, "Midoriya, I don't want you to be holding back like you did in the Sports Festival. I've seen you fight before, you weren't even going all out against Bakugou. I want you to give it your all, don't just stay on the defensive, but also don't push yourself too far, okay? I need to see what you can do before we decide what to work on."

Kamakiri had originally been confident that he could beat Midoriya, but after what Aizawa had said, he wasn't too sure anymore.

_Even against Bakugou, he was holding back!?_

_Don't be silly. You've trained in hand to hand, your quirk is powerful, and while Midoriya is an experienced battler, he can't fight me at full power. I can beat him._

Midoriya just looked at Aizawa, not saying a word, before he turned back to Kamakiri, regarding his opponent emotionlessly. Kamakiri felt a shiver down his spine, but he just got into a battle stance, waiting for the signal to start.

"Alright, start."

Midoriya shot off towards Kamakiri immediately, and Kamakiri barely had time to bring up his blades to block a foot in the face.

_Holy crap, he's that fast?!_

Midoriya's assault didn't end there, as he attempted to kick Kamakiri in the side, before landing on one leg and whacking the back of Kamakiri's knee. Kamakiri managed to dodge the attack, but Midoriya merely advanced, swerving behind Kamakiri to attack him from behind. Kamakiri couldn't catch a breather as Midoriya always seemed to attack from his blindspot, constantly moving around, not letting Kamakiri guess where he would attack from and forcing him onto the defensive.

Kamakiri got a lucky shot in, swinging his blade at Midoriya. Midoriya blocked the hit with his foot, but Kamakiri pushed him back, sending the boy tumbling backwards, before rushing towards Midoriya.

Midoriya was barely even fazed, though, smoothly rolling back onto his feet, before springing forward towards Kamakiri. Kamakiri growled, extending his blades, in an attempt to stop Midoriya in his tracks, but Midoriya seemed to _speed up_, grabbing the flat of his blades with both hands, much to the 1-B student's surprise.

Midoriya yanked the blades towards him, pulling Kamakiri off backwards and propelling himself forward. Kamakiri gasped as Midoriya's knee made contact with his stomach, and he didn't have time to react as Midoriya followed up by kicking him into the ground, before one more powerful kick sent him rolling out of the box.

Monoma's jaw practically dropped. Heck, he thought that Midoriya was impressive for beating Kamakiri during the Sports Festival itself, but Midoriya had literally just knocked Kamakiri around like a rag doll. The one time that Kamakiri had gotten to attack, Midoriya had used the boy's speed against him.

_He's not letting any of his movements go to waste._ Aizawa mused. _All his movements are smoothly transitioning from one to another, and he's keeping his center of gravity lower to allow for more balance and control over his movements, even being able to use the energy from Kamakiri's attack against him by relaxing his muscles at the right time._

Aizawa really wanted to know who the heck trained this kid. It was actually slightly terrifying that Midoriya knew how to fight that like that at such an age.

Kamakiri rubbed his sore ribs as he sat up, thinking, d_amn, Midoriya hits hard._

He saw a hand in front of his face, and he looked up, only to find that Midoriya was standing right in front of him, extending his hand.

And he laughed.

Midoriya looked at the boy with an almost confused expression, but Kamakiri grabbed his hand and Midoriya pulled him up.

"Damn. I knew it would be a tough fight after what Aizawa-sensei said, but I didn't think I'd been wrecked so badly." Kamakiri shot Midoriya a smile, "That was an awesome fight."

_So, he can handle blades… but that's to be expected. I've seen him fight villains with knives before, using his speed to increase the power of his attacks. _Aizawa thought, _but how would he handle someone who can __easily __overpower him with pure strength alone?_

"Shoji, you're next."

* * *

**A/N I actually drew Ryuto, Reiko, and Midoriya's Hero Costume as a ref, but I can't add pictures here on so just search my username on Deviantart, should be there.**

**Or the cover of the story, IDK if it updated yet.**


	32. Chapter 32 - Lost souls dancing

Shoji entered the box, and trained his gaze on Midoriya. He might have been hesitant to go up against the boy before; he didn't want to make Midoriya's injuries worse. But seeing how he practically wrecked Kamakiri, Shoji wasn't taking any chances.

The second Kan gave the signal, Shoji shot forward, intending to grab onto Midoriya and just wrestle him to the ground. Midoriya wasn't particularly strong, as far as he could tell, but his speed combined with his technique let him hit hard and fast.

Unsurprisingly, Midoriya shot forward as well, but slid under Shoji's arms at the very last second. Shoji tried to stop him, and reached out his left arm, trying to grab onto Midoriya, but Midoriya swiftly kicked Shoji in the back of his knee, knocking the larger boy slightly off balance.

Shoji managed to stabilize himself easily; Midoriya didn't have enough strength to knock him down, but the green haired boy had enough time to pivot around on his foot, kicking Shoji in the chin as he turned around to face Midoriya.

Midoriya jumped backwards after his assault, before charging in again, aiming at Shoji's elbow as he tried to block Midoriya's attack.

_Midoriya's attacks aren't as effective against Shoji as they were against Kamakiri…_ Aizawa stared at the ongoing fight as Midoriya feinted, then landed another kick against Shoji's side when the larger boy tried to block a punch to the face. _But he is slowly wearing Shoji down. Shoji's way too bulky to keep up with Midoriya._

He was going to have to work on Shoji's mobility. Shoji was strong, alright, and he's stood out based on his appearance and strength. But up against someone as agile and nimble as Midoriya, coupled with the smaller boy's experience with fighting against multiple opponents at once, Shoji didn't stand a chance.

What Midoriya lacked in physical strength, he made up with relentless attacks, forcing Shoji to stay on the defensive.

The rather one-sided fight ended when Midoriya finally gave Shoji a breather, letting the boy get up as he purposely relaxed, making Shoji think that he had an opening. Shoji had charged at Midoriya, only for the smaller boy to duck beneath Shoji's arms and swiftly knocking his legs out from under him, making Shoji land outside the box, albeit barely.

* * *

Kan frowned, and looked towards his students. Shiozaki had fought Midoriya in the Sports Festival, but he's clearly shown that he is able to evade most of Shiozaki's long-ranged attacks, and she still needed practice in hand to hand combat. Kodai and Awase's quirks relied on their effects on other items, and the field itself was rather barren. There were several students that he felt could take Midoriya down, but Midoriya was smart as well; after seeing his notebooks, Kan was certain that Midoriya could easily bulldoze his way through half the class, if not more, without much of a problem if he had fully recovered.

And as much as he wanted to send Komori out to take Midoriya down, Midoriya still wasn't fully recovered, and he had a feeling that Shuzenji would chew him out if she found out that there were mushrooms growing in Midoriya's lungs, courtesy of Komori's quirk.

"Tetsutetsu! You're up!" Kan barked out, and the metallic quirked boy gleefully took his place on the field.

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on it. He did want to see how Kirishima would fare against Midoriya, but Tetsutetsu would be an example, given the similarity between Kirishima and Tetsutetsu's fighting styles and quirks.

Midoriya scowled internally as he eyed Tetsutetsu. Both Tetsutetsu and Kirishima were the opponents that Midoriya had the most trouble facing; given that he couldn't just get past their defences with agility and speed. He probably couldn't punch him; he'd break his hands again, and he wanted to avoid that as far as possible. He needed his hands to do his homework.

He ignored the aching sensation that originated from his fingers. If punching Shoji was that bad, then what would punching steel be like?

He could kick him, sure, but kicking steel was a lot worse than kicking concrete. At least his combat boots were lined with steel so that he wouldn't break his toes.

And if Kan sent out Tetsutetsu, then it was unlikely that Aizawa would send out Kirishima.

The first thing that Tetsutetsu was to charge at him, and Midoriya resisted the urge to facepalm.

_Why did everyone start off with charging at me?_

_Then again, there isn't much else they can do to start off without a ranged attack._

Midoriya moved forward to defend, catching Tetsutetsu's first steel-coated punch. Tetsutetsu attempted another punch, but Midoriya caught it as well, resulting in a stalemate between the two students.

Midoriya's arms shook as he struggled to overpower the metallic Tetsutetsu; he definitely wasn't strong enough at the moment to do so.

Tetsutetsu pressed his weight forward, as Midoriya's arms gave way. Midoriya quickly disengaged, harshly pushing Tetsutetsu away with his foot. Midoriya used the momentum from Tetsutetsu's attack, and rolled backwards, landing firmly on his feet, before shooting forwards.

If he couldn't overpower Tetsutetsu directly, he would just have to get in close, and mess up Tetsutetsu's tempo, then use that moment as a distraction to toss him out of the box.

Tetsutetsu skid backwards, and watched as Midoriya shot towards him. He brought his arm up, activating his quirk, ready to punch Midoriya as he got close, but even while he did take into account that Midoriya would attempt a feint, he wasn't able to hit Midoriya.

The green haired boy swiftly danced past Tetsutetsu's attack, and Tetsutetsu whirled around, ready to attack again. Tetsutetsu kept on punching, kicking, yet Midoriya continuously dodged everything, and this kept up until Tetsutetsu finally felt that he had fallen into a trap when Midoriya made a weird movement that just _felt wrong._

It was too late. He had already tripped over his own feet, and Midoriya grabbed him by the arm and tossed him out of the box.

* * *

"What was that?" Kirishima's jaw dropped. He was certain that Tetsutetsu was doing well, forcing Midoriya to dodge, and Tetsutetsu wasn't that clumsy; there was no reason for him to trip over his own feet. "I swore Tetsutetsu had got him."

The rest of the students were equally confused, and Jiro rubbed her eyes, trying to regain her own sense of balance; being more in tune with tempo than her peers, she was more affected by it, and just looking at the fight messed up her own internally tempo, "No. Midoriya did this during the attack on UA as well. He gave Tetsutetsu the opportunity to attack, drawing him into his tempo, before messing up Tetsutetsu's tempo. He completely disrupted Tetsutetsu's sense of balance and used that opportunity to take him out."

Aizawa sighed internally. That was a big card to play, and wasn't that tempo thing some concept that a hero in America came up with? How did Midoriya come to know of it? And how on earth did he even manage to implement it into a fighting style? For every question he had answered about MIdoriya, ten more questions popped up.

But that meant that Midoriya was getting desperate, though Aizawa had a feeling that wasn't the case; he probably knew that trying to attack Tetsutetsu directly would only do more harm to himself, and had no other choice. Midoriya wouldn't be using it against anyone else besides from Kirishima, since he was the only one with a quirk that increases his defences.

"Hagakure."

Midoriya didn't look impressed as Hagakure walked into the box and removed her gloves and shoes.

"Hey! Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean that you can go easy on me!" Hagakure yelled, before taking a fighting stance, not that anyone could see it anyway.

Midoriya just closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. There was some dust in the air that revealed Hagakure's position, but it was so faint that he would take more effort trying to see her than just listening out for her breathing and footsteps.

"Is he underestimating her?" Ojiro asked, feeling insulted for his friend. He sparred with Hagakure sometimes, to improve his senses, and if he was going easy on her, it kind of felt like Midoriya was looking down on him too.

"No. He can't see her anyways. Plus, Midoriya doesn't need to see to fight like a beast." Shinsou grimaced, almost feeling sorry for Hagakure if not for the fact that he knew that Midoriya knew how to hold back at the appropriate time.

Midoriya remained still, listening out, trying to feel the faint air currents around him. The fact that his classmates were talking rather loudly and the bandages pressed against his skin weren't helping, but he pushed his annoyance away and focused on the task at hand.

The air behind him shifted, and he heard a soft intake of breath as Hagakure got ready to attack.

Before she could even react, Midoriya had whirled around and kneed her in the stomach. She let out a small cry of pain as she was sent tumbling backwards, past the line.

"Man, I thought I had you there!" Hagakure exclaimed, "How did you know I was there?"

Midoriya stared at her for a second, before he signed, _"Breathing."_

"Aww. I thought I was quiet enough!" Hagakure pouted, after Shinsou translated the signing for her, "Thanks for the feedback! I'll work on it!"

Midoriya just looked at her weirdly as she grabbed her gloves and slipped on her shoes.

* * *

"Hmm… Kuroiro." Kan stated.

Kuroiro grinned, as he walked onto the box. Midoriya was tiring; the boy was starting to pant slightly after fighting four students in a row in quick succession. There were a few shadows, cast by clouds, and it was more than enough for him to use his quirk.

Midoriya didn't seem particularly worried, though, but Midoriya wasn't expressive in the first place.

Kuroiro immediately dived into the shadows when Aizawa gave the signal, making a beeline straight for Midoriya. He popped out right beneath Midoriya, intent on punching him, but Midoriya wasn't on the ground.

Midoriya had jumped, avoiding Kuroiro's attack, and kicked Kuroiro right in the face. Kuroiro tumbled to the ground, diving back into the shadows to recover, and Midoriya landed back on the ground, looking around in anticipation for an attack.

_Every time he comes up, the shadows ripple slightly. I just have to keep an eye out for that. He's faster in the shadows, so he might pop out from somewhere and rocket towards me. I should just watch one side and purposely keep my back open. He'll take that opportunity and try to tackle me._

Midoriya kept his eyes on the ground, watching out for any sign of movement. He sensed some form of movement behind him, and he tensed up, before whirling around. Kuroiro was right in his face, and Midoriya hurriedly brought his legs up and kicked the white haired boy in the face, sending him out of bounds.

* * *

Aizawa bit his lip, "Aoyama, your turn."

_Midoriya's doing great in close combat, Aoyoma is a long ranged fighter._

Aoyama started off by firing off lasers in several short bursts in quick succession, but Midoriya swifted dodged them all before charging at the flamboyant blonde. Aoyama tried to mow him with a couple larger lasers, but Midoriya dodged them all as well, before charging at Aoyama.

But the blonde boy wasn't done yet, surprisingly.

Aoyama had charged his laser up, wanting to fire it off the second Midoriya got close. But Midoriya had promptly sidestepped the massive laser attack, before ramming his shoulder into Aoyama, taking him out.

Midoriya panted; he was tiring, and didn't expect Aoyama to be charging up a close-ranged laser attack, and had barely managed to dodge it. He rubbed the sweat off his forehead, and took a big gulp of air, readying himself for the next opponent.

* * *

Kan scratched the back of his head. He knew that Midoriya was competent fighter, but damn, he was severely underestimating Midoriya. He didn't expect Midoriya to be able to fight so well, especially since he had been unconscious for a week and pretty much out of practise. But all the fights were slowly wearing the boy down, and Kan called out the next student, "Shoda."

_I can't fight him directly. He's too good. _Shoda thought, as he readied himself to fight. _He may know my quirk, but he probably doesn't know the specifics of it. Maybe, if I pretend to make the same mistake Tetsutetsu did, I can just draw him in, land a few hits, and then use Twin Impact to knock him out of the box._

Midoriya regarded the light blue haired boy as another troublesome fighter. Twin Impact allowed Shoda to create a second impact at any site where he had hit, and it would be several times stronger than the original hit. A powerful hit in the wrong place could knock Midoriya directly out of the box, and Midoriya knew that he had to limit where Shoda struck to only his palms; at least, if Shoda tried to activate his quirk, Midoriya wouldn't break anything or twist them the wrong way, and, if he had to, he could use it for himself.

After all, Shoda himself had several tells that he could exploit. Shoda had a habit of looking at the points of impact before activating his quirk, and the boy wasn't particularly fast.

Unlike all the others, Shoda merely moved into a fighting stance, but didn't make the first move. Midoriya had no choice, but to charge forward. Shoda leapt forward, towards Midoriya, before he activated his quirk on his feet, propelling himself forward even faster.

He aimed a punch at Midoriya, but Midoriya caught his first punch. Shoda attempted another punch, but Midoriya caught that as well. Midoriya quickly kicked Shoda away, before holding his hands up, purposely close together so that they were both in Shoda's line of sight, ready to attack again, and Shoda got back to his feet.

Shoda subtly glanced at Midoriya's hands, and Midoriya narrowed his eyes.

_Now._

The instant that Shoda glanced at his hands, Midoriya quickly moved his hands behind him, shifting into a stance like Bakugou usually did before he used his explosions to propel himself forward, just as Twin Impact activated.

Shoda didn't even have time to gape as Midoriya rammed into him like a bullet train, knocking the shorter boy out of the box.

Midoriya ignored the pain that flared through his arms and fingers. _He certainly hadn't been expecting that the impact would have taken such a huge toll on his arms._

"Woah. He used Shoda's quirk against him?" Tokage exclaimed, grinning excitedly, "That's pretty awesome! I didn't think you could do something like that! I wanna fight him!"

"Just wait your turn." Monoma pulled her back, "After he defeats the next 1-A kid, maybe Vlad King sensei would choose you."

* * *

Aizawa tried to think of who to pit against Midoriya next. Shoda had been a good choice by Kan; his ability to launch secondary impacts would disorientate most people. Even if a person knew Shoda's quirk, it would be nearly impossible to read the shorter boy in order to use it against him.

Yet, Midoriya had just gone and done just that, even though he hadn't even fought Shoda properly before. And Aizawa wasn't sure what to make of the situation. Midoriya was fast, decently powerful, he was agile and nimble, and had enough experience to even take on Stain, for goodness sake.

"Iida, your turn." Aizawa ordered. He wanted to see how Midoriya would deal with someone much faster than him. The only pity was that the box wasn't large enough for Iida to go full throttle, but second gear was already far faster than what Midoriya could go.

"Yes, Sensei!" Iida saluted, before walking into the box. He was already thinking about how to defeat Midoriya. He knew that Midoriya couldn't keep up with his speed, so he was most likely going to stay in one spot and evade. He should just keep on attacking. Midoriya would tire out sooner or later, and it wasn't like he had a ranged attack.

* * *

Iida had started off with charging at Midoriya, forcing the smaller boy to evade. Iida just pivoted on his foot, turning back around, before revving his engine back up and launching himself at Midoriya again. He glanced at Midoriya's position, before sticking his leg out, kicking Midoriya as he passed. Midoriya managed to stop the attack, using his arms as a shield, and Iida took a step back, before trying to kick Midoriya again, activating his quirk right before his foot made contact with Midoriya.

Midoriya blocked the kick again, and Iida kept on attacking, trying to push Midoriya out of bounds. Midoriya continued using his arms to tank the attacks. He growled under his breath, and tried to get some distance between Iida and himself, but Iida took that opportunity to kick Midoriya harshly in the stomach, sending the green haired boy skidding backwards.

"He actually managed to hit Midoriya?!" Sero gaped, and Todoroki replied, "It's not that surprising; Midoriya's already fought seven students before Iida. Plus, Midoriya hasn't been training for quite a while; it's going to take some time for him to get back to full power."

Midoriya resisted the urge to cradle his bruised arm, and pushed the pain to the back of his mind. He'd deal with it later. He's fought with worse injuries before. He had an engine to scrap.

And he had an idea.

Midoriya rushed at Iida, and Iida activated his quirk once again, charging back at the green haired boy. Midoriya hastily grabbed onto the bandages on his arms, and swiftly dodged Iida's next attempt to kick him.

Iida braked, and turned around to charge at Midoriya again, but found himself tangled up in bandages. Before he could even figure out what was going on, he was pulled upwards.

* * *

Aizawa and Shinsou could only gape as Midoriya unravelled the bandages around his arms, before flinging them at Iida, effectively ensnaring and immobilizing the taller boy. Midoriya yanked Iida upwards, before turning around and slamming Iida into the ground, out of bounds.

"Dude, he _needs_ those as a permanent part of his hero costume, that was badass!" Kaminari grinned.

"Hey, Shinsou, I thought only you and Aizawa-sensei know how to use the capture weapon thingy?" Uraraka nudged Shinsou.

Shinsou admitted, "I can do basic stuff, yeah, but I can barely control the damned thing properly."

Midoriya carefully pulled the bandages back, before trying to re-wrap his arms.

"Midoriya, stop."

Midoriya listened, and paused, but made no other moves. Aizawa moved in to help Midoriya, before he noticed just how much his arms were trembling. He carefully grabbed Midoriya's shaking hands, internally cursing as Midoriya flinched away from him.

He should have noticed it sooner. Midoriya was strong, yes, but he hadn't fully recovered; he was pushing himself way beyond what his body could handle at the moment. Not to mention that Midoriya also had a tendency to hide his injuries, and would probably never tell anyone. He was foolish to think that Midoriya would have told him that he was going past his limits and couldn't continue fighting.

"Midoriya, sit out. You're not fighting anymore." Aizawa ordered, and Midoriya just looked at him blankly, his expression betraying nothing. Kan just looked at Aizawa in concern, while the rest of the students stood around in confusion.

"Just look at how much your hands are trembling. You've reached your limit. I'm not going to let you continue fighting like this and make them even worse." Aizawa stated. Midoriya didn't even spare a glance at his arms, and just glared at Aizawa harshly.

_"It wasn't just one; it was several suicide attempts."_

Aizawa felt like he was doing the wrong thing while trying to gain Midoriya's trust, but he couldn't just let Midoriya self-destruct, especially after what Shuzenji had said in the hospital rang through his mind.

"Midoriya, you're going to tear yourself apart at the rate you're going." Aizawa sighed, trying to reason with the boy, "I don't care if you are able to fight with broken limbs, or that you're able to take on high level villains and come out unscathes. I'm not letting you make a small problem even worse. You're just hurting yourself. You don't have to go the Recovery Girl now, you can see her after lessons; I just don't want you to be hurting yourself because you think you have to beat everyone here to prove yourself."

And Midoriya had already proved himself, defeating a fifth of the hero course before he had even fully recovered.

Midoriya didn't seem to believe his words, as the teacher carefully rewrapped the bandages around Midoriya's arms. He continued glaring at Aizawa warily, before he finally relented and walked out of the box, standing in a corner, away from the other students.

* * *

Iida had already returned to his position by Todoroki, Shinsou, Koda, and Uraraka.

"That's no way to interact with a teacher. Midoriya should still treat Aizawa-sensei with respect. Glaring at him is no way for a student to act!" Iida quietly protested, and was about to make his way to Midoriya's side to lecture him. Todoroki and Uraraka quickly pulled him back before he could do anything stupid.

Shinsou just looked at Midoriya, as he stood away from everyone else. Midoriya had picked Reiko and Ryuto up and placed then in his hood, and Reiko was trying to cheer Midoriya up by nuzzling him.

Midoriya reminded him of himself when Aizawa and Yamada had just adopted him; not wanting to interact with anyone at all in fear that they would hit him or call him a villain.

Koda's heart just dropped when he saw how Midoriya looked at Aizawa. He didn't even bother to sign.

"He's scared."

Todoroki almost got a heart attack when Koda spoke up, and the group turned to face the normally silent boy.

"His actions… they remind me of the animals I saw at the shelter. Aggressive on the outside, but that's only because they're terrified. Terrified that they're going to be hurt again. Scared that the only treatment they're going to get is to be beaten and abused. They try to act tough to try and scare other people away, but they're just scared." Koda spoke so softly, the group could barely hear him, but they understood what Koda was saying.

Midoriya still wasn't sure if he could trust Aizawa. He regarded the older man with hostility because he was afraid that Aizawa would hurt him. He refused to let his guard down because he didn't want to risk it.

How many people had hurt Midoriya before? How many people had taken Midoriya's trust and threw it away? How much more abuse could Midoriya take before he snapped? Before he broke completely?

And could they still help him? Could Midoriya still be saved?

"We're not like those people." Uraraka stated coldly, "Anyone who hurts someone as nice as Midoriya is a piece of shit."

"Uraraka, language!" Iida scolded, before declaring, "Though I share the same sentiments, I wouldn't word it like that! People who hurt others for no reason are just degenerates! As the class representative, I will do my best to ensure that Midoriya is safe!"


	33. Chapter 33 - The walls you hide behind

The rest of the lesson carried on without a hitch, and Aizawa and Kan distributed Midoriya's notes out to the rest of the students, "Okay, here's some notes that Midoriya has written about your. Take a look at it, and if you have any questions, come talk to Vlad King or I. Please don't harass Midoriya about it."

Hagakure nearly jaw dropped as she looked at her paper, before looking down at her invisible form, shifting around uncomfortably, "Is my form really that bad?"

"Uh… I can't tell?" Ojiro scratched his head, "None of us can really see you."

"Why didn't I think of using diamond? It's just carbon, one of the simplest elements!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed, "Also, I should probably work on my hand to hand… Monoma was able to easily take my weapons from me."

"Ha!" Monoma laughed, but was promptly smacked in the back of the head by Kendo, "You know, you're the only one involved in this stupid 1-A and 1-B rivalry. Just drop it already."

Iida stomped up to Midoriya, as the green haired boy turned around to face him. Iida took a deep breath, before he started waving his arms around erratically, "I'm sorry that I injured your arms even more! As the class representative, I should be helping you fit in and instead, I ended up injuring you instead! I am very -"

Midoriya tensed up almost immediately, keeping a wary gaze on Iida's arms as he swung them about like he was trying to chop something.

Iida was immediately pulled back by Shinsou with his capture weapon, "I told you to cool it. You're stressing him out."

"Sorry about Iida. He's just overly enthusiastic." Uraraka laughed, "I've read the notes you've done on us, and they're really awesome! I was wondering… could you give me a few lessons in close combat fighting?"

Koda almost squeaked as Midoriya turned his gaze towards the bubbly girl, staring at her. Uraraka shifted uncomfortably; she was hoping that by maybe spending more time with him, Midoriya would eventually warm up to them, but it seems that Midoriya was still hesitant to take the first step.

Midoriya lifted his hands to sign, but Uraraka quickly stopped him, "No, you don't have to answer right away… especially with your arms in that state… " She smiled at him, "If you don't want to, you also don't have to teach me… "

Midoriya just looked at them, confused, as Aizawa called out, "Iida, can you accompany Midoriya to the infirmary?"

"Yes, sensei!" Iida saluted, "Come on, Midoriya, let's go get your arms checked."

* * *

"You're lucky it's nothing serious; it's just bruised, not broken or sprained. You really have to be more careful, Midoriya." Shuzenji sighed, as she examined Midoriya's arm. The green haired boy was clearly uncomfortable around her, but remained completely still, watching her every movement warily. "One day, I won't be able to heal your injuries anymore. There's only so much that your arms can take."

She gently kissed Midoriya's arm, careful not to sap too much of his strength, but Midoriya didn't even look bothered by the usage of his energy; in fact, he didn't even seem to react at all.

"I keep saying this, but just take it easy for now, Midoriya. You can train, but please, don't use your arms to block any more attacks until I say that you can. You need to let your body rest recover before all the damage accumulates and becomes permanent."

Midoriya just gave Shuzenji a small bow as he stood up, and Iida resisted the urge to reach out to help him up; that would most definitely not help them in getting Midoriya to trust them. They had to let Midoriya initiate things, to let him know that they would be there for him no matter what.

"Hey, Midoriya." Iida piped up, and Midoriya turned to look up at the larger boy, "What are the things you like and dislike? I know you don't really like people touching you, so I was thinking… maybe we can tell the class so you'll be more comfortable."

Midoriya merely shook his head. It didn't matter what he liked or disliked. He had been pretty jumpy the past few days, he would admit that, but once he finally fully recovered, it wouldn't matter anymore. He'd be back to normal, barely reacting as people grabbing him to bash him against a wall or tripping him down the stairs.

"Are you sure? I'm sure we can work something out. It won't be too much trouble, I promise." Iida prodded a bit more, but Midoriya just shook his head again.

_People don't keep promises, they never do so. Promising to do something was as good as not promising to do it in the first place._

_Who even cared that much anyways?_

Midoriya knew Nezu did, at the very least, but he also knew it was impossible for Nezu to enforce it anyways, and Nezu did have way too many things on his paws lately to deal with trivial matters in lesson.

* * *

Todoroki, Uraraka, and Koda stood outside the infirmary, patiently waiting for Iida and Midoriya to come out; Shinsou had gone off for his counselling session with Hound Dog. They heaved a sigh of relief as Iida and Midoriya walked out of the infirmary, the later with fresh new bandages wrapped around his arms, both of them still in their hero costumes.

"So, how is it?" Uraraka asked.

"He's fine. Recovery Girl thinks he should just rest." Iida replied, "I think we should tell Aizawa-sensei."

"Wouldn't Recovery Girl tell him herself?" Todoroki pointed out, "She's the nurse, won't the teachers be the first to be informed of his condition?"

"Hmm… that is true." Iida mused, "What do you think, Midoriya, Koda?"

Koda quickly signed something that none of them understood, and Midoriya merely shrugged.

He didn't really care anyways. As long as he was still functioning, he would train to the best of his abilities. He couldn't afford to waste time and stagnate; without a quirk like the others, he knew that he would reach his limit much faster than they would. He wanted to go back to his classroom and start with his homework.

"Midoriya… can I speak to you in private?" Todoroki suddenly asked, and Koda and Uraraka looked at him in confusion. Iida just had a small, knowing smile on his face, and he quickly spoke up, "Ah, then Koda, Uraraka and I will get back to class first. We'll see you tomorrow?"

MIdoriya just looked at his classmates in confusion as Todoroki nodded, before the dual-colour haired boy led Midoriya to an empty classroom.

_What does he want to say this time?_

"I want to apologise."

Midoriya just stared at Todoroki blankly.

"I was selfish, and didn't think about how you felt. I was insensitive to your emotions, and I ended up saying some really rude things to you. You've helped me so many times, telling the principal about my father, helping me, encouraging me to use the side of my quirk that I detest so much, and even saving both Iida and I from Stain. And yet, all I did was to insult you and your abilities. I just want to apologise for acting so rudely towards you."

Todoroki ended off with a small bow, and Midoriya really wasn't sure how to deal with it at all.

_Since when did people even care about how he felt? Since when did people even apologise in the first place? Why was he apologising?_

_Somewhere deep in his heart, he could tell that Todoroki was telling the truth, that he genuinely felt bad for his treatment towards Midoriya._

But he could never be too sure.

But Midoriya was tired. He just wanted to finish his work, and then go to sleep. He wanted to go out and patrol, but he knew that Nezu was watching the security cameras and he didn't want to bother the principal. He still needed to learn more about his surroundings, where he lived, before he could even figure out how to sneak out.

Midoriya shoulders sagged, gaining Todoroki's attention, and Midoriya merely nodded in acknowledgement.

He should just accept Todoroki's apology, and keep an eye on him. After all, even after people had apologised to him, they never were sincere, and all they did was to try and gain Midoriya's trust before telling him to kill himself. Who's to say that Todoroki wasn't the same?

"Thank you. I will do anything I can to make up for my bad attitude towards you."

Midoriya just shook his head, before making his way to the door, Todoroki trailing slowly behind him.

* * *

"Ah, Shinsou, how are you doing?" Inui asked, as Shinsou slipped into the seat opposite the pro hero.

"I'm fine… for the most part." Shinsou replied.

"So, do you want to… uh… about what happened in the USJ?" Inui asked, "You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, just take it easy."

"Uh… I'm going to be honest… I still think about… what happened…" Shinsou started, "It's silly… but every time I close my eyes… I just can't forget … the Nomu… how Midoriya kept…"

Shinsou shook his head, "Sorry… I don't wanna talk about it."

"That's alright." Inui sighed. Most of the heroics students had taken it pretty badly. That wasn't to say that the other departments weren't affected, but they were further away from the chaos that the hero class students, and for the most part, were safe from the more… graphic parts of the fight.

Todoroki, Iida, Shinsou, Bakugou, and Monoma had taken it pretty badly, compared to their peers. Bakugou had started blowing stuff up a few minutes into their counselling session, swearing as he yelled that he couldn't be number one if he wasn't even strong enough to protect one quirkless kid, and how he needed to get stronger.

Todoroki had remained quiet for the most part, but he had mentioned that he had severely underestimated Midoriya and had treated rather rudely, and while he knew that he wanted to apologise to Midoriya, he wasn't sure how to make it up to him. Inui had told him to just apologise first, and then decide on what to do later, since he too wasn't even sure how Midoriya would react to it.

Iida had been pretty vocal about his viewpoint, and had said that he wanted to a proper job as a class representative and welcome Midoriya into 1-A, but wasn't too sure how to go about it since Midoriya seemed to simultaneously be affected by everything, and yet didn't seem to care about what happens at all. He did want to be useful and tell the class what was appropriate to do around Midoriya, since he knew that most of the class was concerned about Midoriya's complete lack of self preservation.

Uraraka was pretty similar to Iida, except that she had been unconscious when the villains teleported everyone back to school, but she had heard from Jiro and some of the others that Midoriya fought tooth and nail to protect everyone without a care for his own life. She was really protective of Midoriya, and wanted to beat up anyone and everyone who had insulted Midoriya, which included his former 1-C class.

Monoma was pretty similar to Bakugou, lamenting that he wasn't strong enough to help Midoriya. Inui originally had thought that Monoma's attitude towards 1-A had been because Monoma had an inflated ego, but that wasn't the case at all; Monoma knew that 1-A was strong due to their quirks, and apparently had an inferiority complex due to his quirk being called "weak" and "useless" in the past. Inui was seriously wondering what had happened to this deteriorating society.

"You're still guilty over Midoriya's condition, aren't you?" Inui asked, "We all know that he was the reason why Aizawa and Mic saved you."

Out of everyone, Midoriya seemed to be the one that was least affected by it. He had tried to have one counselling session with the green haired victim of the attack, but Midoriya just continued looking at him blankly, not even seeming bothered by the fact that he had almost died in the attack. It was unnerving to see the one that had suffered the most physical trauma, and probably the most mental trauma, to be the one that seemed to care the least about the events that had happened.

Shinsou nodded mutely, before he looked up at Inui, "I want to help him… a lot of my friends do as well, but we're not really sure how to go about doing that."

Inui sighed, and rubbed the back of his head, "Pretty much half of your class has asked me that question, and I'm going to be honest and tell you exactly what I told them. I myself have no idea how to help Midoriya. I think you should just stick by him, just let him know that there is someone there for him. Don't rush him; it would just do more harm than good. I've seen you guys in the canteen sometimes, just continue what you're doing, and don't prod too much. Let Midoriya set the pace."

Inui was going to try and ask other pros for help with dealing with Midoriya first. Maybe some of them could give him advice on how to help the poor apathetic child who had no care for his own life and wellbeing.

* * *

"Aizawa-sensei said that you wanted to see me?" Midoriya asked, as he carefully settled down on the couch in Nezu's office. Reiko and Ryuto curled up on the boy's lap, and Nezu leaned back into his chair.

"I've been thinking, Izuku." Nezu started, "You may want to let your old foster parent go for her actions towards her, but she's breaking the law. She can't just treat you like that, and get away unscathed. She should be arrested for child abuse, negligence, and quirk discrimination."

"But… the other kids would be forced to transfer to other homes… that they may not be comfortable in…" Midoriya tried to reason, but Reiko just butted her head against Midoriya's arm.

Nezu stopped him, "Think about it, what if she treats another kid like that? What if there's another child like you who's like you, but she just mistreats them them the same way she treated you?"

_He thinks he deserves it. He thinks that he's worthless and should be treated so. It's not right._

Nezu hated manipulating Midoriya's feelings like that, but that was the only way to make Midoriya see reason, to see that actions performed by his former foster mother should not go unpunished.

"Izuku, how were your real parents like?" He couldn't help but ask.

Midoriya's eyes widened at the question, before he slouched, quickly averting his eyes from the principal.

"Did they care about you? Did they love you?" Nezu asked.

Midoriya didn't make a single movement for a long time, before he nodded, his action so small that Nezu wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been paying attention.

_It's a touchy subject. I shouldn't bring it up now._

"Sorry for bringing it up. My bad." Nezu scratched the back of his head, "I know you don't want to cause any more trouble, but I can't just sit down and let her go knowing that she has broken several laws."

"Even if you did… no one would believe you anyway." Midoriya muttered, "You don't have any evidence. No one would believe anything I say, and you have no substantial proof."

Nezu faltered, pausing to consider Midoriya's statement.

He was right, as much as Nezu hated to admit it. Nezu had no concrete evidence at all; all of Midoriya's recent injuries were inflicted at the USJ, and it wasn't like anyone would believe Midoriya, especially with all the reports about how he was a troublemaker at school.

Nezu just growled under his breath, before he forced himself to calm down. At least, now in UA, no one would ever hurt Midoriya again.

* * *

"Alright! Let's have some ground rules!" Iida placed his hands on his hips as he stood in front of the class, "As the class representative, I have taken it upon myself, with some help from Shinsou, Koda, and Todoroki, to compile a list of what to do and what not to do around Midoriya. As you can tell, he's new, and there's probably some actions that you may think is fine, but Midoriya would probably take it the wrong way!"

Aizawa was already informed of what Iida was planning to do, and had sent Midoriya to Nezu's office so that he wouldn't be in class. Nezu was also filled in, and he wanted to talk to Midoriya about that _other_ matter that was lingering heavily on his mind.

Iida took out a thumb drive and inserted it into his laptop, and a word document appeared on the screen, "I originally wanted to make a handbook, but it used up too many pages, and wasn't eco friendly. A digital version will have to do. Yaoyorozu has also suggested to make a group chat. I will add all of you in it, and shared the document. Once all of you have downloaded it, I will clear the chat before adding Midoriya into the chat."

Aizawa hummed under his breath. That was a pretty good idea. Midoriya didn't seem to be familiar with people caring about him, or putting in the extra effort to do things for him, so not letting him know that they had actually made a handbook was probably a good idea.

"First, if you're going to talk to him, don't jump him. Make sure that he knows that you're coming closer before advancing, especially if he's disoriented." Iida started off, "Secondly, try not to make any sudden movements. He might take it as a sign of aggression. Thirdly, please don't try to prank him by trying to surprise him..."

Iida continued droning on and one, swinging his arms around, until Sato piped up, "I don't mean to be rude… but isn't this a bit excessive?"

"Not really, unless you're ready to have your joints dislocated." Aizawa replied blankly, stepping out of his sleeping bag, "Midoriya's been a vigilante for a long time, at least six years. He isn't well known because he prefers to stick to the shadows and takes down villains at night, and I'm going to tell you right now, he's the one that battled Stain until Endeavor and I were able to take him out. He was able to go toe to toe with the Hero Killer, after Endeavor had tried to set him on fire."

"What!? How?!" Ashido gaped.

Aizawa sighed, before continuing, "Midoriya prefers to knock out his opponent as quickly as possible, but he can just as easily break your bones. Years of training and practise means that some of his actions would be ingrained into muscle memory. These guidelines are in place not just to help Midoriya fit in, but also because he may act on instinct and hurt you if you approach him wrongly. Ashido, you're lucky that he only hissed at you that time you stuck your hand in his face. I've heard rumours that the last time some villain tried to sneak up on him, Midoriya just flipped them over completely and drop kicked him to the ground, dislocating his shoulder and knocking him out on the spot. Not to mention that the villain was at least twice Midoriya's size."

"Kero, not to be rude, Sensei, but how was he allowed in the hero course in the first place?" Asui asked.

"Because we believe he still has a chance to recover. You all remember what was on that card, don't you?" Aizawa replied, and he could see angry, frustrated expressions on the faces of his students, "He didn't have it easy in his old school, so he might perceive you as a threat as well and may attack accidentally. I already asked him to give you a chance, to show that you won't hurt him. He's trying, but he can't do it alone."

"Just… don't force him to do anything that he's not comfortable with, okay?" Aizawa sighed, "I know it's not easy, having to follow a ton of rules just to interact with him, but just treat it like any normal lesson. This is how you deal with victims from traumatic events, it's not going to be easy to recover from it. Let Midoriya be the first person that you help to save."


	34. Chapter 34 - Your Starlight

Midoriya felt that something had happened while he was gone. The vibe he had gotten from his classmates were definitely different from when he had left in the morning, but Midoriya couldn't figure out what it was.

"Ah, Midoriya, you're back." Iida smiled, having hastily slammed the laptop lid shut when he heard footsteps outside of the classroom. He had already created the class chat, with Aizawa's permission, and had shared the document with everyone in 1-A.

"We all decided that having a class chat would be beneficial to everyone, but I do not have your phone number. Homeroom will end soon, so I will add you to the chat later. Can you give me your phone number?" Iida asked, taking his phone out and passing it to Midoriya.

Midoriya's eyes narrowed as he hesitantly took Iida's phone and inputted his number, before handing the phone back to Iida. His phone was filled with messages from his old classmates, and as much as Midoriya knew it was wishful thinking, he really didn't want anymore messages telling him to jump off a building or hang himself. He had already done it and it wasn't a good experience at all.

"Thank you!" Iida bowed, grabbing his laptop and running back to his seat as Kayama entered the classroom, finally relieving Aizawa of his homeroom duties.

Reiko and Ryuto just sat on Midoriya's table, looking around curiously. They never bothered anyone, and never made any noise during lessons, nor did they distract Midoriya or anyone else from their work for no reason, so Aizawa really didn't care that they were there. The other teachers didn't really mind their presence, so Reiko and Ryuto were allowed to remain by Midoriya's side at all times.

The class didn't mind either. They were all fond of the two animals, especially Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Koda, and it was hilarious to see Reiko smacking Kaminari's hand with her paw every time he wrote the wrong math equations. Ectoplasm was especially amused whenever that happened.

* * *

"Yes, Principal?" Aizawa asked.

"You don't have any lessons for the rest of the day, do you?" Nezu asked.

"No."

"Alright. I need you to do something." Nezu started, "You know Aldera Junior High, don't you?"

"Isn't that Midoriya's former middle school?" Aizawa asked, and Nezu nodded.

"Yep. I did some digging, and there are reports saying that Midoriya is a huge trouble maker in lessons and constantly disturbs his classmates."

Aizawa frowned, "Uh… are you sure you have the right report?"

"Positive." Nezu nodded, "That's why I want you to go and check the logs and the security cameras. I was originally going to go myself; I already have the permits and documents for an investigation, but I have some last minute work assigned by the Hero Commission and I would like this to be done as soon as possible. You up for it?"

"Obviously." Aizawa grinned, "Can I leave school now?"

"Go ahead." Nezu passed Aizawa several forms and a few hard drives, "You can download all of them for us to analyze later; I also have the permits for that as well."

* * *

Midoriya pushed the stopper into the sink, placing a small towel over it to cover the metal before filling the basin with warm water. He had already showered, and rewrapped the bandages around his arms; Shuzenji had already removed the bandages around his fingers, but had ordered him to keep the bandages around his arms for a few more days. He had just gotten back to UA after volunteering at the pet rescue center, and he had brought Reiko and Ryuto with him. Midoriya had taken the opportunity to buy shampoo for the both of them, since he realised that he didn't bring any after he had moved out from his foster home, though he doubted that it was necessary right now.

He regularly combed his fingers through Reiko's fur, so she didn't need much brushing, and he wasn't planning to let Ryuto shower just yet; he was just going to wipe him down with a wet towel.

Midoriya exited the bathroom, before scooping Reiko and Ryuto up and gently placing them on the counter. Reiko didn't particularly like being soaked with water, probably due to her experience in the drain when she was just a few months old, but she didn't seem to mind as long as the water was warm.

Midoriya carefully coaxed Reiko into the sink, before she started grooming herself in the sink. He took that opportunity to rinse a towel with warm water, and gently wiping Ryuto down with the damp towel, being careful not to accidentally rip any of his feathers out. Ryuto pressed his head against the towel, chirping.

Midoriya put the towel away, as the slightly damp avian started preening. Midoriya grabbed a dry towel and carefully rubbed any access water away, before giving Ryuto a second to dry himself off naturally. He reached into the sink, gently rubbing Reiko's fur to get any dirt that she had missed.

Much to Midoriya's chagrin, Ryuto decided it was a good time to hop into the sink right after getting dry, creating a small splash, before shaking himself off. Reiko took that as a challenge, and started splashing water gently at the smaller bird. Ryuto flapped his wings, sending a bit of water at Reiko, and Midoriya just sighed. They weren't making that much of a mess, but the water was already cooling down, and at the rate that they were splashing water around, the water was going to get cold even faster.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when water was splashed on his face. He shook his head, before trying to find the source of water, only to find Reiko looking at him with a smug expression on her face. Midoriya mock-glared at her, "Don't do that."

Reiko just splashed water at him again, and Midoriya huffed, before reaching into the sink to splash water back at her in return. Ryuto splashed water at Reiko again, and Reiko just growled lightly at him, before sending more water his way with her tail.

"Okay, cool it, that's enough." Midoriya finally said, grabbing another dry towel to dry them both off. He gently lifted Reiko and Ryuto out of the sink, before placing them on the towel. Reiko shook herself, getting Midoriya's shirt wet, but he didn't really care; it wasn't that much water, and it would dry off once he finished his homework.

He dried Ryuto off again, before rubbing the towel against Reiko, getting the excess water out of their feathers and fur. He made sure not to rub too hard, since he didn't want to hurt them by accident, and they would dry off naturally after some time.

Midoriya picked Reiko and Ryuto up and placed them on the bed, before clearing the bathroom of all the water. He rinsed all the towels and wrung them dry, before hanging them up on his chair.

He grabbed his bag, and dug out the english and math homework that Yamada and Ectoplasm had set respectively, before sitting down at the desk that was already in the room when he had arrived in Heights Alliance.

The set of math homework he had been given definitely wasn't what was taught in class, thought Midoriya finished it without much of a problem, before realising that it was a third year past paper. Nezu must have told Ectoplasm to give him something more challenging to do, though it was still pretty easy.

He packed all his work back into his bag neatly, before throwing himself back onto the bed, careful not to crush the two smaller balls of fluff that had curled up near the headrest, already dry and asleep. He was slightly tired, though it wasn't something that he hadn't handled before; he just figured that he should get all the rest he could before he went back out patrolling, though he still needed to figure out how to get past all the security cameras that Nezu had put up.

Midoriya curled up into a ball, and carefully wrapped his arms around Reiko and Ryuto, pulling them in protectively, before falling asleep.

* * *

1-A had been trying their best to abide by all the rules that Iida had given them, always letting Midoriya be aware of their presence before approaching, and always keeping their hands within Midoriya's line of sight so that he knew that they weren't going to try anything.

The day had ended, and Kirishima wrapped his arm around Bakugou's neck, teasing him about having some fun as he and Sero dragged him towards the door. Ashido looked around, before seeing Midoriya walking down the hallway as he left the classroom. She grinned, and before anyone could stop her, she bounded towards Midoriya and grabbed his arm, "Hey! Midoriya! We're all going to that cafe nearby ...?"

Midoriya braced himself, not even react to her grabbing his arm. It took a ton of concentration and will to not to lash out and break whoever approaches him, especially knowing that they were going to hurt him, but Midoriya just forced himself to ignore his instincts screaming at him and just clenched his eyes shut, ready for the inevitable; _was he going to be slammed into a wall or punched in the face this time?_ He just stood there, unmoving, waiting for something to happen.

Ashido merely looked at Midoriya in confusion, before she let go of his hand, "Wait, I'm not supposed to do that! I forgot! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

Midoriya opened his eyes, noticing that nothing had happened, and realised that Ashido had let go of his arm. He turned around to face Ashido in confusion, only to find that she was apologising to him.

_It didn't make any sense. Why didn't she hit him? Why was she apologising for grabbing his arm?_

"Midoriya… are you okay?" Ashido couldn't help but ask, seeing the weird reaction from her classmate, "You're acting like you're expecting me to hit you or something."

Wait, he literally got suicide baited by his former classmates, Ashido almost gasped as realisation hit her, Obviously he would be expecting me to hit him if I just randomly grabbed him like that! I'm so stupid! I should have known!

Midoriya just stared at her, unmoving, emotionless, before he tilted his head slightly.

"Uh… I was just thinking, we were going to a cafe and was wondering if you wanted to go as well?" Ashido shifted awkwardly on her feet, forcing herself to meet Midoriya's steely gaze. She was getting slightly unnerved by the emptiness in Midoriya's eyes, but she refused to stand back and let her classmate continue hurting on the inside.

_"You're just monster! There's no way you can ever be a hero!"_

_Ashido couldn't do anything as her classmates threw her to the ground, punching her in the cheek._

_"Your quirk's just destroys stuff, and you look like a freak! Just give up already, you can't do shit!"_

Midoriya continued looking at her, before he shook his head.

"Ah… that's okay then… there's always other times for us to hang out. Take care of yourself, Midoriya!" Ashido waved at him. Midoriya merely nodded, before continuing on his way down the hallway.

Ashido promptly lost her enthusiasm after Midoriya disappeared out of sight, and Kaminari patted her on the back, "Hey, Aizawa-sensei did say it was going to take some time."

"I scared him again." Ashido wailed, sinking to the floor, tears pooling in her eyes, "Why am I so stupid?! I completely forgot that I shouldn't shock him in any way! I'm a terrible person! I probably just set back any progress with him that we may have made!"

"It's just a small mistake." Sero sighed, "We all make mistakes sometimes. Don't beat yourself up over it."

"Don't worry about it. It will be fine, we can make back all that progress as long as we try." Kirishima reached out and ruffled her hair, "Come on, Bakugou, come cheer her up."

"Tch." Bakugou rolled his eyes, "At least he didn't fucking flip you over and break your bones like Aizawa-sensei said that he would. That seems like progress to me. Stop crying, for fucks sake, it's not going to help anyone, especially not him."

* * *

"Alright, as homework, I would like you all to write an analytical essay about any of these topics written on this piece of paper." Aizawa stated, handing out worksheets to the rest of the class, eyeing Kaminari and Ashido, "It is due next week, so don't procrastinate. I can tell whenever you do so."

Ashido and Kaminari laughed sheepishly, as Aizawa continued, "You guys can do research, and I don't want you to be citing Wikipedia again. It's obvious. Also, no asking Yaoyorozu or Iida or Midoriya for help. Do your own research."

Sato raised his hand, "What's the page limit?"

"There is no page limit for all of you except Midoriya." Aizawa replied. Some of the students were about to protest when Aizawa continued, "Midoriya, please do not write more than twenty pages, which means you should be handing in a maximum of ten pieces of paper. Snipe still hasn't finished marking your two essays and I don't think that I will be able to properly review such a long essay."

"How do you even write that much?!" Kaminari jaw dropped, turning to look at the green haired boy sitting at the back of the classroom, who didn't even react.

"Also, use the lined paper that the school provides, with only one line of words per line. I don't want you cramming two or three lines of text into one line, like the last time Cementoss gave you an essay while you were still in the General Education course, or writing on blank paper to avoid the margins like you had done for Midnight's last piece of homework." Aizawa continued; he had already been to Aldera, and he didn't like what he had seen at all. He didn't know how to sue people, but Nezu was working on it. "Look, Midoriya, your work is fine, but you're submitting work that's way beyond what you should be doing. You're doing too much and you aren't getting any benefits from it. Plus, we don't have time to mark such a lengthy essay."

Midoriya looked at Aizawa, at a loss. Every time the teachers made them write essays as homework, his work was often taken while they were being collected. Midoroya had been scolded way too many times for not submitting his work on time, with his punishment being that he had to write double, turning normal two page essays to four pages.

And since his homework was also stolen by his classmates and torn to shreds before he could hand it in a second time, his punishments kept adding up until he usually had to hand in twenty page essays. And analysis was something he was good at, compared to normal essays, so he usually ended up writing a lot more when he had to analyze anything.

He just made it a point to write really long essays and made a few copies by hand to avoid being punished. He used to use the photocopier, but the school librarian complained that he used too much paper and he had been subsequently banned from using the photocopier.

Midoriya just nodded mutely at Aizawa. How the hell was he supposed to cram so much information into ten sheets of lined paper?


	35. Chapter 35 - Into nothing

Aizawa chugged the can of coffee, before crushing it in his hands and tossing it in the trash can by the door, nearly hitting Yamada in the process, who had just walked into the staff room along with Kayama and Snipe.

"Geez, someone's in a bad mood." Kayama muttered under her breath, "You okay there, Shouta?"

"Yes, I am." Aizawa growled sarcastically, before he paused the video he was watching and jotted some tally marks down on his notebook.

"Security camera feeds?" Yamada asked, "What case?"

"Aldera." Aizawa hissed, "Midoriya's past school records depict him as a troublemaker in lessons, and Nezu got a permit to investigate Aldera since it didn't add up. I just went to download the security feeds. We have three years worth of feeds, and gone through a few months of them, and Nezu's already planning to tear Aldera down brick by brick."

Snipe frowned. The name of that school… sounded familiar.

"Geez, what happened over there?" Kayama asked.

"I've only watched about two month's worth of feeds so far. Midoriya had his homework stolen and torn up fifteen times, had been smacked into the wall twenty times, and has been pushed down the stairs thirty seven times. Someone poured acid on him once in the science lab, and he's been tripped in the classrooms or along the hallway at least seventeen times. There's no audio, but the teachers clearly don't give a shit about him. They either punish Midoriya, or not do anything about it at all. And that's all in Midoriya's first year." Aizawa snarled.

Kayama growled, "Who are his teachers!? I'll tear them apart!"

"That's not the point. Look." Aizawa pointed to one of the videos, "According to the date, Midoriya would be twelve, but he's already so… apathetic."

The teachers leaned over to look at Aizawa's laptop, seeing someone grab Midoriya's arm, and swinging him around, before nailing him in the stomach with a kick. Midoriya slammed into the wall, and crumpled to the ground, before trying to push himself up. Another student picked up a neatly stapled stack of paper, before ripping it to shreds, right in front of Midoriya. He threw the paper shreds onto the floor, just as the teacher walked in.

The teacher took one look at the sight before him, and all the students started pointing fingers at Midoriya, and the teacher merely ordered Midoriya to stand up, before dragging him out of the classroom.

The second they left the room, the entire class burst into laughter.

Even though there wasn't any audio, the teachers still had a very good idea what was going on; Midoriya was getting bullied by all of his classmates and the teachers didn't even care. They had kind of expected the bullying, but not the teacher's reactions. No wonder Midoriya didn't trust them; if all of Midoriya's teachers were like that, it wasn't surprising that Midoriya would expect all of his teachers to be the same.

"Those pieces of shit! How dare they treat him like that." Kayama growled. "Can I go murder them?"

"No." Ectoplasm deadpanned, but inside, he was seething.

"We're just looking through the feeds and recording down every instance where Midoriya was bullied and neglected by his teachers." Aizawa stated blankly, "When Hitoshi and Zashi met Midoriya, he wasn't anything like this, so I believe the change was brought about in his elementary school. We're just going to compile everything and sue Aldera first, get that out of the way, before investigating his elementary school."

Snipe clenched his fist, "That's just cruel. What did he do to deserve this?"

"Absolutely nothing." Nezu growled, exiting his office, before passing Ectoplasm another past year paper, "Give this to Izuku the next time you have a test. I compiled all the hardest questions from the third year paper for him."

"Eh?!" Yamada gawked, "The third year math paper is _hard_."

"Well, he isn't having too many problems with it. I gave him a past paper a few days while giving the rest of the class normal algebra homework and he handed it with the rest of the class. Perfect marks."

"Wait, didn't you have to assign them some essays, Aizawa?" Kan asked, peering down at his phone, "The compulsory one for the hero courses."

"Yeah."

"Please tell me you gave him a word limit." Snipe begged, "I don't think I can stand seeing another super thick essay that looks like something Nighteye would write."

"I did. Twenty pages, ten pieces of paper only." Aizawa growled, "But I'm betting you that he'll find some way to play by my rules and still hand in a super long, detailed essay, even though there's literally no benefit for him to do so.".

* * *

"Alright, time's up." Ectoplasm announced, collecting all the test papers.

He wasn't surprised that Midoriya was the first one to finish, even though his paper was much harder than the ones his peers had received. Even though most third years were allowed to use calculators, Midoriya didn't seem to have any problems at all without one.

The problem was that Midoriya did not own a calculator. Nor did he know how to use one. Ectoplasm was under the assumption that he had used a calculator when he finished the paper as homework, and thought he had forgotten to bring it, and had offered to lend him one for the test, but Midoriya just stared at the device in confusion. With Ectoplasm's coaxing, he tried to use it for a few questions, but it took him longer to input the numbers into the calculator than just solving the question without it, and Ectoplasm gave up forcing the poor boy to use the device.

"Hey, I was thinking, Midoriya's pretty strong, isn't he?" Kaminari piped up. He didn't stop and talk to the others as he packed, and he had already left the room. "Maybe we can see how he trains!"

"Yeah! Sounds awesome!" Kirishima cheered, "He's so manly!"

"No. I absolutely forbid it!" Iida chopped his arms, "You're invading his privacy! Didn't you forget that we're supposed to be patient with him and take it slow!?"

"Well, just watching isn't going to hurt, will it?" Ashido piped up, "We won't even get near him, promise! Please!?"

Iida glared at his classmates, before he sighed, "If Shinsou and Koda are okay with keeping an eye on you, fine. Shinsou, Koda, you guys know Midoriya's boundaries the best. You think you can go with them and make sure that they don't do anything that would make Midoriya uncomfortable?"

"Well, I have nothing to do today. Why not? I'll just text my dad real quick." Shinsou replied, grabbing his phone, and sending Aizawa and Yamada a quick text. Aizawa replied with a short "Okay" while Yamada sent a flurry of thumbs up emojis, "Well, yeah, I can go."

Koda shot them a thumbs up, and Iida slouched, "Well, I guess I can't stop you. I will come along as well."

"Awesome!" Ashido grinned, jumping into the air, "Let's go!"

* * *

"You're going to train?" Nezu asked, frowning. Midoriya wasn't fully recovered yet, and Nezu wasn't really happy that Midoriya was still pushing himself. He was even more upset because he was currently compiling every single misdeed that Aldera had committed against Midoriya, and his list was continuously getting longer.

But he also knew that Midoriya was forced to be independent for the most part, and it would take some time to ease him into being able to let other people do stuff for him.

"Yeah… I'm getting rusty. Iida… he managed to hit me the other day. I should have been able to dodge it." Midoriya replied blankly, but Nezu could tell that he was a tad disappointed in himself for getting hit.

"Very well." Nezu sighed, "You can train, but don't push yourself too far, okay?"

Midoriya nodded, though Nezu knew he was going to push himself past his limits.

"Where will you be training? Just so that we can go find you in case something happens."

"Uh… Dagobah Municipal Beach Park." Midoriya replied.

Nezu looked at the boy in surprise. That beach was practically a beach up to a few years ago, where is was gradually cleaned up. Trash continued to wash up on the beach, but it was no longer as dirty as before.

Plus, there was that rumour that if you littered on the beach, you'd be paralysed by an angry spirit, before being promptly chased off. Nezu should have figured that it was Midoriya's doing; he liked to keep the place clean.

"Very well. Make sure you're back by dinner time, okay? Reiko, take care of him, okay?" Nezu said, and Reiko gave a meow in confirmation.

* * *

"There's Midoriya!" Ashido whispered, pointing at Midoriya as he walked out of UA in shorts and a hoodie. His legs were still covered in bandages, and Iida had to resist the urge to drag Midoriya to the infirmary and order him to rest. Midoriya wouldn't listen; he knew that much.

They watched as Reiko hopped out of his hood, licking Midoriya's cheek, before popping back into the hood.

"Shhh." Kaminari hushed her, and Shinsou facepalmed, "You're just drawing more attention to yourself."

"He's on the move!" Kirishima grinned, moving to trail after Midoriya.

They made sure to keep their distance from the green haired boy so he wouldn't sense them. Midoriya's green hair stood out prominently; their only problem was that Midoriya was short, and they easily lost the green haired boy in the crowd.

With some strays' help, Koda managed to track Midoriya down, only for the group to find that they were a beach.

"Wait… this is Dagobah Municipal Beach Park." Iida scratched his head, "I thought it was a dump?"

"It was. It got cleared up years ago and is said to be guarded by an angry spirit." Shinsou rolled his eyes, "Look, there's Midoriya."

They watched as Midoriya took his shoes and socks off, before collecting all the litter that he could find, and dumping it into a nearby trash can. The boy then examined the trash that had washed up on the beach, which included a washing machine, a broken car, a few gigantic tires, and several old appliances.

The first thing Midoriya did was to kick the tire with his bare foot.

"No, wait!" Ashido hissed, but Iida pulled her back before she could do anything.

Midoriya's foot smashed against the rubber, and he stabilised himself. He shoved the washing machine off the tyre, before pushing the tires out of the pile. He stacked the tires neatly on top of each other, before taking a step back.

"Woah, aren't those heavy duty truck tires pretty damn heavy?" Kaminari asked, "How can he lift them?"

"He can't lift them entirely." Kirishina noted, "The tire is always being supported by something else, even as he pushes it."

"Being able to push it is impressive enough." Ashido grinned.

Midoriya examined the pile, before he lunged, landing a kick against the tyre. He attempted a punch, before moving in for a roundhouse kick. He pivoted on his foot, smashing his heel into the pile of tires.

"Oh, fighting on sand increases his stability, and allows him to keep his balance easier." Iida muttered, "He's using the tires as a punching bag, using the rebound from rubber to charge up his next hit."

They watched as Midoriya spent the next few hours mercilessly attacking the tires, before moving to smash the washing machine and other appliances apart. The boy then collected the remains of the broken machines, before tossing the appropriate parts in the nearby recycling bins and trash cans.

He did pick up a few wires and a computer battery, to their confusion.

Midoriya ended off with running, pull the tires one by one across the beach, before restacking them neatly by the side of the road. Iida knew for a fact that a recycling truck for plastics and rubber passed by the beach often, so it was no wonder that Midoriya put them by the side of the road for them to be picked up easily.

Kirishima just stared as Midoriya ran, though it wasn't as fast as how he ran in battle, "What?! How?! Isn't he tired out yet?!"

"He's still wearing his hoodie. Is he nuts?" Kirishima hissed, but Iida chopped him on the back of his head, "Don't be rude."

Reiko and Ryuto were sitting on the broken car, watching Midoriya work out, while meowing and chirping out encouragement.

Midoriya returned back to where he started, and made his way towards the car. Reiko shook her head, giving him a purr, but Midoriya just sighed.

Reiko shook her head and meowed again.

"What's Reiko saying?" Ashido whispered.

Koda quickly signed as Shinsou translated, "She's saying that Midoriya's pushed himself far enough and she wasn't going to let him do anything with the car."

She continued staring defiantly at Midoriya, before Midoriya gave up and picked both the cat and the bird up, placing them gently in his hood.

He turned to glare at the students who were trying hopelessly to hide behind a bench, before walking away.

"Wait, he knew we were here the entire time?" Kaminari asked.

* * *

Aizawa wasn't wrong, per say.

He was originally relieved when Midoriya handed in what seemed to be a normal-lengthed essay, that was much shorter than the essay he had given Ishiyama and Snipe, and from first glance, it appeared to be fine; Midoriya didn't even write in the margins.

Only to find out that while Midoriya did technically use the lined paper that the school provided, only for him to _draw his own freaking lines between the ones printed on the paper_ and write between them, which _also_ abided by the condition that Aizawa had set; that he didn't want a few lines of text crammed into one line.

Not only that, Midoriya's handwriting was small, but also tall and thin, allowing him to squeeze a horrendous number of words onto one line, while still having ample spacing between the characters for him to make out each word clearly.

Not to mention that his essay was lined with post-it notes, with dictionary definitions and explanations plastered all over his essays in order to adhere to the limited length of the essay he had to write in.

And Aizawa didn't even want to mention the super long appendix that Midoriya had passed him personally after all the essays had been handed in. The appendix itself was longer than the "essay" that Midoriya was supposed to hand in, and Aizawa couldn't even berate Midoriya for it since an appendix was _technically_ not part of the essay itself, and was just supposed to be this section at the end of most essays and reports that gives additional information and analysis on the topic, without eating into a student's word count or essay length.

Midoriya had listed all his important points in the main body of his twenty page essay, referencing different parts of his appendix for explanations and analysis. Aizawa was wondering if Midoriya's trauma induced quirk was intelligence instead of not being able to die.

Not to mention his defiant look when he just looked at Midoriya in exasperation. Midoriya may be quiet and emotionless, but he was really, really stubborn.

And could Aizawa even scold Midoriya for putting in so much effort? What kind of teacher did that? Only an asshole would look at all the work Midoriya put in and throw it away like it was trash.

Aizawa wasn't like Midoriya's middle school teachers. He didn't want break Midoriya's fragile trust, to destroy all the hard work that everyone was putting in to try and help Midoriya heal. He couldn't afford to break Midoriya's heart even more than it was broken.

* * *

"He got you too, didn't he? I thought you set him a page limit. He usually abides by those conditions." Ectoplasm asked, watching Aizawa staring at the thick stack of paper on his table.

Aizawa groaned, and leaned back into his chair, "I told him to use school paper, not to avoid the margins, to only write one line of text in one line, and that he could only hand in a ten page essay at maximum. He went and did all of that. Except that he drew his own lines between the provided ones, writing super thin to squeeze more words on one page, as well as using post-its and an appendix to explain everything that was in his main essay. He technically abided by all the conditions I gave him, and _I'm not sure whether to be impressed that he managed to find so many loopholes or horrified that he's able to write so much on such an obscure hero._"

"Well, he did write a lot about you that one time." Snipe pointed out.

"I've been a hero for at least ten years. The topics were all about new heroes that had just recently debuted." Aizawa stated, "They were supposed to analyse their fighting style and quirks, but there isn't too much information about them online. There aren't even that many videos of them fighting since they aren't that famous as other heroes that steal the spotlight more often. This particular hero that Midoriya had chosen," Aizawa searched said hero up on the internet, "Just debuted, around two months before the second USJ incident, and her fighting style changed drastically about a month after."

"Well, admittedly, Midoriya is a vigilante. Or, was." Snipe replied, "He might have encountered her before, and could analyse her fighting style and quirk up close. Plus, many other heroes had made significant progress regarding their quirks and collateral damage after encountering him. I wouldn't be surprised if Midoriya had actually met her before."

"Why do you make so much sense? I saw him take on Stain, of all people, and yet I keep forgetting that Midoriya was a vigilante." Aizawa facepalmed, almost slamming his face on the desk.

"It's hard to imagine him being one, I suppose." Yamada piped up, "I honestly thought that Void was young adult when I met him, a very short one, but still a young adult. I was not expecting a nine year old, if I'm doing my math right."

"You're the only one who could have mistaken a child for an adult." Aizawa snapped.


	36. Chapter 36 - Forgetting lies and pain

"Yes… I know. But I'm worried about some of them. The ones who were closest to the fighting are taking it the worst… and him as well… yes… alright, he can come as well. Thank you so much, Kyoken. I owe you one." Inui put the phone down, and sighed, "He agreed to come help me out in about a week. He's bringing his colleague as well."

"That's great." Nezu nodded, "It would be good to check on the other students, especially Shinsou, Monoma, Todoroki, Bakugou, and Uraraka."

"Even though Iida wasn't part of the fighting for most of the time, he's still guilty, because he feels that he was too slow in getting help." Inui sighed. "But it's probably nowhere as bad as Midoriya's."

"His mental state is particularly worrisome, since he had taken the brunt of the attacks, and probably the most pain and trauma. Not to mention the abuse under his previous schools and foster parents." Nezu agreed. "What does his colleague do?"

"Well, you know Kyoken's quirk is an empathic one. It allows him to … _feel_… for a lack of a better term, the emotions and mental state of a person through contact, though in a much dampened state so he won't be overwhelmed. He might get flashes of memories, but that would only be the case if the memory is tied to a particular emotion. His colleague is a therapist, the one that asks questions, using Kyoken's quirk as a base to figure out what is appropriate and what isn't. His quirk allows him to calm people down in case they end up panicking." Inui replied, "They've handled much worse cases than I have, like military trauma, so I feel that they are best suited to handle this."

"Alright." Nezu sighed, "I really hope that they can get over this. They deserve that, at the very least."

* * *

Aizawa stood at the table, waiting for Yagi to enter the room. He was supposed to teach the heroics class now, and he seemed to be late.

He eyed Midoriya, who was sitting at the back of the classroom, staring blankly ahead.

"I don't know where the big oaf is, but -"

"I AM COMING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"

Aizawa watched as Midoriya winced slightly. It was almost unnoticeable, but definitely a wince. He resisted the urge to facepalm. He had already run through will Yagi on how to act with Midoriya in the class, and the idiot had already forgotten the first two rules that Aizawa had put down; not to suddenly yell or make loud noises, and to make Midoriya aware of his presence before doing anything.

Yagi burst into the room in his muscle form, and he saw a small glint of displeasure that appeared in Midoriya's eyes, that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Nezu had already told him to read Midoriya by his eyes, not by his posture or actions, and Aizawa could definitely read Midoriya much better than before.

Midoriya disliked Yagi for some reason. Aizawa felt that while Midoriya might have been semi-conscious after being smashed by the Nomu, he had a vague idea of what was going on, and somewhat knew about Yagi accidentally smacking him away. Not to mention the man had freaked him out when Midoriya had just regained consciousness.

Aizawa didn't like Yagi as well; the man had no tact at all.

"I told you to tone it down." Aizawa growled, and Yagi scratched his head sheepishly, "Ah, I'm sorry."

Yagi fished his script out of his pocket, and turned to address the class, "Alright, now we're going to go to Ground Gamma!"

* * *

Apparently, the activity Yagi had in mind was an obstacle course in the fake factory labrinth in the industrial site. He had already grouped the twenty one students into four groups of four and one group of five.

The first group consisted of Bakugou, Aoyama, Iida and Sero. Bakugou initially had the upper hand, blasting himself into the air, but once Iida gotten a high enough vantage point, they were neck and neck with each other. Bakugou eventually won, followed by Sero, Iida, and lastly Aoyama.

The second group had Todoroki, Asui, Mineta and Ojiro. Todoroki had merely made an ice path to victory, while Ojiro had taken advantage of the ice path and gotten second. The cold severely slowed Asui down, but she managed to jump her way to the end before Mineta, since Todoroki had _accidentally_ frozen him in the ice. He wasn't sorry when he set him on fire thawing him out.

The third group consisted of Koda, Kirishima, Ashido and Tokoyami. Surprisingly, Ashido managed to get first, followed by Kirishima, Tokoyami, and Koda. Poor Koda didn't have a quirk that was useful in the test at all; at least, Dark Shadow was able to carry Tokoyami across large gaps if they wanted to.

The fourth group consisted of Shoji, Sato, Uraraka and Jiro. Uraraka, with her quirk, was easily able to float over all the obstacles. Shoji and Sato's quirks were useful in getting to the finishing point, and Jiro didn't perform that badly, considering her Earphone Jack quirk wasn't really helpful in the trial.

The last group consisted of Shinsou, Midoriya, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Hagakure. Yaoyorozu had immediately formed a grappling hook to get herself up to higher ground, but Midoriya had instantly scaled a pipe, before making his way towards the finishing point. He jumped over and slid under pipes, and easily jumped over the gap between the buildings. Shinsou was close behind him, having used his capture weapon to fling himself to the roof, only for Midoriya to put on a huge burst of speed.

Unsurprisingly, Kaminari was the last due to his poor stamina. Aizawa made a note to up his endurance training.

"Damn… I expected Yaoyorozu to get first." Jiro scratched the back of her head, after Yagi had dismissed them, "Midoriya's really fast. Though I guess I should have expected this after the Sports Festival."

"Man… I guess this nothing for you, huh, Midoriya?" Kaminari laughed, once he regained his breath, "I suppose that compared to pulling truck tires on a beach, this really is no biggie."

"I guess so - Wait did you say pulling truck tires!?" Sero gaped.

Kaminari snapped his mouth shut, and Shinsou facepalmed, "I thought we agreed to keep quiet about this."

Midoriya just glanced at Kaminari, remaining quiet, before going back to staring at his feet.

"Midoriya, you okay, man?" Kirishima asked.

Midoriya looked at Kirishima blankly, before turning around, and making his way towards the changing rooms, ignoring the rest of his peers who were making small talk.

"I hope he's okay… he seems a little on edge." Kirishima muttered, looking towards the boy in concern.

"I guess he's upset about us following and watching his training yesterday." Kaminari scratched the back of his head.

"I honestly don't think it's about that." Yaoyorozu replied, "If he trains at a beach, it's a very open area. No doubt that other people would have chanced upon him training as well. I guess he's just not used to the idea of people… caring about him."

"We should all stop talking about him behind his back. It's very rude." Iida put his hands on his hips, stopping all the ongoing conversations, before ordering, "Now, we should go back to class and go home. We had been given tons of homework, so we should finish them as fast as possible."

* * *

Iida stared at his phone, and sighed.

Midoriya had been added to the 1-A group chat a few days ago, and the only thing he had said in the chat was a confirmation that he had been added. Despite Ashido and Kaminari acting like idiots and spamming the chat with memes, or Iida ordering people to do their homework or sleep, or even Bakugou filling the chat with swears after someone had insulted him, Midoriya had not responded at all.

He was sure that Midoriya was alright; he saw him in classes all the time. Maybe he didn't know how to use a group chat? Or maybe he wasn't sure if he was welcome?

Iida sighed again. He was the class representative, and yet he was having so much trouble trying to welcome Midoriya into their class. He understood that due to Midoriya's past, he needed time to slowly get used to his new environment, but Iida wasn't a very patient person; he would admit that much.

Maybe he should ask Tensei for some advice on how to handle this.

* * *

"A sleepover?" Uraraka gaped.

Yaoyorozu nodded, "Yes. My parents will be out for the weekend, and they gave me permission to invite my friends over. Since our exams are also in a few weeks, I think we can use this opportunity to study together, and hang out."

"Who are you planning to invite?" Hagakure asked excitedly.

"Well, I was originally planning to invite everyone from 1-A and 1-B, excluding you know who, but I wanted to just having 1-A over first, just to test it out." Yaoyorozu replied.

"Are you sure we all fit in your house?" Jiro frowned, "There's twenty of us. Six girls and fourteen boys."

"Yep." Yaoyorozu gave a small smile, "We have several guest rooms; it's more than enough for all of us. I'm going to ask Iida if it's a good idea, before asking if people can come."

It wasn't surprising that Iida agreed to it; he was up for anything that was remotely related to class bonding, but he did bring up another problem, "What about Midoriya? Do you think that he'll accept the invite?"

"If he doesn't want to come, we can't force him to. You know that." Yaoyorozu sighed, "I hope he does choose to come though; he needs to learn to loosen up a bit."

"No… I don't mean that." Iida shook his head, "If he thinks that we want him to come… I think he'll feel pressured into coming. I don't… want him to come if he thinks that he has no choice."

Yaoyorozu bit her lip, "You… have a point…"

"Why would he feel pressurized, though?" Jiro asked.

"Er… I asked my brother. He said it is possible for victims of bullying to feel more... inclined to listen to what they're being told to try and avoid being hurt. I know that Midoriya may not seem like that… but he does care more about others than himself. He risked his life for us at the USJ. He defended Shinsou even though he was the one being made fun of. He doesn't even eat lunch in school. I'm just worried… that we might be pushing too much and making him uncomfortable. That wouldn't be productive to any one of us."

"Well… at least if he's with us, we can take care of him, can't we?" Yaoyorozu smiled, patting Iida on the back, "Don't worry about it too much."

* * *

Midoriya froze when he processed what Yaoyorozu had told him.

_A study session and a sleepover? What's that? Sleep over where?_

He signed his confusion to Yaoyorozu, and she looked over to Shinsou for a translation. He translated it, and she replied, "You just… come over? We'll study, play games, fool around for a bit and sleep at my house. "

Midoriya blanched. It didn't sound _that_ bad, but he was sure that their definition of "playing games" were different from his.

"You can bring Reiko and Ryuto if you'd like; I don't mind." Yaoyorozu continued.

Midoriya really didn't want to go, even if he could bring Reiko and Ryuto. He didn't trust them, who knew what they would do once he was trapped in their house. But they were asking so nicely; Midoriya felt that it would be rude to say no.

Plus, who knew what they would do if he refused. If he fought back, it would only be worse. He would just have to do his best to protect Reiko and Ryuto.

But Midoriya also knew that he wasn't the only one who had to make the decision. He needed to ask Nezu for permission. After all, the principal had custody over him; that meant that Nezu had to make the final decision whether he could go or not. He just hoped that Nezu didn't agree that it was a good idea, though he seriously doubted it; after all, Nezu had so many other things to do, he wouldn't think sleeping over at someone's house was a big deal.

Midoriya hastily signed back, _"I'll get permission first."_

"Alright. No rush. I'm glad you're considering it." Yaoyorozu gave him a small smile, and Midoriya did his best to not flinch. Usually, when people smiled at him, they were getting ready to beat him up.

Midoriya quickly nodded, before slinking away, much to the confusion of his peers.

"Huh… that was… weird…" Jiro muttered.

"At least, he's considering it?" Yaoyorozu asked, "That's a win?"

* * *

Midoriya walked back from the principal's office and flung himself on his bed. He rolled over, and groaned.

Nezu had given him permission to go, but had also said that if Midoriya truly didn't want to go to Yaoyorozu's house for the study session and sleepover, he shouldn't force himself to do something he didn't want to do.

Midoriya didn't know how to make a choice. He hadn't been given any choices since he had been transferred to his former foster home, why start now? His former foster mother had chased him to every study session that he was invited to, just to get him out of the house, disregarding whatever protests the boy had.

Despite knowing that his classmates were pretty much harmless for the most part, Midoriya couldn't push down his fear and paranoia. He did want to go; he never had a sleepover before, and he was curious about it. But he didn't want to push his luck; the last time he had been invited to a study session by his _"friends"_, he had ended up in the hospital, and Midoriya did not want a repeat of that experience.

Midoriya rolled over onto his back, and Reiko crawled onto his chest and sat there, looking down at him with her cyan and mint eyes. Ryuto buried himself in the crook of his neck, and squeaked, gently nibbling on Midoriya's ear.

"What do you think, Rei? You think we should go?"

He knew it may seem silly to be discussing this with a cat; he wasn't like Koda or Nezu and could understand her word for word. But he could understand Reiko's intent, he knew what she meant, even if he didn't know what she was saying. They had a connection, a bond, and that was good enough for him.

Reiko tilted her head, letting out a whine, before settling down on his chest. She rubbed her head against Midoriya's chin, and purred.

"I know they seem nice, but what if they're like them? I can't trust them; I can't risk it. She said I could bring you and Ryu along; what if they decide to hurt you guys instead?"

Reiko looked at him again, before smacking her paw against his cheek lightly. She pressed herself against the crook of his neck, purring softly.

Midoriya sighed, and rubbed Reiko's ears affectionately, "Fine. If you say so, Rei. I'll go."

* * *

**As a note, I recommend re-reading Chapter 15 and 28.**


	37. Chapter 37 - The ashes call my name

Midoriya hesitantly looked around his room, and checked his bag for the umpteenth time in the past hour. He had packed the day before, but had woken up two hours earlier, just to get ready and check to ensure that he had packed everything.

He had packed three sets of clothing, as well as a towel, his toothbrush and toothpaste. Although Yaoyorozu had mentioned that he only had to bring two sets, Midoriya didn't want to end up borrowing anything should something go wrong. He didn't bother about a comb; his hair was untamable, and Midoriya didn't really care anyways.

He had also packed his notebooks for all his subjects, as well as his homework. Yaoyorozu had mentioned a study session, and while Midoriya was confident he didn't need any help, he wasn't too sure if his peers would expect him to contribute to the study session. It was better to just bring everything instead of risking angering them.

He also packed enough food for the two animals; he didn't want to bother Yaoyorozu any more than was necessary. As an extra precaution, he packed two pocket knives and stuffed them at the bottom of his bag.

Midoriya grabbed his wallet, and checked that he had enough for train tickets to and from from Yaoyorozu's house. He could run there if he needed to, but he wanted to save his energy just in case something happened. Plus, if he happened to leave Yaoyorozu's house with someone, he had to be able to buy train tickets so he wouldn't appear to be suspicious.

Midoriya hastily made his way down the stairs, and was about to leave the house when he spotted something on the table. He curiously made his way over to check it out, realising it was a small bag of cookies, alongside a note.

_"Dear Izuku, sorry that I couldn't send you off to the train station, some last minute work cropped up. I know you don't normally enjoy breakfast, so here's a little something in case you feel like taking a bite or two. Regards, Nezu."_

Midoriya bit his lip, almost dropping the note, and stuffed the bag of cookies into his bag. He wasn't really fond of eating anything in general; he preferred bland or instant food because they were simple, and he threw usually threw up most kinds of other food because of his bad experiences with his former foster mother.

Midoriya gently closed the door to the dorms behind him, before walking towards the front gate. He looked around warily, before deeming it safe enough to move, and started walking towards the train station.

* * *

Midoriya gulped as he stood at the entrance to Yaoyorozu's house, his relaxed posture betraying none of the fear and anxiety that he felt inside. Thank goodness for the oversized clothes; no one would notice him twitching nervously as he surveyed his surroundings. He would have to thank Kayama for that when he got back to UA.

Yaoyorozu, surprisingly, had decided that she would bunk with the girls instead of in her own room, but she would still be going to her room whenever she needed something. She quickly opened the gates, letting the group into the front hall.

Out of everyone, he had packed the least, aside from Yaoyorozu for obvious reasons. All the girls, as well as Aoyama and Todoroki, had luggage that were bigger than his torso. Shoji, Sato, Tokoyami, Koda and Ojiro had large backpacks, while everyone else had bags that were around twice the size of their school bags. Pretty much all of them also had another smaller bag for bringing stuff like their phones around. Midoriya himself just had a small backpack, but it was more than enough to fit all of his belongings; he stuffed his phone and wallet in his hoodie pocket anyways. Ryuto was perched on his shoulder, while Reiko surveyed the room from Midoriya's hood.

"Guys, is there anything you'd want to eat? It's almost lunch time." Yaoyorozu asked, "The maids can make pretty much anything; they're an awesome, talented bunch! So just state your requests, I'm sure they can make it."

Midoriya wasn't sure how to respond at all. He hadn't eaten breakfast; he didn't have the habit of doing so, but he had forced himself to eat cookies on normal school days so that Nezu wouldn't worry. He didn't really like them, and neither did his stomach; he often felt like puking it all up. He was used to not eating a lot anyways; it wasn't healthy, but hey, it saved money and Midoriya could spend his time doing something else. He wasn't hungry at all, but he didn't think that Yaoyorozu would accept it he just flat out rejected lunch.

"Alright, Midoriya, do you want anything?" Yaoyorozu asked, after everyone else had told her what they wanted.

Midoriya just shook his head. He felt sick just thinking about eating something prepared by someone else; at least, he knew that he wouldn't be throwing anything into his cup noodles.

"You sure? I mean, I know you normally don't eat lunch in school…" Yaoyorozu trailed off, before continuing, "Alright, I supposed. But if you ever feel hungry and want to snack on something, don't be afraid to ask."

He did request that they should refrigerate Ryuto's food, and heat it up slightly; he didn't want it to go bad, and possibly make the baby bird sick. Yaoyorozu passed the list over to one of her maids, before she whirled around to face the class again, "Okay! Now that's done, I'll show you to the guest rooms!"

She led them through the main hall, and past a few hallways, before she pointed out one of the larger rooms, saying that they would be studying there. Midoriya did his best to try and memorize the layout of the house; it would prove useful should he need to escape. She then showed two rooms to the girls, before leading the boys a bit further down the hall.

"Alright, you can put your stuff here!" Yaoyorozu threw open three doors, "Two of them have five beds and one has four beds! You guys can choose your roommates, but make it quick! I think we can squeeze a small study session before lunch."

"Aww! Party pooper! Can't we enjoy the rooms? This is so cool!" Ashido whined, and Iida stood up straight, and adjusted his glasses, "The earlier we start studying, the earlier we will finish! Therefore, there will be more time for you to "fool around", so to say. It's a weekend tomorrow, so I will set a later bedtime at midnight instead of ten."

"Well, that's Iida for you. The class dad." Ojiro scratched his cheek, while Kirishima cheered, "Awesome! That's manly! Let's get started as soon as possible!"

* * *

It didn't take too long for the students to split into groups, surprisingly. Bakugou, Sero, Kirishima, and Kaminari grabbed the four person room, and Shoji, Tokoyami, Aoyama, Sato, and Ojiro took the other room, leaving Koda, Shinsou, Iida, Todoroki and Midoriya to bunk together.

"Well, it's not that bad, right? At least we're not with the Bakusquad; they're going to be a riot at night." Shinsou laughed, as he dumped his backpack on the bed, before sitting down on the bed, "Woah! Soft! There's even a bathroom directly connected to the room."

Reiko leapt off Midoriya's shoulder, landing on the bed gracefully, as Midoriya stifled a growl in disdain at the thick blanket that was draped over his bed. He would deal with the stupid, suffocating monstrosity later, though he was going to be careful with how he did that; he was sure Yaoyorozu wouldn't appreciate the bedsheets being torn apart.

"As much as I'd like to enjoy the room, I believe we should get going. Like I said earlier, the earlier we start studying, the earlier we will finish." Iida said, "Let's grab our study materials and make our way to that room that Yaoyorozu pointed out earlier.

Koda shot them a thumbs up, before digging into his bag to fish out his worksheets. Meanwhile, Midoriya merely dumped his clothes out of his bag and neatly folded them, placing them at the foot of the bed, secretly slipping his pocket knives into his pants pocket. What good were knives if they were too far away to be used?

Midoriya tried his best to stop his hands from shaking. It was just a _sleepover_, right? There was nothing to be scared of. He was just at the complete mercy of his new classmates, it wasn't too different from what he was used to.

_So why did it feel so different?_

Midoriya shook himself out of his daze as he heard footsteps coming towards him. He looked up, seeing Koda standing in front of him.

_"We're good to go."_ He signed, _"Iida's chasing the others out of the room. You okay to leave now?"_

Midoriya quickly nodded, grabbing his bag, and following Koda out of the room, seeing Iida poke his head into one of the other rooms, "Come on, guys! Stop delaying!"

* * *

The room they were using had one large table, and Midoriya found himself wedged between Shinsou and Todoroki. Reiko was curled up on his lap, and Ryuto was napping in his hood.

"So, should we start with maths?" Yaoyorozu asked. The class cheered, and Iida started saying, "Alright, guys, we'll start with the algebra homework that Ectoplasm-sensei set us."

Midoriya blinked. Ectoplasm didn't give him any algebra homework; he had given him a set of university level calculus questions. Iida surveyed the table to see if everyone had brought their work, and frowned slightly when he saw that Midoriya didn't have it.

"Midoriya, where's yours?"

Midoriya almost panicked, hastily trying to defend himself,_ "I didn't get it."_

"What do you mean, you didn't get it?" Shinsou asked, confused, "Ectoplasm-sensei gave you homework as well."

Midoriya fished his huge stack of calculus questions out of his bag, and tried not to flinch as Todoroki leaned over to look at it, "You are aware that we're not learning calculus now, right?"

The green haired boy nodded, trying to push his panic down, and Reiko uncurled herself from her position on his lap, and rubbed herself against Midoriya's arm in an attempt to calm him down. Ryuto popped out of his hood, before he sat down on Midoriya's shoulder, rubbing his head against Midoriya's neck.

Iida's sharp eyes caught sight of Reiko and Ryuto, and he clenched his fists; all the attention on Midoriya and his homework was stressing him out. He quickly pulled Todoroki and Shinsou away from the green haired boy, "Well, if Ectoplasm-sensei gave him something else to do, then we can't do anything about it. Midoriya, I honestly don't think that any of us are good enough to help you with that… but should you need any help… we'll try our best, okay?"

Midoriya relaxed when Shinsou and Todoroki finally got out of his bubble of personal space, and nodded at Iida tiredly. He knew they were curious why he had a different set of questions, but he didn't think Ectoplasm would be too happy if Midoriya couldn't hand in his homework due to it being torn apart. None of his previous teachers ever believed him; why should the pro hero, who had many other duties to take care of, bother about him as well?

Plus, it was no excuse. If he couldn't even protect and take care of a flimsy piece of paper, then he really was useless.

Midoriya quickly grabbed his pen, and worked through his calculus questions, not even bothering with a calculator even though the question had asked him to use one. He finished the first five-part question, before flipping over to the next page.

He could feel Ashido and Kaminari staring at him from across the table, and he hastened the pace at which he wrote. It didn't take him too long to finish his worksheet, and he quickly checked his work, before he put his worksheet back into his bag.

He looked up, and stared right back at Ashido and Kaminari, whose jaws had dropped as they gawked at him.

"What? How did you… you're done already?"

Midoriya just blinked, confused, as Jiro sighed from beside Ashido, "Focus, Mina. We're not going to get anywhere if you keep getting distracted."

* * *

The group finally finished their maths homework, and Yaoyorozu led them to the dining area, where all the food was already set on the table.

Midoriya wasn't hungry at all; the sight of so much food just made him sick. He found a quiet corner to sit in, and grabbed Reiko and Ryuto's bowls. He carefully emptied out the food into their bowls, and they tucked in. Ryuto had grown enough that he was capable of eating on his own, given that the meat was in small enough pieces for him to pick up.

Midoriya sat back against the wall, pulling his legs to himself, and closed his eyes, trying to relax and save his energy, blocking out all the sounds of his classmates chatting and eating while trying to figure out who was where. He never did like mealtimes; he always left the dining table after eating as fast as possible, or just didn't eat dinner at all and holed himself up in his room. His foster mother stopped bothering to cook for him, and Midoriya was more than happy to just grab cup noodles from the nearest convenience store before reaching home. He usually ate one on the way home, and bought another home to eat in the middle of night while doing homework, before going out to patrol.

He tolerated lunchtimes in the canteen because there were so many people that he wouldn't draw attention to himself. In such a large room with just twenty people, it was obvious that he was the odd one out when he stuck himself in the corner.

"Hey! Midoriya! Come eat with us!" Sero waved at the green haired boy. Midoriya opened his eyes slightly, and shook his head. He wanted to stay as far away from that nauseating smell as he could.

"You have to eat something." Kirishima pointed out, "You need energy."

"Yeah! You can have some of my pie if you like?" Ashido offered.

They got up, and walked towards Midoriya with their plates, "Come on, please? It's not healthy to just starve yourself."

Midoriya tensed up as they got closer; he wasn't hungry at all, dammit. He hated that he had decided to stick himself in a corner; now he couldn't go anywhere without going through both Ashido and Kirishima, and they had quirks that he'd prefer to use weapons to deal with rather than barehanded.

Iida was about to stop Ashido and Kirishima, but much to everyone's surprise, Bakugou was the one who grabbed the two students and dragged them back to their seat.

"Leave him be, you noisy assholes. If he doesn't want to eat, then he doesn't fucking eat." Bakugou snapped, tossing Ashido and Kirishima back into their seats, "Stop being such nosy fuckers for once and mind your own fucking business."

"Thank you for that, but you could have said that with less swearing, Bakugou." Iida scolded.

"What is it to you, Four Eyes!?" Bakugou slammed his palms on the table, "You wanna go!?"

"Well… maybe you'd want to drink something, Midoriya?" Uraraka asked, trying to diffuse the situation, standing up to get a clearer view of Midoriya; her view was being blocked by Sato.

Now that he thought about it, Midoriya did want coffee; he had forgotten about it that morning. Maybe Yaoyorozu wouldn't so much about his lack of appetite if he got coffee to drink, except he didn't trust that they wouldn't mess it up like anyone else.

Reiko nudged his arm, and Midoriya shifted, extending his legs slightly so that she could sit in his lap. Midoriya tiredly looked at her, and she rubbed herself against his arm, urging him to do something.

Midoriya just looked back her and shook his head. He wasn't going to ask them for anything at all; he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and he wasn't going to need their help any time soon. It wasn't like they could help him anyways.

Reiko glared back at him, and growled, before she pranced up to perch on Midoriya's knees and meowed, grabbing Koda's attention. Koda looked up from his vegetarian fried rice to face Reiko, and she purred.

Koda quickly signed something to Shinsou, and Shinsou raised his eyebrow, "Coffee? Do you have that, Yaoyorozu?"

"Well, yes. Latte, mocha, or espresso?" Yaoyorozu asked, after calling the maid over to ask some questions.

Midoriya mock-glared at Reiko, and she just looked up at him smugly.

He sighed. He only knew that he got the cheapest kind of coffee from the convenience store; what the hell was a latte or a mocha or an espresso anyways?

Reiko looked equally confused, and she turned to look at Midoriya. Ryuto had decided to nestle himself in the crook of Midoriya's arm, and chirped. Midoriya looked back and Reiko, and shrugged, gently running his fingers through the soft downy feathers on Ryuto's head.

"Do you know the difference between the different types of coffee?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya hesitantly shook his head; not knowing anything was a weakness, and he wasn't happy showing it.

At this point, Midoriya just wanted to finish his homework and call it a day. Interacting with his peers was tiring, even more than hunting down villains and kicking their asses.

_"Which is the strongest?"_ Midoriya tiredly signed, and Shinsou replied, "Espresso. It's bitter though."

Midoriya just shrugged again; he didn't mind bitter, the coffee he usually drank was bitter anyways. Did he always get espressos?

"Sugar or no?" Yaoyorozu asked, and Midoriya shook his head.

It didn't take too long for the drink to be made, and Midoriya hesitantly peeled himself off the ground to pick up the warm beverage. He usually drank his coffee cold, but at this point, he didn't really care anymore.

"Careful! It's hot." Yaoyorozu stated, "You might want to let it cool for a while."

Midoriya ignored her and held the drink with both hands. It was hot, but nowhere as hot as the flames that Enji had used to burn him; if he could withstand that, then a hot cup was no biggie. Midoriya sat back down in the corner, letting the heat from the cup warm up his cold, shaking hands.

_Calm down, it's just coffee. How bad can it be?_

Midoriya hesitantly sniffed the drink. It smelt like… well… coffee, and it felt safe, but he still couldn't be sure. But still, it was really rude to ask for a drink, and not drink it, even if Reiko was the one who ordered it for him.

He just decided to take the chance and drink it. It wasn't like he could die from it anyways; he'd deal with the consequences later.

_Would they care if he could die anyways? Probably not. He didn't really care either._

_Maybe they really did hate him._

_Maybe he was really better off dead. He had to bother half of his class simply because he couldn't suck his nausea down and just eat something. He had to bother one of Yaoyorozu's maids after they had already finished making so much food for everyone else._

_Maybe he should just -_

Midoriya placed the cup to his mouth, and took a huge gulp. The scalding hot liquid trickled down his throat, and burning pain that came from his scalded throat anchored him to reality, pulling him away from all the thoughts swimming around in his head.

It was bitter, but Midoriya didn't really know if it tasted nice or not. Taste, after all, was just like emotions, just impulses travelling through neurons, just chemical signals that were meaningless in the long run.

_It didn't matter._

Midoriya gulped down the remainder of the drink, exhaled. He usually never drank coffee in the middle of the day; he wondered how the caffeine would affect his sleep schedule. Not that it mattered anyways, it had always been messed up.

He just sat in the corner, feeling more awake than before, and trained his sights on the rest of his classmates who had, under Iida's coaxing to leave him alone, gone back to their meals.

Midoriya stood up, picking up the bowls that Reiko and Ryuto had used, and with a silent order to stay, he moved to the bathroom to wash the dishes clean.

* * *

Midoriya wasn't too sure what to do when they had decided to go through the english quiz, or the physics test that Snipe given; he had gotten full marks and didn't need to do any corrections. His papers had ended up being used as the mark schemes as Iida and Yaoyorozu tried to figure out how to best explain the problem to the weaker students. Kaminari was surprisingly good at physics, but it did make sense, given his quirk.

Midoriya leaned back into his chair, and closed his eyes. He needed to file his work for later reference; hopefully, if he just acted well… maybe they'd spare his tests and assignments.

Midoriya looked around the room subtly, trying his best to stop his hands from shaking.

_Why were these people so nice?_

_Why couldn't he sense any traces of malice in them?_

_What's going on?_

Trying to keep calm was harder than he had expected. He was hoping that he'd be getting beaten up; at least, that was normal and he knew how to handle it.

But this? People being nice? It made no sense; this was something knew, something he hadn't analysed, hadn't experienced before.

And Midoriya hated being stuck in situations where he had no idea what to do.

He'd rather let Enji burn him again, he'd much rather let that stupid Nomu rip him to shreds; at least, in those scenarios, he knew what to do in order to get out, even if it meant being bedridden again.

Against his classmates, Midoriya was helpless. He knew he couldn't fight back, or he'd be the one getting in trouble.

_You don't deserve to fight back, you worthless quitter._

Midoriya bit his lip, trying to push that voice to the back of his mind.

_"You quirkless fuckers are just defects! Leave everyone alone, you vermin! Go and die like the rest of your useless, worthless kind!"_

_He remembered fire, the horrendous stench of burning bodies and gasoline mixed into one nauseating smell. He remembered his own hoarse cries, as he cried over his mother's corpse, his father dying right in front of him._

Midoriya dug his nails into his palms, snapping him out of his thoughts.

_Stupid useless emotions. Leave me alone._

Midoriya exhaled. It was going to be a rough night, whenever that happened, it was a cycle that Midoriya had gotten used to. He looked up as someone was shoved in front of him, and he blinked; his test papers were neatly stacked and clipped together. Midoriya couldn't help himself, and picked up his papers, scanning over them warily.

_They're not damaged? At all?_

"Well, we're done! Aw yeah!" Ashido cheered, leaping out of her seat, "I feel so smart right now!"

"Make sure to revise as well; just because you remember today, doesn't mean you'll remember it tomorrow." Iida stated, "You should try and make your own notes as well, and not do all of your homework in the last minute."

"Okay! We still have an hour before dinner, so we can figure out what you guys want to eat, and maybe, go to the nearby mall to get stacks for later?" Yaoyorozu suggested.

Midoriya did not want to go out. He was already tired of just sitting there with his classmates, the last thing he wanted to do was to go to a crowded mall, filled with people and possibly villains that could know his vigilante persona and might target him because of that.

Because this was Shigaraki he was talking about. The man that had successfully staged an attack on UA and almost destroyed the hero course students. Who knew how many villains he had under his watch, or who many he had told about his Void persona.

_What if they got hurt because of me?_

He could feel his paranoia setting in, but he couldn't outrightly refuse; not unless he wanted to tell his classmates about his fears, about the true worthless, useless freak that he was.

He couldn't show any weaknesses; people would just take advantage of it.

All he could do was to just stay vigilant, to keep an eye out for anything weird, to make sure that his classmates got to the mall and back safe and sound.

He wouldn't let anyone get hurt because of him, even if he didn't get anything out of it. He may not like his classmates, but that didn't mean it would stop him from doing the right thing.

_After all, what else could he do with his worthless life?_

* * *

Shinsou could practically feel the pressure emanating off the green haired boy. They were currently in the supermarket, picking out snacks, but Midoriya was just standing at the side of the aisle, unmoving, glancing around warily. In fact, besides from the 1-A students, there wasn't anyone else in the aisle.

None of the other patrons went anywhere near him, leaving a wide berth around him. Iida and Uraraka were standing next to him, chatting, but other than that, there was no one near him at all.

"Hey, Midoriya, want anything? There's a huge variety of food here!" Kaminari waved, and Shinsou grabbed Kaminari by the collar before he could jump Midoriya again.

Midoriya glanced at Kaminari emotionlessly, before shaking his head. Midoriya originally wanted to get a cheap, six-pack coffee, but Yaoyorozu refused to let him have it, saying that they had more than enough coffee back at her house.

He spotted Reiko peek out of Midoriya's hood, surveying the area, before ducking back inside. He wondered if Midoriya brought Reiko out on patrols; she seemed wary of anyone who came anywhere near Midoriya, and overprotective of Ryuto.

"Everyone has their snacks? Great!" Yaoyorozu grinned, before facing Midoriya, "You sure you don't want to buy anything besides the instant noodles?"

Midoriya shook his head again. He never ate snacks; they weren't very filling, and they were way too expensive. They weren't worth the money; he didn't have a lot to spend in the first place, just whatever money he got from being called in to the pet rescue center to deal with some of the animals, and from occasionally manning the cashier when no one was around.

"It's fine. I think we have more than enough for everyone. If you want any of ours, just ask, okay?" Ashido shot him a thumbs up, and Midoriya just indulged her enthusiasm with a half-hearted nod.

* * *

Dinner passed by relatively quickly. Midoriya had tucked himself into the corner, along with Reiko and Ryuto, and the cat was currently sleeping on the boy's lap while Ryuto was getting his talons tangled up in Midoriya's hair again.

Midoriya wasn't hungry, but he just ate the cup noodles so his classmates wouldn't bother him about not eating at all. It was supposed to be for the middle of the night, but either way, it was going to get eaten one way or another, so Midoriya didn't care.

They had gone to the guest rooms after eating, and Ashido ripped open her bag of chips, and nibbled on one, "So, what are we going to do now?"

"Uh… I don't really… know… I never had a sleepover before." Yaoyorozu sheepishly scratched her neck.

Kaminari leaned over and stole a chip from Ashido, "Well, we can play Uno? I brought a set of cards. Or we can just go with the usual Truth or Dare kinda games?"

"Uno is fine, I think. We can go to the study room and play, since I don't think that all of us won't fit in a room." Sato scratched his head.

"Truth and Dare is fine… just… I don't think it's a good idea for him." Jiro stated, using an earphone jacks to point at Midoriya, "Forcing him to talk about something that he doesn't want to talk about won't help the situation at all, and he might take the dares as an order and end up going too far."

"How about Hide and Seek? Yaomomo's house seems large enough for that!" Hagakure suggested.

"As long as we have a rule that states that you can't off your clothes, I don't mind." Ojiro scratched his cheek, "That would be cheating, and very inappropriate."

Hagakure merely huffed at him, but agreed nonetheless.

"Alright, can we go with Hide and Seek?" Iida asked, and everyone nodded.

Midoriya didn't really care. He hated Hide and Seek, detested it; it was a game that had tormented him since his first camp when he was five. He knew it was stupid to be scared of a child's game, but his pain tolerance when he was five was nowhere near his current threshold. Every time he had been found, he had been viciously thrown out of his hiding place, and mocked and laughed at as he got beaten up for being_ absolutely worthless at it_. Even if he did win, he was still beaten up and accused of cheating. He was forced to get good at the game, he didn't have a choice, and had several strategies made _just_ to beat this game.

But he didn't want to ruin the mood; everyone else seemed eager to go.

"Here are the rules." Iida ordered, "Quirks can be used, but you cannot damage the property!" He glared at Bakugou.

"Secondly, don't force a door open; if it's locked, it's locked. Third, Hagakure, what Ojiro said; no taking off your clothes. You guys can move and change hiding places as you please, and you have to be tagged by the seeker for you to be considered out. Once you are out, you can help the seeker find the others. Also, we are going to be restricted to those few areas that we had been to today. We don't want anyone getting lost."

"Okay! I'll just find that random number generator application, and whoever's index number pops out will be the seeker. We'll have five minutes to hide." Ashido fished her phone out of her pocket, selecting the app, "Okay, number twelve. That's Jiro! Alright guys, let's go!"

Jiro sighed, and sat on her bed, grabbing her phone and setting a timer for five minutes.

The students rushed out of the room, and Midoriya just scooped Reiko and Ryuto into his arms, and walked blearily out of the room.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Rule One of Hide and Seek: don't go to the places with tons of hiding spots. Everyone would go there, and the seeker would obviously know where everyone would go. He would just have to move around, and go to places where the seeker had last checked; it would usually take a long time for them to check the remaining areas before coming back to recheck areas.

Midoriya walked into the study room, it's doors already open, and surveyed the darkened area, his eyes already well trained to make out the different objects and furniture in the dark.

Rule Two: Hiding in plain sight is better than specifically finding a hiding spot. The seekers would usually be looking for anything out of the usual, and would often not check the more open areas as they were more often looked over, since usually _no one hid there._

Midoriya had considered the vents; Yaoyorozu's house was huge, and it was almost impossible for any of his classmates to enter them. And that was the reason why Midoriya refused to hide there; it wasn't fair.

Midoriya slipped behind the door, and sank to the ground. No one checked behind the doors for some reason, and there was a bookshelf that would block the seekers view of his hiding spot.

He sighed, and leaned back against the wall, content to just wait it out.

He hated tricking people that weren't villains, but this was one instance where he was willing to do so.

Rule Three. Manipulate their emotions, and use it against them.

_Because emotions don't help you at all, they just hinder you._

* * *

Jiro scratched her head. Most of her classmates had gone to the dining area and the kitchen for some reason; she could tell that much just by listening. She ran out of the room, and made her way to the dining room.

She did pause by the study room and the way there, and she glanced through the open doors.

The room was barren save for the table and the bookshelves. There wasn't anywhere to hide there; none of her classmates would come and hide here, surely.

She continued on her way to the dining room.

* * *

"Where is he!?" Yaoyorozu asked.

Jiro had caught Shoji, Sato and Koda the second she entered the dining room; they were just way too bulky to hide _anywhere_. Todoroki, apparently, didn't even try to hide; he had been sitting under the dining table.

Bakugou, Kirishima, Sero, Kaminari and Ashido were next; they had all been crammed in a closet and Bakugou had been screaming at them to leave him alone in his hiding place. Jiro had checked the closet right next to theirs, just for good measure, and ended up finding Ojiro in there.

Asui had just gotten unlucky; she had hidden herself in plain sight on the ceiling, but Jiro had accidentally tripped over Ojiro's tail, and had seen her on the ceiling. Aoyama had holed himself up in the bathroom, and was looking at his reflection in the mirror.

Tokoyami and Shinsou were hiding on the top of some bookshelves in the main hall. They were really quiet, and Jiro wouldn't have found them if not for Shoji; his height and sharp eyes caught sight of Shinsou's fluffy purple hair.

Uraraka had tried the same method as Asui, hiding on the ceiling using her quirk. But her nausea got the better of her. Shoji managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Iida was wedged between the refrigerator and the wall, and Dark Shadow was the one that dragged him out. Hagakure had tried to hide in a cabinet in the kitchen, but she had taken out the pots and pans and didn't think to hide them before diving into the cabinet.

Yaoyorozu had done the same, but did it smarter than Hagakure; she had placed the cutlery neatly on the counter instead of strewn all over the ground. Iida had found her when he had opened all the cabinets in the kitchen.

They had backtracked to find Midoriya, checking the guest rooms again, and even the barren study room, but they couldn't find a single trace of the green haired boy anywhere. Not even a single strand of fur or feather.

"I don't know, we checked everywhere." Shinsou scratched the back of his head.

"He was here before, I can tell." Dark Shadow spoke up.

"Maybe he changed hiding spots. Let's check the dining room again." Yaoyorozu suggested.

* * *

It was no good.

They had checked the entire area another five times; the main hall, the dining room, the kitchen, the guest rooms, the study room, and the bathrooms.

They had even stationed people inside each room after the third cycle in case Midoriya kept changing hiding places, but even that didn't work on the former general education student.

There were several times when they thought they had found him; the cabinet was closed when the last time it had been left slightly open, the door to the kitchen was open when they had closed it behind them, the potted plant in the dining room had been shifted slightly.

Midoriya still hadn't been found, and they were getting worried.

"Should we just give up? I'm getting worried. It's creepy, it's like he just disappeared into thin air." Kirishima stated.

"Yeah… we should." Iida sighed, before calling out "Okay, Midoriya! We give up! You win! You can stop hiding now!"

The door that led from the dining room to the hallways creaked, and everyone whirled around. The doors had been left wide open, with a potted plant standing between the open door and the wall.

Midoriya pushed the door away from the wall, slipping out of his hiding spot. Reiko and Ryuto both popped out of his hood, and Reiko gave the students a meow.

"Were you there the entire time?!" Ashido jaw dropped.

Midoriya shook his head, and Shinsou translated his signing, "Nope. He's been continuously changing rooms until we stationed Shoji and Tokoyami outside the hallway. But he has been hiding behind the doors in every room."

"Why didn't I think of that?!" Yaoyorozu sighed.

"But… the door? And the potted plant? And kitchen cabinets?" Hagakure stammered, "Was it a ghost or did you move them? Why?"

_"Diversions."_

"Oh… That's honestly really smart, Midoriya!" Uraraka smiled, after Shinsou had to, once again, translate the signing, "Constantly changing your hiding place to make you harder to find, and creating diversions to distract us!"

Midoriya just stared at her blankly.

_It was a dirty trick._

_It was to make them excited, thinking that they had found him._

_To make them disappointed, when they realised that they hadn't found him._

_It distracted them, stoped them from thinking about other hiding places._

_What on earth did theymean by "smart"?_

Yaoyorozu stretched, and yawned, "Well… I was honestly thinking we could play a few rounds, but this round took so long, and I'm kinda tired. I think we should sleep now."

"Agreed! We can sleep earlier, wake up earlier, and start studying." Iida nodded, "If we finish it quickly, we can still have more bonding exercises before going home!"

_It's fine?_

_They're okay with it?_

Midoriya merely slouched in confusion, and Reiko rubbed her cheek against Midoriya's comfortingly.

* * *

Yaoyorozu's house had several guest bathrooms, and everyone who was sharing a room took turns to use them.

Koda had been the first to shower, followed by Iida and Todoroki. Shinsou had volunteered to be the last to shower since he needed the hair dryer; his fluffy hair, while it wasn't that long, was pretty thick, and he would need quite a bit of time with the hair dryer.

Reiko sat on Midoriya's bed, grooming herself as Ryuto tried to preen himself by copying her. Needless to say, it took some time for him to figure out how to preen properly.

"Hey, Reiko, can I ask a quick question, if it's not too personal?" Iida spoke up, out of nowhere, "Koda, you'll translate, right?"

Reiko looked up from her grooming, and faced the purple haired boy as Koda nodded.

"Does Midoriya usually bring you out for patrols, or does he leave you at home? And what about Ryuto?" Iida asked.

Reiko tilted her head slightly, wondering how they knew about Midoriya being a vigilante, before remembering that Nezu had told her that Shigaraki had revealed Midoriya's identity during the attack.

_"Brings me out most of the time. Then he went to Hosu. I stayed with Ryuto. Said it was foreign territory and Stain was too dangerous for us."_

Koda haphazardly signed her reply to Shinsou, who translated it once again for Todoroki.

"Ah… that makes sense… I didn't remember seeing you there." Todoroki mused, "It was the right call… Stain wasn't even the problem; my dad tried to set him on fire."

Reiko glanced at him, and hissed.

_"He did what?!"_

Everyone flinched at the sudden hostility the cat displayed.

Midoriya had never really been fond of fire, and she knew that Midoriya had lost his parents in a fire from the bullying in his secondary school while being hidden in his school bag. She already knew that Enji was Todoroki's father; it had been mentioned time and time again in the cafeteria and during lessons.

_But he tried to set him on fire?!_

No wonder Midoriya was a terrified, shaking mess who had to stab himself in the arm to snap himself out of it when he got home. She really wanted to go give Enji a piece of her mind, but one, he couldn't understand her, and two, he would probably set her on fire when he deemed her annoying.

The door to the bathroom popped open, and they turned around, finding Midoriya with a towel around his neck. He was wearing another black hoodie and black pants, and he was holding the clothes that he had just worn for the day.

Midoriya walked out, and sat on his bed. He folded his clothes neatly, and placed them on the floor, next to his bed, before he started rubbing the towel through his green fluffy hair.

"Oh... I guess it's my turn…" Shinsou muttered, grabbing his clothes from his bed and making his way to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.

Reiko and Ryuto promptly hopped up onto Midoriya's lap and curled up, and Midoriya stopped drying his hair to look at the two animals, before continuing to work the towel through his hair.

He draped the towel over the headboard of the bed, and he carefully placed Ryuto and Reiko on the ground. He grabbed the thick blanket, and flung it off the bed, before chucking it in the closet. He proceeded to place Ryuto and Reiko on the bed, before climbing onto it himself.

"You don't… need the blanket?" Todoroki asked awkwardly.

Midoriya just stared at him, not answering the question, before he curled up protectively around the two sleeping animals. The tension never left his form, thought, but Todoroki settled back down on his bed, grabbing his phone to text Fuyumi.

It was another twenty minutes until Shinsou was done with his shower and his hair was finally dry, and Iida had gone out of the room to force everyone to go to sleep; there was shrill screaming from Bakugou's room and it sounded like it was either from Sero, Kaminari, or both of them.

Shinsou slipped under his blanket, and yawned, scratching the back of his head, and Iida walked into the room and closed the door behind him gently.

"It's nothing. Kaminari and Sero thought it would be funny to scare Bakugou after he got out of the bathroom. Bakugou couldn't blast them, but they're all running from him." Iida sighed, "Well, it's late. We should sleep now. Can I turn off the lights?"

"Sure." Shinsou shrugged, and Iida flipped the light switch, throwing the room into darkness.

* * *

Todoroki bolted awake, and blinked, cold sweat lining his brow.

He pressed his hand against his scarred face, trying to slow his heavy breathing.

_Just a nightmare._

Todoroki looked around the room, trying to see if he had woken anyone by accident.

Iida was tucked under his blankets, Koda was curled up around his pillow, Shinsou had partially thrown the sheets off his bed -

He found a pair of emerald eyes gleaming in the moonlight, staring at him, right into his soul.

Todoroki froze, unsure of how to react to the predatory gaze of Midoriya, until Midoriya's gaze softened, and he closed his eyes, seemingly going back to sleep.

Todoroki heaved a sigh of relief as the pressure died down.

_At least Midoriya seemed to be doing it on reflex instead of on purpose._

* * *

_"Papa! Mama!"_

_"Shut up! You useless, quirkless scum!"_

_"What do you want!?" Hisashi hissed, throwing a broken bat that he had just broken to the ground._

_Izuku couldn't do anything; he was scared, frozen stiff, dangling limply in the villain's grasp. There was a weird smell in the air, one that he recognised whenever his mother turned on the gas before cooking, and the furniture was drenched, for some odd reason._

_"Get out of the way. Mr and Mrs Midoriya, you both have great quirks, fire breath and minor telekinesis. But your child, on the other hand….. He's quirkless. He doesn't deserve to live."_

_"Leave Izuku alone. It isn't his fault he doesn't have a quirk." Hisashi growled at the stranger that now stood in their living room._

_"Last chance! Protect that useless freak of nature and I will kill you!"_

_"Never! Forget it! Izuku's my son and I'll protect him with my life! I don't care what you say! He's not useless and he'll never be!" Inko glared harshly at the man holding Izuku, as another held a knife against her neck, "He's just a child! Leave him alone!"_

_"Why do you even bother!? He's quirkless! He doesn't deserve anything! He's just a useless waste of space!" A villain cackled._

_"What do you have against him anyway? Who are you, even!?" Hisashi took a step forward threateningly, but was stopped with a knife pressed against his throat._

_"He's weak and worthless! He can't do anything, even if he does grow up! Just a waste of valuable resources!" The stranger shouted, "He's worse than nothing! He's better off dead rather than living a meaningless, worthless life!"_

_"Now, you may have your own viewpoints, but you do not treat my child with disrespect." Hisashi snapped, "Now get out before I arrest you and charge you with assault, trespassing of property and quirk discrimination."_

_"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The villain shrieked, "Your house is drenched in gasoline and filled with petroleum gas! Take one breath of air and you'll die! You may breath fire, but I don't think that you're fireproof, are you!? Now let me kill the worthless child!"_

_Hisashi and Inko refused to budge, despite being threatened, and the man just growled, fishing a lighter out of his pocket._

_"Very well, then. You just signed your own death warrant! You'll just die with him! You quirkless fuckers and everyone that accepts them are just defects! Leave everyone alone, you vermin! Go and die like the rest of your useless, worthless kind!"_

_He heard his mother screaming as gasoline was dumped directly over her and set ablaze, and Hisashi lunged, roaring in anger, ripping Izuku out of the villain's grasp, ignoring one of the other villains that slashed him in the chest with a knife._

_And all he could see was fire._

_He was surrounded by malicious orange and yellow flames that licked visciously at the walls of his home. The nauseating smell of burning bodies and gasoline filled the air. His mother's burning corpse, or what even remained of it, was on the other side of the room, where their assailant had once stood._

_His father's body was still, wrapped around him limply on the ground. Izuku's shirt was drenched was blood, his father's blood. Izuku's hands shook, tears running down his cheeks as he tried to process what was going on._

_"... Mama? … Papa?" Izuku cried out, shaking Hisashi's dying body._

_"Zuku… get out of here…" He coughed, spitting out a bit of blood, "I'm so… sorry… Zuku…"_

_"No! Papa!" Izuku wailed, kneeling next to Hisashi's body and grabbing his hand. His legs and back were slowly turning black as the fire crept closer and closer to his upper body, and Izuku desperately tried to pat the flames away, burning his own hands in the process._

_"Come on… we can get help… It's not too late"_

_"I'm so sorry, Zuku… there's no time..." Hisashi apologised, weakly pulling Izuku's hands away from the fire, "This… was the worst birthday ever… wasn't it… I'm sorry… "_

_"I don't care about that!" Izuku hiccupped, tugging weakly at Hisashi's hand, "Please? We can ask the heroes -"_

_"It's too late … I'm sorry… please… get out of here, hurry… " Hisashi hoarsely replied, the light in his eyes fading, "Remember… it's not your fault… you're not worthless… and you'll never be. Go be… the hero… that we all believed that you could be…"_

_He closed his eyes, and fell silent._

_"No! Papa!" Izuku weeped, trying to shaking his father awake, "Papa!"_

_The front door burst open, and a man rushed into the house._

_"There's a child! I'm going to bring him out!" He said, carefully making his way over to Izuku, and picked him up._

_"No! Go away! Papa!" Izuku wailed, reaching out as he was picked up against his will, getting carried further and further from his father's corpse._

_"PAPA!"_

Midoriya forced himself to snap awake.

_Just a nightmare, just a nightmare, you're fine, you're safe, it's just a nightmare -_

He was biting his lip harshly, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails drew blood from his palms. He was curled up in a tight, shaking ball, Reiko having grabbed Ryuto and pulled him away the second she sensed Midoriya having a nightmare.

She looked down at him, wrapped around Ryuto protectively, and Midoriya looked up at her blearily. Midoriya pushed himself up, his head in a daze, and stumbled clumsily to the bathroom. He flung the door open, and turned on the tap, splashing cold water on to his face, waking the boy up instantly.

_Stupid, useless, worthless emotions. Leave me alone._

He closed the bathroom door gently, and walked back to his bed. He climbed onto the bed wearily, and sank onto it, still breathing heavily.

Reiko leaned down, and licked Midoriya's cheek gently. Ryuto waddled over and pressed himself against his neck, before proceeding to nibble Midoriya's ear again.

Midoriya's heart clenched as he thought about his nightmare, or more accurately, his memory, replying over and over in his mind. His head was buzzing with static, and Midoriya tried to push away the revolting smell of burning bodies that surfaced from his mind.

_He should have died that day, not his parents._

_He wasn't useless? Yeah, right. He was the villains target. He was the one they wanted dead, not his parents._

_Not worthless?_

_The villains were right. He didn't deserve to be alive._


	38. Chapter 38 - The way it hurts

Midoriya was tired.

He had barely slept a wink the entire night. Shinsou was flipping around in his bed, Iida's engines spluttered occasionally throughout the night, and next door, Sato was snoring while Shoji kept hitting the wall by accident.

The one time he managed to fall asleep, he had been plagued by a nightmare. He had been expecting it; it always happened, but Midoriya couldn't sleep for the rest of the night.

He was tired, but he couldn't let that show; it was a weakness that would be exploited. At the very least, he could function normally under these conditions; he was used to hunting down villains while hungry and exhausted, studying was no big deal.

He just really hoped that people would stay out of his personal space. It was uncomfortable, annoying, and just felt downright suffocating.

Maybe he could ask for another coffee; that would perk him up immediately. The first one didn't seem to be harmful at all.

He would just deal with the consequences later.

* * *

Shinsou yawned, and stretched, before climbing out of bed. He didn't sleep well, and had tossed and turned throughout the night, but that was normal for him; it had taken him a month or so to get used to sleeping in his new room once Aizawa and Yamada had adopted him.

He got out of bed, and proceeded to go to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Todoroki and Koda were still sleeping, but Iida was already up and packing. He found Midoriya staring at his phone, texting someone. Reiko was lounging by his side, and Ryuto was trying to walk across the headboard without falling.

"Morning, Iida, Midoriya." Shinsou greeted, and Iida looked up from his bag, and replied, "Good morning to you too, Shinsou!"

Midoriya glanced up at him, nodding in acknowledgement, and Shinsou noted that his eyebags just looked a lot worse than usual._ Did he not sleep well?_

"You look tired, Midoriya. You okay?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya just shrugged. Reiko leapt off the bed, rubbing herself against Shinsou's leg, before meowing and jumping back onto Midoriya's bed. She purred, and Midoriya absentmindedly reached out to scratch her behind the ear.

Ryuto lost his balance, and fell onto the bed, before he chirped and moved over to Midoriya's size, settling down by his foot. A few stray downy feathers fluttered onto the bed, and Midoriya looked at them in confusion. Ryuto didn't seem to be bothered by the lost feathers, and he hopped onto Midoriya's leg, giving a small squeak, before settling down.

Shinsou just shrugged to himself and walked to the bathroom. It was too early for this.

* * *

"You barely ate anything at all yesterday." Yaoyorozu sighed, "Come on. Please?"

Midoriya resolutely shook his head. He wasn't hungry at all, and it would most likely make him sick; can't they just understand that and leave him alone?

"Hey, at least he's getting coffee?" Iida shrugged, "That's a start. It's not healthy not to eat breakfast, but I suppose you're not used to eating a lot."

Yaoyorozu stared at Iida, before sighing. Iida was technically the class representative, and if he said something, she would have to follow. Even though it technically wasn't an order, what he said still made sense.

Plus, Iida was a strict follower of rules, but he tended to bend them slightly in Midoriya's case. He knew him better than she did; it would be wise to listen to what he said.

"Fine."

Midoriya curled up in a ball in the corner, wrapping himself around Ryuto, and Reiko leapt onto his shoulder, before curling up herself. Midoriya glanced up at her, and she merely rested her head on her paws and pat Midoriya's cheek with her paw.

"You know, honestly, I don't think it's that hard to help him, is it?" Kirishima stated. Shinsou and Todoroki turned to glare at him.

"I don't mean it like that! I mean, easier than we originally thought." Kirishima pointed out, "He's not completely emotionless or stuff; he knows how to show affection, just not to humans. We just need to let him get used to us, right?"

"It's not that easy." Shinsou sighed, "What you're saying is true, but it's not going to be so easy to get him to trust us. Also… we don't know what's going to happen in the future."

"So we just have to be careful, right?" Kirishima grinned toothily at Shinsou, and shot him a thumbs up, "We'll just be really manly and help Midoriya!"

* * *

The rest of the day went much better than Midoriya had expected. Ashido and Kaminari, while they had been noisy pretty much all the time, were busy trying to make notes to study for their upcoming mathematics test. Jiro and Yaoyorozu were the ones keeping them in check, while Bakugou simultaneously tutored and blasted Kirishima as they dealt with english.

Sato, having finished most of his work and not in the mood to study, had made huge, weirdly shaped sugar cookies, or Midoriya thought they were sugar cookies. They were really just huge lumps of dough with holes in the center, covered with that overly sweet, tooth-rotting sugary substance that kids liked to eat for some reason. Midoriya just avoided the so-called "treat"; it smelt absolutely nauseating and revolting.

The others seemed to like it though. Kaminari had asked him if he could take his "donut" – _that was what they called it?_ – but he and Sero had ended up fighting over it, before Ashido joined it. They eventually called a truce after Bakugou blasted them all away for being noisy, and they decided to cut it into three pieces to share it.

Midoriya had nothing else to do; he had already finished his homework, and he had already memorized everything that would be in the upcoming tests. Reiko was curled up around Ryuto, who had grown a _lot_, and was slightly smaller than Reiko herself. Both of them were just sitting on the ground, watching the rest of the class fool around while studying.

He pulled out one of his spare notebooks, and started sketching. He had some ideas for some built in weapons in his gloves, which not only would help him attack, but could also help him climb up uneven surfaces. He had heard Kaminari's suggestion of keeping the bandages on as a capture weapon, and Midoriya thought it might be good as a last resort to surprise villains.

Reiko got up from her seat on the floor, and padded over to Midoriya, leaping onto his lap. Ryuto followed suit, and hopped onto Midoriya's elbow, before peering at the paper that Midoriya was scrawling. He twitched, before turning around to peck the feathers at his back.

Midoriya noticed that some of Ryuto's feathers were taking on a brownish hue instead of the white and grey feathers he currently had. It had been around four weeks after he had hatched; he was most likely growing out his first set of flight feathers, and it was probably really itchy and uncomfortable.

Midoriya reached out with his left hand and gently poked Ryuto's beak, distracting him from whatever he was doing with his feathers. He ran his fingers through the feathers on his head, and Ryuto let out a content purr.

Midoriya stared at him, blinking, before continuing to scratch Ryuto's head. He had no idea that hawks could make purring sounds; you learn something new every day, he supposed.

* * *

The class had decided to play Uno for some reason, before they left, and he had somehow gotten roped into playing. It didn't make any sense at all; why could you only put red on red?! Why could you only put a different colour if it was the same number? Why did skip and reverse cards exist!?

He knew it was just the rules of the game, but damn, the rules made no sense at all. Midoriya didn't even know how to play the game; he just kept an eye on the colours and numbers and mentally noted them down to narrow down the possible cards that his classmates could have.

Kirishima had to leave before the game ended, luckily, so it was cut short. However, Midoriya did have to endure a train ride back to UA with Shinsou and Iida. They weren't that bad; they actually knew where his boundaries were and tried not to cross them, but still; he didn't like hanging out with people in general.

The train was super crowded by the time they had hopped on, which made matters worse; body contact with absolute strangers. Midoriya had gotten shoved by several elbows in his very sore ribs, and coupled with his exhaustion, Midoriya really wanted to just snap at them. But he couldn't do that, that would just be rude; he knew what he was getting into when he accepted the offer for a sleepover, if he was paying the consequences, then so be it.

Plus, he had more important things to worry about; Reiko and Ryuto. He wasn't allowed to bring animals onto the train, so he had no choice but to hop on the train with Reiko and Ryuto, who were safely tucked within his bag. He needed to make sure that they weren't hurt; he was willing to pay the price for his bad choices, but Reiko and Ryuto didn't deserve too.

Just staying in the train with so many people around was exhausting; he felt like he could hear everyone's thoughts echoing within him.

_Die, you worthless brat!_

_Useless freak!_

_No one wants you here!_

Midoriya was relieved when he finally made his way out of the train, and the second he got out of the station, he hastily unzipped his bag, letting Reiko and Ryuto pop out for fresh air.

He quickly walked in the direction of UA, almost running directly to the dorms, before stumbling into his room, flopping onto the bed, not even bothered to change into cleaner clothes. Reiko immediately hopped up onto the bed, but Ryuto, who was way too small to do anything, just hopped about on the ground.

Midoriya reached down, scooping the avian up onto the bed, before sighing.

"I'm going to sleep." Midoriya muttered, before slamming his face into the pillow. The sound of his heartbeat thundered in his ears, and Midoriya did his best to control his heavy breathing.

* * *

The exams were coming up in a month's time; and the teachers were trying their best to teach the students all the necessary content.

"Does anyone want to tell me how Ashido and Kaminari managed to master algebra over a weekend?" Ectoplasm scratched his head, "They could barely do a single question last week, but the worksheet they just did in class is almost perfect. Just some careless mistakes. And they weren't copying off anyone, I checked."

"Apparently, 1-A, minus the grape boy, had a study session and sleepover at Yaoyorozu's house." Aizawa muttered, grading the second set of essays that he had assigned 1-A to do.

"You gave them another essay?" Snipe shook his head, "I just finished grading his essays. Wasn't the first one more than enough work for you?"

"Well, let's be fair here. Midoriya's essays are actually quite pleasant to read." Aizawa countered, "It's a very nice change compared to the work the rest of his class does. I wouldn't actually mind reading more of his work."

"Well… here." Snipe tossed Midoriya's past essays at the Erasure Hero, "Read them. I still have to give them back to Midoriya; you mind doing that for me?"

"Sure. Whatever." Aizawa placed the extra essays aside and focused on Kaminari's messy scrawls.

"So… I heard that the other therapy people are here?" Kayama asked, as she burst into the staff room, "I heard Bakugou complaining about it in the cafeteria."

"Yep." Yamada replied, grading his english worksheets, "I think it's Hitoshi's turn right now."

* * *

"Shinsou! Hurry! Or you won't be able to finish your lunch!" Iida waved Shinsou over to their regular seat, as Shinsou grabbed his tray off the counter.

"How was your counselling session?" Uraraka asked.

"Pretty normal, I think? There were these new guys that could apparently feel emotions or something?" Shinsou scratched the back of his head, wolfing down his noodles, "He's a pro as well, I think; Hound Dog called him in for some help counselling help."

"Hmm… They must have just come in today. I have a counselling session yesterday but there wasn't any new people. Who else has counselling today?" Uraraka asked. Shinsou whipped out his phone, despite Iida's protests, and brought up the google spreadsheet that Inui had shared so everyone could keep track of their appointments, "Er… Oh, Apparently, Yaoyorozu has her session during homeroom, then Satou, Kamakiri, and then Midoriya."

"I guess homeroom is going to be self study, then." Todoroki stated, "I don't think Aizawa-sensei will teach anything while students keep coming in and out of the classrooms."

"Fair point. We can finish the homework that Midnight-sensei had just set." Iida nodded, before turning to Midoriya, "Do you think you'll be okay with a stranger in the room? We can go with you to tell Aizawa-sensei or Nezu-sensei if you won't be comfortable."

Midoriya stared at his water, before looking up at Iida, signing, _"I'll be fine."_

_He didn't know Inui that well either, he was as untrustworthy as these supposed new strangers, even if they were heroes. It was just another useless counselling session anyways, right? He didn't need help, or saving; they couldn't help him anyways; it was just a huge waste of time._

"You sure?" Shinsou asked, and MIdoriya just glanced at him in mild annoyance.

* * *

Midoriya closed the door gently behind him, before settling down on the chair. Inui was sitting in the corner of the room with a notepad, while there were two men sitting where Inui usually sat. One was a man with long black hair tied up neatly in a ponytail, and the other saw sitting with his arms crossed, with short white hair.

"Welcome. I go by Kyoken, and this is my colleague, Nanji. These are our hero names, not our real names, obviously. Hound Dog invited us to possibly help out with the aftermath of the… of _that_ incident." The black haired man paused, "Now, I'm just going to confirm some things with you. Just simple yes and no questions. Are you okay with that?"

Midoriya nodded hesitantly, and Kyoken clapped his hands together, "Great. Okay, your name is Midoriya Izuku, right?"

He nodded.

"Age 15?"

Another nod.

"You were involved in that incident directly, weren't you?"

Kyoken got another nod in reply.

"And you were the one that… ended up in the hospital for quite some time?"

Midoriya nodded again, and Kyoken closed his notebook, "Alright. We're just going to be checking your current mental state, alright?"

Midoriya tilted his head slightly, and Kyoken explained, "My quirk allows me to feel your mental state, and what you're feeling through physical contact. I won't be sieving through your memories; my quirk doesn't let me do that."

Midoriya eyed Nanji, and Kyoken spoke up again, "His quirk just calms people in the general vicinity down. We're not going to harm you, nor do we have the ability to do so. Is that alright?"

They watched as the green haired boy considered Kyoken's words, before he nodded.

Inui heaved an internal sigh of relief. At least, Midoriya was trying to be cooperative, even if he was still taking quite some time to consider his choices.

"Excellent. Now, can you place your arm on the table? Just relax." Kyoken ordered, and Midoriya did as he was told. Kyoken opened Midoriya's palm, taking note that MIdoriya was trying to stifle a flinch as he did so. The hero closed his eyes, and activated his quirk.

Almost immediately, his head was empty, cold, desolate, until it was suddenly filled with intense, white hot flashes of pain. He could see fire, and his arms felt like they were on fire. His chest was aching, his arms were as heavy as lead, he felt like his body was constantly being ripped apart and put back together.

_"You might as well take a swan dive off a roof and wish you were born with a quirk in your next life, loser!"_

Angry thoughts swam around in his head, haunting him from the inside out. He felt like he was on fire, he was burning, as pain flared through his veins like acid. His head was blasted with pain, like someone had cracked his skull open with a sledgehammer, and was pounding the insides over and over again. He no longer knew if they were Midoriya's thoughts or his own; he just knew that everything hurt.

_"You quirkless fuckers are just defects! Leave everyone alone, you vermin! Go and die like the rest of your useless, worthless kind!"_

His brain was flooded with emotions. Anger, despair, sorrow, sadness, guilt, hatred, worthlessness, self-loathing; all the negative thoughts and emotions swirling around haphazardly. He couldn't think anymore; he could only feel pain.

_"You useless Deku! Just go kill yourself already!"_

His body shook as he desperately tried to process everything that was going on; the cacophony of voices all around him, spewing nast words at him, the pain that flared throughout his body, the panic and fear rising up out of nowhere, the intense anger and hatred that lingered throughout his entire being. When he first saw Midoriya, he didn't know what to expect. Maybe emptiness, _maybe something else._

_But not this. He wasn't expecting this at all._

_He felt the inner turmoil that Midoriya felt. He felt like his mind was being broken, shattered, torn apart from the inside out. He felt like he was being ripped open and put back together like a mangled toy, over and over again._

He heard a voice viciously snarling from the back of his mind, conjuring up dark and foreboding thoughts.

_"They're all right! The only thing you can do right is hurt people! They died for you! They got hurt because of you! You're just worthless and useless!"_

* * *

Midoriya didn't know what was going on.

One minute, Kyoken was calm, collected, and was lighting touching his palm with the tips of his fingers. The next, the hero was shaking, hunching over on the table, clenching his fists tightly, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

Midoriya sat perfectly still as Kyoken grabbed his hand harshly; he didn't know what else to do. He stifled a grimace as the hero gripped his hand tighter. He felt like Kyoken would end up breaking his hand all over again; Shuzenji would _definitely_ not appreciate that.

Nanji looked at his colleague worriedly. His quirk dampened emotions and feelings _just so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed_; this shouldn't be happening at all. It had to be Midoriya's doing, a quirk, or something. He put his hand on Kyoken's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

Inui turned to Nanji, "What's going on!?"

"I'm not sure… to be honest." Nanji replied, turning to glance at Midoriya warily.

Midoriya looked up at Nanji in mild panic. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, and the usual comforting presence of Reiko and Ryuto weren't around; Reiko was in Nezu's office and Ryuto was interested in that toy cockatoo on Yamada's desk. They didn't want the heroes to think that Midoriya was getting special privileges.

Kyoken shook violently, and let out a pained screech.

_"They're all right! The only thing you can do right is hurt people! They died for you! They got hurt because of you! You're just worthless and useless!"_

Midoriya yanked his arm out of Kyoken's grasp harshly, stumbling backwards, unsure of what to do next. Nanji almost immediately turned his attention to his colleague, placing his hand on Kyoken's shoulder, a small glow emitting as he activated his quirk.

_He remembered his mother screaming in pain as she was burnt alive._

Midoriya took a step back.

_He saw fire all around him. He could smell gasoline and burning bodies. He could feel the shortness of breath, the hazy smoke all around him, the weakness in his limbs, the tears pouring down his face as he cried and screamed for his parents._

_"Go be… the hero… that we all believed that you could be…"_

Hero? What hero? He was useless; he couldn't be a damned hero.

Midoriya backed towards the door, and Inui stood up, "Midoriya, please, calm down -"

He didn't even get to finish his statement, before Midoriya took a sharp intake of breath and ripped open the door. He ran out of the room, startling Ectoplasm and Kayama, who were in the staff room.

"Midoriya?" Kayama asked, turning around, "Was he the one that screeched?"

"No." Inui replied, "I'm going to go stop him."

"Stop it. Going after him won't help." Nezu ordered, opening the door to his office. Reiko slinked out of his office like a bullet, bolting after Midoriya, as Ryuto looked up from his spot on the table. He hopped off the table, but Kayama caught him in time, "You can't fly yet. Be patient."

"I'll find him later. Give him a second to cool down." Nezu stated.

Kyoken's breathing slowed, desperately trying to suck oxygen into his lungs.

"Kyo? You okay there, buddy? Was that his quirk or something?" Nanji asked, helping Kyoken up, leading him out of the room to get some fresh air.

"Huh?" Ectoplasm asked, confused, "What happened?"

"He didn't … do anything." Kyoken panted heavily, "So many emotions… so much pain… "

Nanji looked at him in confusion, "But your quirk… it's supposed to _dampen_ them!"

"Exactly." Kyoken nodded, rubbing his arms; he could still feel the phantom ache that seeped into his bones, "His broken sense of self worth, his anger and hatred, _all his pain_. There's so much pain, but he's grown used to it, and they only grow stronger with time, festering, only getting worse. He's hiding everything behind a mask; a mask that grows stronger, trapping all his thoughts and emotions inside. He's been broken and abused by everything and everyone around him, he's shattered, breaking down inside, but he pushes everything away; he can't trust anyone, he thinks that he can't be saved, that all this is a waste of time. And that's not even the worst part."

Nezu's gaze hardened, "What can be worse than that?"

"The only reason he hasn't fully snapped is because _he believes he deserves it_. He fully believes that he's worthless and useless and doesn't deserve to live. It's terrifying, a child so young having to _suffer so much_ before he's even given a chance to live his life, believing that he doesn't deserve anything at all."

Nezu looked up at Kyoken worriedly. He already knew that Midoriya was messed up inside, but he didn't think that it would be that bad. Aldera had screwed him up inside, sure, but just bullying and suicide baiting couldn't have shattered him _that badly_, could it?

Plus, from the records they had seen, Midoriya was already broken before he had entered Aldera; emotionless, non-responsive, letting himself get pushed around, giving up.

That left his former foster mother and his elementary school. Once Aldera goes up in flames, Nezu was going to turn his attention to the damned elementary school.

"This is only a fraction of his pain, and it's _already horrible and terrifying_. How much pain does he truly feel? And he's completely numb to it." Kyoken shook his head, "You guys have to help him."

"We know." Nezu snapped, "Everyone who did this to Izuku aren't going to get away with it. I'm going to go find him now."


	39. Chapter 39 - But I can't go back

When an ear-piercing screech rang through the air, Aizawa wasn't too sure what to expect. He had given the students homeroom lesson as a free period since some of the students had counselling sessions, and it wasn't like he had anything to teach. He just wanted to sleep, dammit.

"What was that?" Uraraka asked, looking up from her worksheet.

"No idea. If I didn't know better, I would think that it was Kaminari." Shinsou admitted.

"Hey!" Kaminari whined indignantly.

"Stay here. I'm going to check. Iida and Yaoyorozu are in charge until I'm back." Aizawa sighed, slipping out of his yellow cocoon and walking out of the classroom. Inui's office, along with the staff room and Nezu's office, were a floor above his classroom's floor, and Aizawa internally groaned at the thought of having to climb stairs.

He reached the top of the stairs, before making his way to the staffroom.

Suddenly, a blur of green raced past him.

Aizawa whirled around, trying to figure out what just happened, "Midoriya?"

He heard a meow, and he looked at the ground just in time to see Reiko running past him, in the direction that Midoriya had headed.

Aizawa turned in the direction Midoriya had run in, and was just about to chase down the green haired boy when a voice called out, "Aizawa, don't."

Kayama poked out of the staffroom, and beckoned him inside, "Stuff happened. Give the kid some time to cool down. Nezu will go find him later."

"What happened?" Aizawa demanded, crossing his arms, glaring at Kyoken and Nanji, "Was it you two?"

He wouldn't admit it, but he _might_ have developed a small soft spot got the broken child. He himself had suffered from quirk discrimination when he was younger, until he had problem himself in the UA first year sports festival. Plus, he had been the one to rescue Shinsou from his former household; Aizawa owed him for that.

"He overloaded my quirk and I _might_ have freaked him out." Kyoken admitted, rubbing his arm nervously. He didn't know who Aizawa was, but he did _not_ want to piss of an angry pro hero.

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, "As far as I know, one, you _deal_ with military trauma and stuff like that. Two, your quirk is supposed to dampen the emotions that you felt from him. Mind explaining how he managed to overload it?"

Kyoken sighed, "There is a difference between normal abuse trauma and military trauma. In most cases, soldiers and fighters are at least somewhat aware of what they are getting into, and they have appropriate training to handle and deal with their circumstances. They're not jumping in blindly, they know what is and isn't normal."

Aizawa nodded grumpily.

"In Midoriya's case… at least, from what I can tell, he's had a lot of negative emotions festering since he was a child. He didn't know what he was getting into, and he slowly started accepting his negative circumstances at the norm and tried to get used to them." Kyoken continued, "But the more he got used to them… I'm guessing… the more he was hurt and bullied and abused by those around him. It's just a vicious cycle that continuously gets worse and worse, and his mentality just deteriorates exponentially the more he tries to hide his pain and suffering. He's not emotionless… like I originally thought. He's angry, guilty, sad, upset, and he can't trust the people around him. He just believes that people are going to harm him. But he just hides everything behind a mask and tries to act normal so he wouldn't influence other people, because he believes that he can only harm people. He didn't know beforehand what to expect, and it resulted in him growing up thinking that way."

Aizawa sighed, "This is a problem."

"We'll leave it at that for now." Nezu stated, "He trust me, at far as I know. He's giving his classmates a chance, according to Aizawa. We'll just take baby-steps for now. Nanji, Kyoken, thank you for your time."

"No problem… If you don't mind… keep me updated? I can't help but be worried about him, after what I ... felt." Kyoken asked, and Nezu nodded, "Sure. But we can't involve you, I think. Introducing strangers to him, who immediately freak out… It wasn't a good idea."

"Yeah… my bad…. I'm really sorry." Kyoken apologised.

* * *

Midoriya reached the staircase, and ran up two at a time.

His heart was racing; Kyoken's ear-piercing screech had triggered a painful flow of memories that threatened to overwhelm him. He couldn't see anything, his vision was hazy, blurry. He bit his lip, pivoting on his foot to run up another flight of stairs.

He finally reached the top, and he barged the door open with his shoulder, before racing out onto the rooftop. Midoriya raced to the edge, grabbing the railings with his hands, and tried to take a deep breath of air.

Midoriya was gripping the railing so tightly that his arms were shaking, his palms having turned white. He greedily sucked the cool air into his lungs, and looked down the few tens of floors.

The UA main building was tall, but it had never really registered to Midoriya how tall his school was. UA had around fifteen floors, and while Midoriya had jumped from much higher buildings before, he had never been up so high in the day.

He looked down at the ground, and bit his lip even harder.

_It looked terrifying. How did he jump from even higher up?_

Midoriya swallowed his saliva, before sinking to his knees, still grabbing onto the railing. Without thinking, his hand reached for the pocket knife that he always brought with him, and gingerly fished it out. In one swift, smooth movement, he rolled up the sleeve of his uniform, and stabbed himself in the forearm, the familiar mild, stinging sensation of the blade being buried in his flesh and cutting through his muscles snapped him out from his frenzied haze.

Midoriya took a final deep breath, before he flipped himself around, wearily leaning against the short wall of the rooftop. He stared at his bloodied arm, and sighed, dropping his pocket knife to the ground.

Why was he even in UA? UA was a prestigious school, meant to shape teens to be the best that they could in order to be ready for the real world. He couldn't help anyone; the only thing he was good at doing was destroy lives and hurt people. His parents died for him. Rikaku died because of him. Who else had to get hurt because of his mistakes, because of his mere existence, simply because he himself was a mistake that never should have happened?

Blood was starting to trickle down his arm, and Midoriya used his free hand to cover up his self-inflicted injury.

_Breathe._

_I can't breathe I can't breathe why can't I breathe?_

Even if he didn't deserve to live, it wasn't like he had a choice; that damned quirk, that curse, prevented him from dying.

He never had a choice.

* * *

Reiko made her way to the staircase, and sniffed the ground. She perked up, before racing upwards.

She didn't know why, but she could generally sense anyone's presence in a three meter radius. She wasn't sure if her mother had that ability, but the other cats at the pet rescue center most certainly didn't.

Her human wasn't anywhere in her area, she could tell that much. The hallway they were in was deserted; everyone was having lessons.

But she had been with Izuku for so long that she could generally tell where he was. Combined with her sense of smell and gut feeling that tugged her along whenever she got closer to Izuku, it never took her too long to find her human.

She often saw people parading their animals around, showing them off like they were objects or something of the sort. She didn't like attention unless they were from people or animals she already knew, so Reiko was pretty glad that Midoriya wasn't like all the other weird people who dressed their animals up against their will. She had heard way too many dogs complaining that those little costumes that the humans made then wear were tight, scratchy, and hot.

Humans also call the animals_ "pets"_ or something like that. She didn't really like that term. The other animals at the shelter also said that she shouldn't call Midoriya "her human", and that they called the humans their owners or masters. Honestly, Reiko never really understood the appeal of that; Midoriya didn't own her, and she didn't own Midoriya. If Midoriya called her "his cat", then she was justified in calling him "her human". It honestly didn't even matter; they still cared about each other.

Reiko climbed up staircase after staircase, tracing Midoriya's scent. The teachers in the staff lounge were trustworthy, and would take of Ryuto in their absence; she knew that for sure. They wanted nothing more than to help Midoriya, though some of them were a bit slow when it came to his preferences.

Then there were his classmates from 1-A. The engine boy, gravity girl, the dual hair-coloured boy, fluffy haired guy and the animal speaker were really nice; if she remembered correctly, their names were Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki, Shinsou and Koda. The earplug girl and the one with the huge house were nice as well. The guy with the bird head, the frog girl, and the other one with many arms seemed decent, and she did like the pink skinned girl and the electric boy's enthusiasm; it just wasn't the right time for it. The rest of the class seemed okay as well; she just really hated the short purple orb-haired kid.

She hadn't interacted with the 1-B kids much, but they were decent enough, in her opinion. The blonde copycat was a bit annoying at times, but he was nice enough to Midoriya. The orange haired girl with big hands was okay, and that green haired kid with mandible-looking structures on his face was nice given that her human had kicked his butt twice already.

But Midoriya didn't know that. She knew that her human couldn't feel what she felt. She also understood why Midoriya didn't trust them; she had witnessed the abuse that her human had suffered under every single human that he had met before entering UA.

She wasn't very sure what Midoriya was like before he had broken, but she vaguely remembered a smiley, happy boy who chattered aimlessly about superpowers called quirks; she had been too young at the time.

She just wanted her human to be happy again; that was why she wanted him to go for the sleepover.

Reijo reached the top of the staircase, and slipped through the slightly open door. She found Midoriya slumped on the ground, leaning against the wall, using one hand to grab his other arm.

She smelt something metallic, and immediately identified it as blood. He must be having flashbacks of that day, the day his parents died; that was one of the few memories that haunted him to the point of self-mutilation to snap himself out of it.

She let out a meow, alerting Midoriya to her presence, before she slowly padded over to Midoriya's side. Midoriya looked up her, and she looked at his bloody arm, and leaned down to sniff it.

He was warm, but that was normal; her human was always very warm, even in winter, for some reason. She looked up at him, mewing sadly.

"I know, Rei." Midoriya whispered hoarsely, "I should... find another way... other than stabbing myself..."

Reiko meowed again, and Midoriya sighed, "Yeah... I should clean this up... Recovery Girl and Nezu aren't going to be happy to see this..."

* * *

Midoriya put his arm under the tap, trying to wash all the blood away. It was still bleeding, albeit much slower. He quickly grabbed some clean toilet paper from the bathroom cubicle and wrapped his arm up, with Reiko helping him hold the paper down as he did so.

It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do until Midoriya could get back to his room, he had bandages and could disinfect the wound properly.

Midoriya rolled his sleeves down, careful to not affect his makeshift toilet paper bandage, before exiting the bathroom. Lessons were still in session; he could hear various teachers assigning homework to their classes, and Midoriya made his way to the staircase, slowing making his way down to the floor where the teachers' lounge was.

He slid open the door to the room, and slipped in, careful to avoid making any noise whatsoever; he could see Kayama, Ectoplasm, and Yagi at their desks, marking a few papers.

Midoriya crept quietly to Nezu's office, and gently opened the door, slipping inside and closing the door behind him.

Ryuto, who was standing on the table by the couch, perked up, and chirped, flapping his wings as he did so.

Nezu looked up from his pacing, and heaved a huge sigh of relief, "You're alright! We were so worried when you ran off like that! We wanted to give you some alone time, before going to find you."

Nezu walked up to the boy, and led him to the couch, "Would you like something to drink?"

Midoriya shook his head wearily.

Reiko leapt up beside Midoriya, and Ryuto chirped from the table. He took a few steps backwards, before rushing forwards, wings outstretched. When he reached the edge of the table, he jumped, flapping his wings in an attempt to fly.

Midoriya nearly panicked as Ryuto dropped like a stone, and he reached out to catch the bird before he injured himself. Ryuto wiggled slightly in Midoriya's grasp, before pecking at Midoriya's sleeve and squacked.

"Do you... want to talk about it?" Nezu hesitantly asked.

As he expected, Midoriya shook his head. He sighed, "Alright, then. Just... remember... we just want to help you."

Nezu climbed up onto the couch, beside Midoriya, and leaned against the boy, wrapping his tail around Midoriya's arm, "Class will be ending soon. If you want, you can stay until everyone has left before retrieving your stuff from the classroom and heading back to the dorms."

* * *

The first thing Midoriya did when he reached the dorms was to disinfect his injury. He peeled the toilet paper off, dumping it into the toilet bowl, before swiftly grabbing the rubbing alcohol. He carefully poured the liquid over his wound, ignoring the stinging sensation, before wrapping his arm up tightly in bandages.

He inspected his handiwork, before deeming it good enough. Midoriya flushed the toilet, before washing his hands and making his way towards his room. He had homework, and he was going to finish it, before sleeping the rest of the day away.

Reiko sat on the bed sadly, watching as Midoriya slipped onto the chair by the desk. Ryuto waddled over to her, settling down by her side, before they both watched as Midoriya started on his science homework.

She jumped off the bed, before making her way to the balcony, while Ryuto kept an eye on both her and Midoriya.

Midoriya finally finished up his homework, before spotting Reiko. He put his work away, before walking to the balcony and slowly sitting down beside her.

"You okay, Rei?"

Reiko meowed, before jumping into Midoriya's lap and pawing at his shirt. Midoriya quickly scooped her up into his arms.

She sniffed the collar that Midoriya wore, before pressing her head against Midoriya's neck.

"I'm fine, Rei."

Reiko looked at him, unbelieving, and pushed her paw against Midoriya's cheek, mewing.

"Fine." Midoriya replied in slight exasperation, "I'm not fine, okay, Rei? But what else can we do?"

* * *

"If that isn't enough proof, then I have three more folders full of evidence for you... Yes... no. Do _NOT_ get him involved with this! I told you before... no he _DOES NOT_ have to testify, the security feeds are more than enough proof..."

Nezu paused, listening intently to what was being spoken on the other side, before growling. "No. I refuse. Take the evidence, and press charges. Aldera clearly does _not_ know how to deal with this on their own... They hurt him. The teachers saw it, and turned a blind eye. They _bullied_ him for absolutely no reason and the teacher's didn't care. This is physical and mental abuse! There's something wrong with the management of that school and I'm not going to let that school stand any longer!"

He paused again, "Quirk discrimination, yes. He's quirkless... No, you shut up! Do not tell me to just _"chill"_. It doesn't matter that he's quirkless! There are a ton of laws that they broke, and I'm not going to let this go unpunished..."

Nezu snapped, "Okay, you shut up with your stupid _"You can't discriminate against someone with no quirk"_ bullshit. He still has his rights! They hurt him to the point where he thinks it's _normal_... No, I'm not going to get him involved with this any further! This isn't a problem about him now, it's a problem about you and your attitude. I'm telling you to do your stupid job! That school deserves to burn in hell! I want to speak to your boss right now... yes... "

Nezu sighed as he heard a new voice over the phone, "Yes, thank you... Alright, thanks a lot. I'll leave the pressing of charges to you... I'll get Tsukauchi to deliver it when he comes over."

Nezu put the phone down in relief, and sank into his chair.

_Stupid people._

But at the very least, Aldera was going down. Now, it was time for Midoriya's elementary school.


	40. Chapter 40 - I won't turn around

Midoriya found that Ryuto was shedding a few of his feathers. The small, fluffier, downy ones, to be precise. He was also growing out longer, more sturdy ones. Clearing them wasn't too bad; for some reason, Ryuto liked to sweep his fallen feathers into small piles, which made it a lot easier to clean up.

He was also starting to develop the habit of randomly jumping off things; the cabinet, the kitchen counter, the table, all sorts of places. Midoriya had no idea how many times he nearly had a heart attack and rush to save the bird because he was afraid that Ryuto would injure himself.

He knew that Ryuto was growing out his flight feathers, falling down or out of trees was a natural process for birds to learn how to fly, but he couldn't help but get worried whenever he threw himself off something. There were a few times where he had stretched his wings fully, but it only lasted for a few seconds before he pulled his wings back in and fell.

Midoriya was seriously going to teach his baby bird how to fly. He was going to start with the basics of gliding, getting Ryuto used to stretching his wings out, before moving on to flying once he grew his first set of flight feathers.

He wasn't sure how to do it, though. Maybe he should give Ryuto a demonstration,thought he had no idea how he would go about doing it.

Midoriya flopped down on the sofa in the common room, Ryuto nestled comfortably in his arms. Reiko was sitting on his lap, napping.

Midoriya looked down at the bird, "Ryuto."

The hawk turned up to look at him, and chirped. Midoriya lifted him up to eye level, "Listen to me, Ryu. No more jumping off things randomly, okay? It's dangerous. I know you want to fly, but you can't do that if you have a broken wing."

Ryuto chirped again, before using one of his talons to scratch at Midoriya's arm.

Midoriya narrowed his eyes slightly in exasperation, "Come on, Ryu. Focus. I'll help you fly, okay? Just... stop jumping off stuff, okay?"

Ryuto turned his attention back to the green haired boy, giving a happy sounding trill, before nibbling on one of Midoriya's fingers.

Midoriya gently shifted his position to wrap his arms around the bird. He held Ryuto on one hand, and picked up Reiko with his other, pulling both of them in for a hug.

Reiko and Ryuto both snuggled up to the boy, and Midoriya could feel their breathes against his neck. He bit his lip, and closed his eyes, as Ryuto rubbed his head against Midoriya's chin and Reiko nuzzled him.

* * *

"Something on your mind, Mina?" Kirishima asked, looking up from his math homework. Ashido was aimlessly twirling her pen, staring into space.

Kaminari and Sero looked up from their worksheets.

"You know, I can't stop thinking about that time... when I grabbed Midoriya's arm." Ashido admitted, "I know you kind of called me cool in middle school, Kiri, but... I wasn't always so outgoing and friendly."

"What do you mean?" Kaminari asked.

"I look weird." Ashido stated, "Pink skin, horns, I don't look human. When I was in elementary school... I was very insecure about my appearance. People matured in middle school, but in elementary school -"

"You were bullied." Sero finished for her.

"I was trying to avoid using that word, but yeah." Ashido sheepishly laughed, before she turned serious, "I was never well liked in elementary school. I was pushed around, beaten up every now and then... I eventually told the teachers and they stopped."

"That's good. I've never been bullied before." Kaminari pipped up, "Made fun of, yes... but it was just funny that I had a powerful quirk that I couldn't control."

"I got called names, but that's about it." Sero shrugged, "Some names are pretty funny."

"Things got a lot better in middle school. I would say that I kind of understand what Midoriya went through... but he probably had it so much worse than me that it isn't even comparable." Ashido sighed.

"Hey... don't worry about it." Kirishima pat her on the shoulder, "We don't hate you over your appearance, and we don't hate Midoriya for being quirkless either. Shinsou, Iida, even Aizawa-sensei said that he'll need some time to adjust. Don't sweat it, okay?"

"I know." Ashido sighed, "I just feel bad, okay?"

"Well... " Kaminari offered, "If you want, we can all hang out at my place later? I just got that new game that we all wanted to play? It would take your mind off things."

"Sure, Kami." Ashido replied, picking her pen up, "We should finish our work first, or Iida would just go Dad-mode on us and nag about our homework."

* * *

Tokoyami mindlessly scribbled down whatever Yamada was writing on the board. Dark Shadow hadn't been annoying him as much as he used to; usually, the quirk would be peeking over his shoulder, trying to see what he was writing, or making screeching sounds that only Tokoyami could hear, or nibbling his pencils. Tokoyami had to buy a lot of replacement pencils for the ones that Dark Shadow had eaten.

He seemed to have taken a liking to Ryuto, but Tokoyami suppose that it was because they were both birds; or at least, Ryuto was a bird, and Dark Shadow was a bird-like creature.

They were currently having a staring contest, and Tokoyami was glad for the distraction; he could actually concentrate in lessons for once.

Dark Shadow also seemed to take a liking to Midoriya, and oddly enough, Midoriya didn't seem to mind the quirk as much as he did the others. Dark Shadow liked to perch on Midoriya's head often enough, watching him work, but Midoriya didn't seem to care that he was there, just continuing to write like nothing was going on.

Midoriya did give Dark Shadow head scratches occasionally, and he seemed to like it. Maybe Tokoyami should ask Midoriya how he did it.

"Tokoyami, Lunch?" Shoji asked, pointing towards the door. Kaminari, Sero, Ashido and Kirishima was leaving for lunch.

"I would like to ask Midoriya something. You can go first?" Tokoyami replied, neatly stacking his notebooks under his table. Shoji shrugged, leaving the classroom, "Sure. I'll save you a seat."

Tokoyami made his way over to Midoriya's seat, where Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida, Koda, and Asui were standing. Ryuto was nestled in Midoriya's hair, and Reiko was being held by the green haired boy. Dark Shadow was currently perched on Midoriya's shoulder, and Todoroki looked at him curiously from the back of the classroom as he finished tidying up his notes.

Dark Shadow looked back towards Tokoyami, before patting Midoriya on the shoulder and pointing in his direction, alerting Midoriya to his presence.

"Midoriya." Tokoyami started, and Midoriya nodded in acknowledgement, "I realised that Dark Shadow really likes it when you scratch his head... I was wondering... if you could show me how you do it?"

Dark Shadow immediately perked up at the mention of "head scratches", and Midoriya stared at Tokoyami, seemingly in confusion, before turning to Dark Shadow. Dark Shadow looked back at Midoriya, before the green haired boy scooped the quirk up and deposited him in Tokoyami's arms.

Midoriya reached out to grab Tokoyami's hand hesitantly, and Tokoyami stuck his hand out, letting Midoriya know that it was okay to do so. Midoriya took Tokoyami's hand, and guided him slowly, until his hand was hovering over Dark Shadow's head. Midoriya pushed Tokoyami's hand gently onto Dark Shadow's feathers, and Dark Shadow let out a purr as Tokoyami gently scratched his shadowy feathers.

Tokoyami shot Midoriya a small smile, "Thanks, Midoriya."

Midoriya merely looked at the bird-headed boy in confusion, and Reiko rubbed her head against Midoriya's neck.

* * *

"There's something that I feel that I should tell you, Izuku. The rest of the staff thinks it's better for you if I didn't tell you, but you deserve to know what's going on." Nezu started, and Midoriya looked at the principal, waiting patiently for him to continue. Reiko and Ryuto were currently with Inui and Koda, and Midoriya was just assuming at Koda felt more comfortable talking to the counselor with them.

"After that… unfortunate incident with the League… Recovery Girl came to know of your quirk." Nezu continued, "Now, the rest of your teachers, and Power Loader, are aware of your quirk. And she also made some other... speculations about your past actions."

Midoriya narrowed his eyes warily. _They knew that he wasn't quirkless, that he had lied about his quirkless status, and he was probably in trouble and -_

"Izuku, calm down." Nezu reached out, patting Midoriya's leg gently, "You're not in any trouble at all. They all agreed that a quirk like this should not be made public. It's too dangerous; if other people came to know of it, who knows how they might react to it. Plus, it's a quirk that should never come up; you should never have gotten into a situation where your life is at stake, at least... not at this point. Your status as quirkless still remains. We just need to know some details in order to help you."

Midoriya's shoulders sagged.

"Izuku, I need you to be honest with me." Nezu spoke up, "I know this may bring up bad memories... but have you... even thought about committing suicide?"

Midoriya bit his lip, and the boy sank into the couch, staring at his feet, before nodding.

"Have you ever acted on those thoughts? Like -"

Before Nezu had even finished, Midoriya nodded again.

"Have people... suicide-baited you before?"

Midoriya looked away from Nezu guiltily, before nodding.

"And... you listened?"

Another nod.

Nezu gulped nervously; he was coming to the question where he didn't want the answer the most,"How... how many times?"

Midoriya shook his head, "A lot... I... don't remember..."

He reached up to rub his neck, "I know... I jumped... a few times... and cut... and tried to overdose... I tried to hang myself once..."

Midoriya paused. He knew that admitting a weakness like that, telling Nezu that _he had tried so many times to kill himself, _could get him into trouble, or even expelled, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to Nezu. Nezu deserved to know the truth; he deserved to know that Midoriya was broken to the point where he couldn't be fixed, and that it was a waste of time to even care about him and to even think that he could be helped and -

Nezu reached his paws out, and much to Midoriya surprise and shock, wrapped his stubby little arms around Midoriya's waist.

"I'm so sorry, Izuku."

Midoriya was still trying to comprehend _why Nezu was apologising to him_ when the principal continued, "None of this was ever your fault. Society failed you, Izuku, and no one ever gave you any help."

Even if Nezu believed so, Midoriya thought differently. He was useless, he couldn't do anything right, the only thing he was capable of doing was fucking up and messing things up.

Nezu looked up at Midoriya's blank gaze. While Midoriya never spoke, he was ridiculously easy to read through his body language and his eyes.

"This was never your fault. People mistreated you to the point where you _think_ that you're always in the wrong, where you're useless and unwanted, but all that is wrong. People do care about you, Izuku. Society is messed up, and that's the fault of the pro heroes. Our jobs aren't just to defeat villains and act like super-powered police officers; our job is to make sure society runs smoothly and properly, to give faith to those who need it, and to keep everyone safe. _We_ are the ones that failed you, Izuku, so please, never think that it's ever your fault -"

"It's not anyone's fault." Midoriya bit his lip, interrupting Nezu, "I'm weak, I'm quirkless, I'm useless, I don't deserve to be here. It's no one's job to care. People are just like that. They hate what's different, and -"

"That's no reason to condone suicide-baiting." Nezu stated, "There will never be a reason to condone it. It's just wrong on so many levels. No one deserves treatment like that, and especially not you."

Nezu sighed, "Can you just... promise me one thing, Izuku? Please... don't do it again. Please, stop hurting yourself, okay?"

As much as Midoriya knew that he should agree, he knew that he couldn't uphold a promise like that.

And Midoriya had sworn never to make a promise that he couldn't keep. He couldn't afford to break any more promises.

"I'll try."

* * *

"Okay. Ryuto. Stand there. Don't do anything yet." Midoriya ordered, pulling his chair over to his bed and placing Ryuto on the backrest. He climbed up onto his bed, and grabbed his pillow, propping it against the wall; at least, if Ryuto overshot, he wouldn't smack into the wall.

"Now, spread your wings." Midoriya reached out, gently pulling at Ryuto wings so the bird knew what he was talking about. Midoriya removed his hands, and Ryuto just stood there, looking at Midoriya, his wings still outstretched, waiting for the next instruction.

"Keep your wings up, and just... glide."

Midoriya had already given him a demonstration on how to land; he had spent the afternoon jumping out of trees so Ryuto would get an idea of what to do. He knew he looked stupid, but he would do anything for Reiko and Ryuto; looking stupid was included.

"Give it a try."

Ryuto gave a small squawk, readying himself, before leaping off the backrest, wobbly gliding down onto the bed. He stretched out his talons in an attempt to land, but tripped and ended up smacking into the bed. He stood up immediately, shaking his head, before trying to make his way back up the backrest to try again.

It took a few tries for Ryuto to get it right, and Ryuto looked up at Midoriya proudly. Reiko had already given him a meow of approval, he was just waiting for Midoriya's approval.

Midoriya scratched Ryuto's head, eliciting a content purr from the hawk, "That was great. Try it a few more times and we'll practice more tomorrow, got it?"

* * *

"Alright, your midterm exams are coming soon, in about two weeks, and there's a practical and a written test, so we're just going to be doing training." Aizawa stated, as the students gathered in one of the facilities. "Just practice or something. I'll come around to check on you individually later. You can work in groups or on your own, I don't care. Just do something productive. Midoriya, don't push yourself. We don't want anyone getting any more injuries, especially at such a crucial time."

Midoriya stood at a corner of the room. He wasn't sure what to practise; unlike most of the others, he actually needed _something _or _someone_ to fight against, and even then, Midoriya wasn't sure what else to do. Ryuto was pretty good at gliding already, and he had finally grown out all of his flight feathers, so he was ready to start learning to fly. Midoriya wasn't sure _how_ to teach Ryuto how to fly; just by showing him bird videos? He knew the concept of flying, but humans couldn't fly; it wasn't like Midoriya could give him a demonstration of that.

He also wanted to wait a few days for Ryuto to get used to his new feathers.

He watched as Uraraka got into a fighting stance, with Iida and Shinsou watching, and attempted a punch. Iida scratched his head, "Sadly... I do not excel in punching. I usually kick opponents, so I do not know how to help you with your stance. What about you, Shinsou?"

"I know how to throw a punch, sure, but coaching is out of my league." Shinsou shook his head, "I'm not even sure if my _own _posture is right."

Midoriya thought about the time where Uraraka had asked him to coach her in hand to hand combat. She hadn't bugged him since then; in fact, Midoriya wasn't even sure that she had remembered asking him about it at all. He was grateful for that; he never liked people bugging him. In fact, he really, really disliked human interaction. Shinsou, Uraraka and Iida changed the way they interacted with him, making him more comfortable and at ease, and stopped others before it reached the point where it got uncomfortable. Koda and Todoroki were more quiet, and kept to themselves, but Midoriya could also see that they were trying to make an effort to interact with him.

Reiko tapped Midoriya's leg, and nudged him in their direction.

Midoriya bit his lip. He wasn't sure that it was a good idea, but he moved towards the trio of students. He owed them that much, at the very least.

Midoriya eyed Uraraka's stance, and mentally sighed. Her feet were pointing in the wrong direction, her fists were clenched wrongly, her knees weren't bent enough; Midoriya could see so many problems with her posture.

"Sup, Midoriya." Uraraka grinned, throwing a rather sloppy punch at a punching bag, in Midoriya's opinion. It was decent, and would do enough damage against an amateur, but it wasn't very powerful and would be easily stopped. The punching bag barely moved.

"Ow." Uraraka shook her hand, before getting back into a fighting stance, "I thought that would do more."

Midoriya hesitantly moved his hand to sign something, before he stopped. He took a deep breath, and clenched his fists, looking towards the ground, "Point your front foot ... a bit more to the right."

Shinsou had always been translating his signing, and Uraraka and Iida were even trying to learn sign language themselves to understand him.

_It was only fair._

Uraraka stared at him in shock, and Midoriya reached out with his foot, nudging Uraraka's foot, and she shifted her stance.

"You... spoke."

"I..." Midoriya tensed up, and forced himself to continue, "You put in so much effort... to try and understand... my signing... I just... thought... it was only fair... to make it easier... sorry -"

"You have nothing to be sorry for." Uraraka smiled at him, "Thank you for trying."

Midoriya's shoulders relaxed.

_They weren't mad at him._

_Don't get your hopes up._

Midoriya looked away again, before he softly continued, "When you punch... bend your knees. Use your body weight... it makes the punch stronger... and uses less energy. Also... angle your hand downwards... Hit with your knuckles... not your fingers. They hurt more."

He hesitantly fixed up Uraraka's posture, and she tried again. This time, the punching bag moved by a significant amount, and Uraraka's face lit up, "Yes! Thank you so much!"

Midoriya nodded slightly, and he turned to face Iida and Shinsou. Shinsou had gotten into his own fighting stance, and was adjusting his posture based on what Midoriya had told Uraraka, while Iida was just smiling at him brightly.

Koda carefully made his way over to Midoriya, and signed something, before pointing upwards, to a railing on the second floor.

Midoriya turned, and almost blanched when he saw Ryuto perched on the railing, flapping his wings experimentally. Ryuto had glided from trees before, not from the second floor. He wasn't even sure _how_ Ryuto had gotten there; he must have hopped up the stairs while Midoriya had been distracted with Uraraka and her friends.

He could only hope that Ryuto remembered to glide.

Ryuto spotted him, giving a happy screech, before jumping off, his wings tucked against his body. Midoriya's heart clenched as Ryuto dive-bombed towards the ground, accelerating, before Ryuto stretched out his wings, slowing his decent. He caught a small updraft, and rode it, rising upwards, before gliding steadily towards Midoriya.

Midoriya relaxed when he saw that Ryuto was fine, and reached out his arm for Ryuto to land on. Midoriya poked Ryuto in the chest, and shook his head.

Ryuto gave a squeak, and rubbed his head against Midoriya's nose, before flapping his wings. Midoriya inwardly sighed, before shaking his head again.

"When did he learn to fly?" Iida asked, and Ryuto perked up, screeching four times.

"Uh... days?" Iida frowned, and Ryuto moved his head, mimicking a nod.

"Four days?" Iida asked, confirming and Ryuto nodded again.

Koda signed something, and Shinsou translated, "Er... it's more of gliding rather than flying... but close enough."

Midoriya scratched Ryuto's head, and the avian purred, before hopping onto Midoriya's shoulder, nuzzling his cheek.

Uraraka smiled.

He spoke. Midoriya had actually spoken. He actually trusted them enough to use his voice.

It was a small step, but it was a step nonetheless.


	41. Chapter 41 - From the same darkness

Midoriya gave a sharp whistle, and Ryuto screeched, flapping his wings and shooting into the air.

His baby bird had finally learnt how to fly, and Midoriya was just... really, really proud of him. It felt weird, really; that warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest. Midoriya held out his arm, and Ryuto flew over to him, landing gently on his arm. He pecked gently at Midoriya's nose, before he fluttered to the ground, right where Reiko was standing. He was slightly larger than the cat, but Ryuto still lent forward, nuzzling Reiko.

Ryuto took off into the air again, before settling down on Midoriya's head. He really seemed to like perching on Midoriya's head, and Midoriya didn't really care either. Ryuto gave a small screech, before leaning downwards to nuzzle the green haired boy.

Midoriya gave a small smile, and reached up, scratching Ryuto under his beak, "Yeah, love you too, Ryu."

Reiko whined from her position on the ground, and Midoriya scooped her up, depositing her on his shoulder. Ryuto gave a delighted cry, and Reiko reached up to pat Ryuto's talons.

"You're going to fall, be careful." Midoriya grumbled, before he grabbed his bag and made his way back to the dorms. Yagi had just set the class an assignment to write an essay about him, and he had stupidly enough, _not_ given them any restrictions.

Which meant Midoriya was free to write as much as he wanted.

Yagi had been a hero for a very long time, so there was tons of information and data flying around the internet. He had also allowed the class to type the essay out on their computers and print it out, which meant that Midoriya could write a _lot_ more given the same amount of time.

Midoriya may not like to hold grudges, but he really, really didn't like Yagi. The man was too loud, too flashy, and while he knew he was probably being very passive-aggressive, he didn't care.

He was going to make Yagi's life miserable.

* * *

Yamada and Kayama were making their way to the staff room, when they heard laughter.

"Is that... _Shouta_?" Kayama's jaw dropped, before she grabbed Yamada's arm and yanked the door open.

"Help. Aizawa's lost it!" Snipe yelped, pressed himself against the wall.

Aizawa was sitting at his usual seat, head pressed against the table, laughing.

"Aizawa-san! Please! It's not funny!" Yagi whined, waving his red pen in the air.

"You... stupid... fucking... idiot..." Aizawa hissed through his laughter, "You didn't ... give him any restrictions... and you're a pro with... a super long history... and it's Midoriya... we're talking about... what else did you... fucking... expect..!?"

Kayama blinked.

"What is going on?"

Ectoplasm made his way towards Kayama and Yamada, shutting the door behind them.

"We all know that Midoriya... isn't too fond of All Might, right?"

"Yes?" Yamada asked, confused.

"And that he... I wouldn't call it a habit... but generally, the more he dislikes a person... the more he writes when it comes to essays?" Ectoplasm continued.

"Yeah. We know that." Kayama replied. Without restrictions, Midoriya usually gave her thirty paged reports, Yamada and Aizawa forty paged reports, and Ishiyama around twenty five paged reports. Ishiyama was quieter than the rest of them, so it was obvious that Midoriya would be more comfortable around him. Yamada was way too loud, especially with his quirk, and she felt that Aizawa _might_ have offended Midoriya by constantly calling him "problem child".

There were differences in how many pages Midoriya handed in depending on the subject and topic, but he usually handed in fewer pages when he was more comfortable with a teacher.

"Wait, so, didn't All Might give them this essay about himself?" Yamada asked, "How many pages did he write?"

Yagi held up a stack of paper that was about hlaf a centimeter thick. It was too thick to be stapled together, and there were several paper clips holding the entire report in place.

"Around a hundred." Yagi sighed, "Proper report format, with a contents page, and coloured tabs for easy flipping. He handed it in in a ring binder."

Kayama stared at the report, and blinked, before she let out a peel of laughter.

Midoriya really, _really_ didn't like Yagi, and he showed it by writing him a super long essay.

"Also, Nezu and Aizawa both said that they weren't going to help All Might mark it, though Midoriya sent them the soft copy; Midoriya stated that if he gave All Might a thumbdrive, he was most likely going to crush it by accident. All Might's going to have to cross reference everything and check the citations himself." Ectoplasm finished off.

"It's _kinda_ funny, but I'm also terrified of the kid." Snipe whispered, almost begging, "I don't want to see any more long essays, please."

* * *

"Midoriya's scary." Ojiro admitted.

"How so? He seems okay." Kamakiri asked, as he sat down opposite Yaoyorozu. Jiro was sitting beside her, and Hagakure, Ojiro, Kendo, Monoma, and Honenuki were also at their table. Monoma was annoying at times, always saying how 1-B was better than 1-A, but Yaoyorozu never minded as much; he was much nicer to her after her defeat at his hands during the Sports Festival, for some reason. She supposed that Monoma had already felt that they had showed that they were better than her, and there was no longer the need to be so haughty towards her.

"You know how All Might made us write that essay about him, right?" Yaoyorozu whispered.

"Yeah. We wrote it too. It wasn't that hard. Are you saying that 1-A can't even handle - mpppf!" Monoma started saying, until his mouth was covered by Kendo, "Come on, stop it."

"So... continue?" Honenuki asked, grabbing his spaghetti.

"He handed in a binder. A ring binder, and just gave it to All Might directly." Ojiro stated.

Monoma raised his eyebrows, "Okay? So?"

"He handed in fifty sheets of paper. It was like... this thick." Hagakure replied, pinching her fingers, though no one could see her.

Honenuki choked on his spaghetti, "Wait, what?"

"Yep." Jiro sighed, "All Might got Iida to collect the reports, but Midoriya just stood up, walked from his seat right at the back of the classroom to the front, and plopped the binder, right on his desk. I swear, it's almost like he purposely wanted to make All Might's life difficult. We all know how much trouble All Might had with marking reports."

"Well, All Might might not be the best teacher, but he's awesome for moral." Kendo admitted, "Having the Number One hero on our side just makes me feel that we can do anything."

* * *

Midoriya sat down, as he waited for the teachers to start the exam. They had finished the written papers, and they had held several study sessions, so Midoriya was fairly sure the rest of the class would pass. There were twenty one students in 1-A, and Midoriya wasn't too sure how the exam would be conducted.

"Alright." Nezu popped out of Aizawa's scarf. Midoriya wondered how he managed to hide in there in the first place, "There's an odd number of students in this class, and we've grouped you into groups of three. Each group will be facing two heroes, or just All Might, if you happen to fight him. In order to pass, you either have to cuff both of the heroes, or to have two students pass through the gate."

Nezu pressed a button, and the list of groups popped up.

Kirishima, Shoji and Bakugou were a group, while Ashido, Todoroki and Kaminari were in another group. Uraraka, Jiro and Hagakure were together, as were Iida, Mineta and Ojiro.

Midoriya looked down the list.

Asui, Aoyama and Sero were grouped together, as well as Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and Sato.

Which left Shinsou, Midoriya and Koda together in a group.

Midoriya bit his lip. Three students, with non-offensive quirks. As much as Midoriya hated to admit, they were at a huge disadvantage. All the other groups had a nice balance of long and close ranged fighters, and their group didn't have a single directly offensive quirk.

"We've also invited other UA alumni to help us with the fights!" Nezu finished off.

Midoriya just hoped that they wouldn't be as unlucky with the groupings as they were with the teachers they had to fight.

* * *

Kirishima, Shoji and Bakugou had to fight Yagi, which was probably for the best. Kirishima could tank Yagi's weaker punches, albeit barely, but Shoji and Bakugou's attacks were barely making a dent on the Number One hero.

"Throw me!" Kirishima yelled, activating his quirk, and Shoji nodded, picking the red-haired boy up and hurled him at Yagi. Bakugou aimed an explosion in Yagi's face, blinding him, just as Kirishima shot down like a bullet and collided with Yagi. He was lucky to hit the hero right where his injury was, and Yagi winced, as pain shot through his body. He was aware of Shoji creeping up behind him, and let the boy cuff him.

Any other hero would probably be knocked out after having Kirishima collide with them like that, and Nezu did mention that they had to give the students a chance to win somehow.

* * *

Ashido, Todoroki and Kaminari were facing Inui and Nezu. Nezu was currently knocking buildings over, and all Todoroki could do was to use his ice to freeze all the debris in place before it crushed him and his teammates, while making sure that his ice didn't reach Kaminari and Ashido, as they tried to fend Inui off. The school counselor, while not a teacher, was still a formidable opponent; Ashido could barely dance out of his reach, and while Kaminari was trying his best to shock Inui without harming Ashido, his attacks wasn't really reaching Inui through all that fur.

"Move." Todoroki ordered, and shot out his ice. Ashido and Kaminari were barely able to get out of the way before the ice froze them, but Inui had heard Todoroki and had also dodged the ice attack.

"Attacking your own teammates? Is that how a hero should act?" Inui growled, taking a step forward, dodging once against as Todoroki fired off his flames.

"Who said I was aiming for you." Todoroki blankly replied, as Kaminari raised his hands, "Eat this!"

He placed his hands against the ground, which was now drenched with water, and let his electricity loose, paralyzing Inui. Ashido was with Todoroki, and had melted the ground with her acid so that the water didn't reach them.

"Wheee!" Kaminari grinned, having shocked himself into Idiot Mode, and stuck his thumbs up as he wandered aimlessly around. Ashido had quickly cuffed the paralyzed hero, and Todoroki spoke up, "We'll make our way to the exit, and I'll stop any debris with my ice. Let's go."

Ashido grabbed Kaminari's arm, before she followed Todoroki as he headed towards the exit.

"Wait, we're not going after the principal? Then why did we cuff Hound Dog?" Ashido asked.

"Once they're cuffed, they're out. They can't interfere. If we headed right for the exit, he can still chase after us. I can easily stop the principal from raining more debris on us." Todoroki replied.

* * *

Uraraka, Jiro and Hagakure had to fight Snipe and Thirteen. Thirteen was trying to suck them in with her Blackhole, while Snipe kept shooting them, forcing Jiro and Uraraka to use their quirks in order to defend, while desperately trying to _not_ get sucked into Thirteen's Blackhole.

"Hagakure, take off your gloves and shriek." Jiro whispered, blasting away another wave of bullets, "Then take out Snipe."

Hagakure immediately complied, and yelped, whipped off her gloves. Uraraka let go of the railing, and they all got sucked towards Thirteen, who panicked, and stopped their quirk. She looked around, watching as Hagakure's gloves fluttered weightlessly to the ground, before she got kicked in the face by Uraraka.

Snipe had also stopped his assault on the three girls, only to find himself cuffed by Hagakure.

Iida, Mineta and Ojiro were up against Kan and Kayama. While Iida had a helmet that helped to protect against Kayama's quirk, Ojiro was trying to hold his breath and use his tail in a failing attempt to filter out the sleeping gas. Mineta was rushing around helplessly as he tried to dodge Kan's attempts to catch him.

"Ojiro, fall back!" Iida ordered, distracting Kayama with a kick and pulling Ojiro away from the sleeping gas, "Take on Vlad King with Mineta. I'll take on Midnight-sensei."

Iida was trying his best to avoid getting hit by Kayama's whip, but he couldn't get close; his quirk required him to get up close, but would leave him open to an attack.

Mineta screamed as he almost got hit by Kan's blood, and whirled around, desperately throwing his sticky orbs in an attempt to slow Kan down.

Ojiro intercepted Kan, taking the attention off Mineta, as the small purple haired boy dived behind a rock in an attempt to catch his breath. He looked over the boulder, seeing Iida and Ojiro fending off Kan and Kayama, and bit his lip.

_I can't be a hero like this..._

"Iida!" Mineta shrieked, popping off a handful of sticky orbs and lobbed them where Iida and Kayama were fighting. Iida quickly moved out of the way, as the sticky orbs rained down on them, but Kayama wasn't as lucky; the orbs landed on her and her whip, immobilising her.

"Alright, nice job!" Ojiro shouted, "Go for the exit! I'll hold him off!"

"Got it!" Iida replied, rushing forwards, quickly scooping Mineta up and making a run for the exit.

* * *

Asui, Aoyama and Sero were grouped together, against Ectoplasm and Maijima, in an open field. Aoyoma was trying to fire off his lasers in short, small bursts in order to prolong his chances of getting a stomach ache, destroying the Ectoplasm clones one by one. Maijima was tunneling through the ground, and Asui and Sero did not know where he might pop up. There were very few trees, and Maijima had already knocked them all down to prevent them from using their quirks to cross.

"Kero, I have an idea, but we need to make it fast." Asui leapt up from the ground, wrapping her tongue around Aoyama as Maijima erupted from the ground. She landed near Sero.

"I'll throw you two towards the exit. Aoyama, use all your power and blast the clones, and Power Loader, when he comes up; it doesn't matter if you get a stomach ache, kero. Sero, grab the gate after I throw you and pull yourselves past. I'll try to buy you time."

"Alright. Gotcha." Sero shot her a thumbs up, and Aoyoma gave them determined nod.

"Power Loader's going to come up… in around five seconds. Aoyama, get ready, kero."

Aoyama powered up his quirk, and Asui wrapped her tongue around her male teammates, before leaping up in the air, just as Maijima struck. Aoyama fired off his laser, right in Maijima's face, destroying a good half of the clones in the process, and Asui threw Sero and Aoyama towards the gate.

Ectoplasm was about to respond, but she lashed out with her tongue again, destroying a few more clones.

"Gotcha!" Sero grinned, grabbing Aoyama with his tape, before shooting more tape out of his other arm, attaching it to the gate, "It's going to be a little bumpy, hold on."

Sero reeled his tape him, and both him and Aoyama shot towards the gate, flying right through and tumbling to the ground.

* * *

Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and Sato found themselves against Ishiyama and Snipe. Apparently, Snipe was fighting again, due to the lack of available teachers for the exam. Sato was smashing through Ishiyama's cement walls, while Yaoyorozu had created a shield to block against Snipe's bullets. Dark Shadow was trying to get closer to Snipe, but Ishiyama kept creating more walls to block Dark Shadow.

"Tokoyami, cover yourself with Dark Shadow. I'm going to make a smoke bomb. Sato, keep on making noise, we'll make a break for the exit." Yaoyorozu whispered, as the device appeared in her hand. She lobbed it at the heroes, before making a gas mask for herself. She put it on, just as the device exploded.

Tokoyami covered himself with his quirk, protecting his vision and his sense of smell, and Yaoyorozu placed her finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet, as they crept towards the exit. Tokoyami sensed something behind him, and he lashed out, nailing Snipe in the chest with a punch, with Dark Shadow's help.

Sato leapt at Snipe, distracting him, allowing Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami to make their way towards the exit.

* * *

Shinsou, Midoriya and Koda found themselves against Yamada and Aizawa, and they were fighting in an open field. Ryuto and Reiko were with Nezu, probably watching the fight somewhere outside the area from the safety of the security cameras.

Aizawa practically fought quirkless, so it wasn't a big problem. Yamada was the problem; his yelling could easily burst all their ear drums, and he could attack from anywhere. Aizawa would also be affected, but Midoriya figured that they had been working together for so long that they would have found a way around it.

Midoriya also knew that Nezu had probably put him with two students he was more familiar and comfortable with on purpose.

"Okay, we're fighting Mic-sensei and Aizawa-sensei. Any ideas?" Shinsou asked.

Yamada and Aizawa were Shinsou's parents, so he should know the best, though Midoriya figured that even Shinsou didn't really think that he would end up fighting them.

_"Present Mic is entomophobic,"_ Midoriya signed, "_Ï'm not sure if Koda's quirk extends to them, but if it does, then we can incapacitate Present Mic first. Aizawa-sensei will most likely come after us. I can handle him, but if he erases Koda's quirk, assuming it does work on insects, then you might have to deal with Present Mic again."_

Koda blanched almost immediately, and shook his head, _"No. Please. I really, really don't like bugs."_

"Well, it's either bugs or -" Shinsou immediately slammed his hands over his ears as Yamada let out a loud screech that reverberated through the entire area. Midoriya and Koda did the same, and they waited until Yamada stopped screaming.

"- going deaf. Ow." Shinsou finished, rubbing the ringing noise out of his ears. "Come on, Koda, please?"

_"Mic-sensei is most likely going to be stationed by the exit, and Aizawa-sensei would probably be trying to hunt us down. We need to move fast."_ Midoriya hastily signed, before slamming his hands over his ears again and Yamada let out another shriek.

"WHERE ARE YOU!? AREN'T YOU GOING TO COME AFTER US?!"

The boulder they were hiding behind cracked, before crumbling, leaving them completely exposed to the loud, harsh soundwaves that Yamada was letting off.

Koda shook, waiting for Yamada to stop, before he hastily dove towards the ground, where there were a few centipedes and ants, "Please, can you find that guy standing near the exit and crawl up his leg? And also find your friends to help?"

The critters agreed almost immediately, diving back underground almost immediately.

Koda shakily shot them a thumbs up, and Shinsou sighed, "Alright, let's go."

The trio started making their way towards the exit, before Shinsou yelped as Midoriya pushed him out of the way. A capture weapon sped towards them, but Midoriya caught the weapon before it reached anyone.

Aizawa leapt out of the trees, his goggles placed firmly on his face, and reeled his capture weapon back in. Midoriya growled at him, before he looked towards Koda and Shinsou, just as they heard a girlish screech somewhere in the distance.

They got the message almost immediately; go towards the exit, and don't let Aizawa erase Koda's quirk.

"Got it! Koda, let's go!" Shinsou yelled, grabbing Koda's arm and leading him towards the exit.

Aizawa turned to chase after them, but Midoriya literally pounced on him, tackling the hero to the ground. They were both sent tumbling, and Midoriya quickly got to his feet. Aizawa pushed himself up, hastily dodging as Midoriya attacked, and whipped out his capture weapon.

Midoriya caught the weapon, and Aizawa pulled him in, but Midoriya just used that opportunity to use Aizawa's strength against him and aimed a punch at the man's stomach. Aizawa quickly blocked it, but at that point, Shinsou and Koda were long gone.

He didn't have too long to think about it, though. Midoriya was still attacking, and Aizawa wasn't too keen on getting hit by the boy if he had the power to keep up with Stain.

* * *

"Alright, I have news. Everyone passed both the written and the practical, so you're all going for the training camp." Aizawa wearily stated, and gave 1-A five seconds to cheer and celebrate before he silenced them with his quirk, "I'm going to give you a packing list for the camp, and you have one last piece of homework to hand in before the camp."

"Aww. Another report?" Ashido sighed, and Aizawa nodded, "Yep. Write a report about the hero that I'm going to assign to you. Pros and cons, improvements, the usual. _No restrictions._"

Midoriya sat in his seat as Aizawa rattled off hero names. Uraraka had gotten Ryukyu, Iida had gotten Kamui Woods, Shinsou had gotten Gang Orca, among others, and Midoriya waited patiently for Aizawa to assign a hero to him.

_Endeavor._

Midoriya blinked.

_That guy?_

Midoriya looked up at Aizawa, confused, but Aizawa just gave a shit-eating grin, "Remember, no restrictions. Go for it."

Excitement bubbled in his stomach.

Midoriya was going to have _so much fun writing about Endeavor_.


	42. Chapter 42 - But everyone knows by now

"Nezu, are you sure that's a good idea?" Snipe asked, as Nezu watched Kan and Aizawa walk towards their classes, "You are aware that Midoriya probably hates Endeavor's guts, right?"

"Yep." Nezu smiled.

"You already saw what he gave All Might." Snipe replied.

"Well, it's not that bad." Nezu laughed, "Aizawa and I already marked it. It's just an essay. It's no big deal."

"No big deal. He's marked everyone else's essays just so that he doesn't have to mark Midoriya's, and you already know that he procrastinates when it comes to marking essays." Snipe grumbled, "You just want them to suffer."

"Maybe so." Nezu grinned, "Aizawa's definitely having fun, though."

"That's cause Aizawa hates All Might too." Snipe mumbled, "Ectoplasm is so lucky he teaches math; he doesn't have to mark any written reports."

"Hey, you try and mark these students messy handwriting and incomprehensible mathematical equations." Ectoplasm retorted.

* * *

Uraraka watched as Midoriya dumped a stack of notebooks on the table."Midoriya… what's that?"

"Notes." Midoriya merely replied, slipping into his seat. He arranged his notebooks neatly in a pile, before taking out his laptop and turning it on.

Aizawa had given them the homeroom period to work on their essays, since he wasn't planning on covering anything. Most of her classmates were also on their laptops, typing away, though Ashido and Kaminari seemed to be playing games instead of working. Reiko was sitting on their table, watching whatever was on their computer screens, and Ryuto was perched on Tokoyami's desk, hanging out with Dark Shadow.

Most of the class heard Midoriya's response, but chose to pretend that they didn't hear that Midoriya had said anything. There was finally some progress, and they didn't want to destroy all that by giving Midoriya more attention than he was comfortable with. But internally, they were all screaming that Midoriya was talking, even if it was only to Shinsou, Uraraka, Koda, Todoroki, and Iida. It made sense; they were the ones that had reached out to Midoriya first.

Uraraka's laptop was really old; it was her father's old laptop, and she had the device since she was ten. She took a good look at Midoriya's laptop; his laptop seemed to be made out of mismatched computer parts, and really broken and beaten up. It looked like he had salvaged it from a dump and had taken to repairing it with whatever materials he could get his hands on.

"Wow… Your laptop looks… really… broken." Iida commented, for lack of a better term, "Are you going to get a new one?"

"Don't need one. This works." Midoriya replied, as Todoroki tried to peer over his shoulder to look at his essay before Uraraka pulled him back, "Don't be nosy."

Todoroki let out a constipated looking pout, and Uraraka just laughed at the expression the ice and fire user had on his face.

"Shut up, Round Face! You're so fucking noisy!" Bakugou roared, and Kirishima laughed, pointing to something on his screen and tugging at Bakugou's arm, "You too, Shitty Hair! Leave me the fuck alone!"

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me." Aizawa spoke up, and everyone turned up to face the tired teacher, "If you write more than five hundred pages, just give me a thumb drive and the printed cover page with the page count. We don't want to waste paper."

Everyone gulped. After that essay that Midoriya had given to Yagi, it was obvious that the statement was directed at the green haired boy.

They could only wonder how much Midoriya would write about Enji. After all, Midoriya was Void, and Enji had set him on fire that one time when he was dealing with Stain. It was obvious that Midoriya hated that pro hero.

But five hundred pages? Wasn't that a bit much?

"Uh oh." Shinsou laughed, "I see that "I'll do you one better" expression in your eyes."

Midoriya cracked his knuckles.

Five hundred?

Easy.

He was almost at the sixth hundred page anyways. He was certain that Aizawa and Nezu weren't going to read it, or maybe they'd just read it for the kicks.

* * *

"Alright! We're here!" Ashido smiled, grinning as 1-A gathered in the shopping mall.

Midoriya was missing quite a bit off stuff on the shopping list, but they were mostly unimportant stuff like insect repellent and sunblock and Midoriya did not want to get out of the safety of the dorms and interact with strangers for them. He would rather get bitten by a few bugs.

But Reiko was insistent, and Midoriya was stuck in the middle of a huge shopping mall with his noisy, hyper classmates.

"We should split up into a few groups. We all need different things. We'll meet up back here in about... four hours. Okay?" Yaoyorozu asked, and received a chorus of replies from the students.

"Come on." Shinsou beckoned Midoriya, as he, Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida, and Koda went off to buy whatever they needed.

Midoriya just aimless followed behind the group as they entered shop after shop. Ryuto was in his hood, and Reiko was hidden in the secret compartment in his hoodie.

"Aren't you going to get anything?" Uraraka asked, and Midoriya shook his head.

Reiko peeked out of Midoriya's hoodie, and looked behind a corner. She gave a small meow, before ducking back inside.

Midoriya turned around to face where she was looking, catching sight of light blue hair peeking out from under a black hood.

"Well... if you see anything that you like or need, feel free to tell us and we'll just make a stop. Trust us, it won't be too much of a trouble." Iida smiled, before going back to the shopping directory of the mall that they had gone too. Midoriya just stood behind them awkwardly. Something just felt wrong, but his classmates seemed to be having fun shopping, and although Midoriya did not understand what was so fun about looking at goods through windows when they didn't actually need anything, he didn't have the heart to bother them.

Shinsou and Koda shifted themselves so that they, along with Todoroki, Uraraka and Iida, were shielding Midoriya from the rest of the crowd; it was obvious that the sheer number of people around them were making Midoriya jumpy. Midoriya never voiced his thoughts and feelings, but Koda had realized that it was much easier to read Midoriya by his body language instead of his expressions.

Todoroki needed to get some new shoes to deal, since his were wearing out; his constant usage of ice, and now, fire, were wearing them out much faster than they had expected. Luckily, it didn't take them too long to find shoes that were both ice and heat resistant; they just happened to be next to a shop that sold shoes like that, and they moved on to the next shop.

Midoriya just trailed along aimlessly; he had no intention of buying anything, and he was only here because Reiko wanted him to be here.

His classmates were finally done with their shopping, and Midoriya heaved an internal sigh of relief as they gathered at the meeting point. Just a few more minutes… and he could go back to the safety of his room.

But there was something that he had to attend to first…

He hadn't missed the blood red eyes that had been glued on him from around the corner, the entire time he had been at the mall.

* * *

Midoriya waited for Yaoyorozu to dismiss them, before he quickly disappeared into the crowd, and made his way to the bathrooms.

"Ah. Midoriya Izuku. I'm not surprised to see that you've noticed me."

Midoriya eyed the blue haired villain warily. Shigaraki was wearing a black hoodie, and did not have that hand on his face; obviously, he wasn't here to kick up a ruckus, but if Midoriya didn't play his cards right, they would have a huge problem on their hands.

"You know... I hate you. You should have died in that attack.. and yet... were we are, chatting like this event was programmed into the game files. I was surprised when I heard the news that you were injured and hospitalized, instead of being dead, but I guess the code wouldn't allow for it just yet."

Shigaraki leaned down, so that he was looking at Midoriya right in the face, "So, I'm sure you're wondering why I decided to... spawn here... to talk to you. After all, I'm not some NPC who's stationed here for eternity, just waiting to pass you the same bit of information over and over again no matter how many times you ask."

Midoriya just remained silent.

"Well, you were never one for talking." Shigaraki shrugged, "I'm just going to warn you, Void, a storm's coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

Midoriya pondered the villain's words, and Shigaraki turned around to make his leave, "Well, that's all I have to say. Adios, Void."

Midoriya couldn't do anything as he watched Shigaraki disappear into the crowd.

He needed to report this to Nezu.

* * *

"So, Shigaraki sought you out." Nezu frowned, as Midoriya nodded in agreement.

"He said a storm was coming... and that I couldn't stop it... I'm still not sure what he means... sorry... I just let him get away..." Midoriya apologised. Ryuto was settled on Midoriya's shoulder, and Reiko was nestled in the green haired boy's lap, both of them desperately trying to comfort the boy.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. You took the route that resulted in the least casualities, and that's what's most important. As long as you're not hurt, it's fine." Nezu pat Midoriya's arm, before he bit his lip, deep in thought.

"You know there's that training camp for the hero course, right? The one where we were considering letting you sit out so that you could continue resting and recovering?" Nezu spoke up, and Midoriya nodded again. Nezu had mentioned it a few times before.

"I think... it's best that you go. Shigaraki knows that you're still alive and you're in UA, and I fear that he might be targeting you specifically." Nezu continued, "Only the teachers and pro heroes involved in the camp know where it's located. Plus, you'll be under the protection of other strong pro heroes, Aizawa, Vlad King, and your classmates. I think it will be the safest for you."

Midoriya rubbed his hands together. He had always felt the safest in UA, for some reason; just something about being with Nezu just made him feel safe.

But he also knew that UA wasn't impenetrable. The League had infiltrated UA twice already, even though their first attempt was a complete flunk.

Should he go on the camp?

If Nezu felt that it was safer for him to go on the camp, then Midoriya would go. He knew that the rat mouse dog bear thing would never do anything to hurt him.

"Alright. If you... think it's the best."

Nezu smiled up at the green haired boy and pat his arm, "Take care of yourself, okay?"

* * *

Aizawa tapping his fingers on his desk in the staffroom as he waited for his lesson to start. His class was supposed to hand in those reports before the camp, and his colleagues were making bets on how long an essay Midoriya would write. It wasn't too surprising; his colleagues did that really often.

All the bets placed were more than a hundred pages long. The reason was obvious; Midoriya didn't like Yagi, and had wrote a hundred-page essay, so he would probably write much, much more about Endeavor, a hero Midoriya absolutely despised.

Snipe had placed a bet of two hundred pages, and he was really, really happy that he no longer had to mark super long and detailed essays. Ectoplasm had bet two hundred and fifty, and Thirteen, despite everyone telling her that her bet was too low, and placed a bet of a hundred and fifty pages."Come on, he only has a week to write it, and 1-A went on that shopping trip over the weekend. How much can he actually write in that amount of time?" Thirteen reasoned.

"I'm not taking part in this." Inui backed out, and Kayama just laughed at him, "Spoil-sport. Three hundred."

"Er... three hundred and fifty." Yamada offered, "All Might does have a longer hero career than Endeavor."

"Apparently, in the week he was given to write All Might's essay, he also spent one afternoon jumping out of trees trying to teach Ryuto how to fly." Aizawa dryly replied, "And he did the same thing a week before to teach him how to glide. Nezu nearly got a heart attack from watching the cameras. Now that he doesn't have to teach Ryuto to fly, and with the lack of other homework, I bet he's going to write a lot more, and he also includes diagrams, and an appendix. Four hundred fifty, minimum."

Yagi was still on page fifteen of Midoriya's essay, chewing his red pen nervously as he read the paragraph for the twentieth time that hour.

Nezu laughed, "I'll be disappointed if he wrote anything less than a thousand pages."

* * *

Ectoplasm wasn't too surprised to see that Snipe was hiding in the broom closet in the staff room; the man was practically traumatized by super long essays written by a certain green haired boy, and Aizawa's class had just submitted theirs before lunch.

What he was surprised to see was Kayama and Yamada rolling on the ground, laughing their heads off, as Ishiyama stared at the laptop on Aizawa's desk with an incredulous expression on his face. The owner of the laptop was currently lying on the couch in the staffroom, also laughing.

Nezu was sitting on Ishiyama's shoulder, sipping a cup of tea.

"Okay, what now?" Ectoplasm asked.

"Essay." Snipe peeked out the closet, giving him the one-word reply, before slamming the closet door shut.

"That much was obvious." Ectoplasm mumbled under his breath, before walking over to Ishiyama, "Wasn't he assigned Endeavor? What's so funny about that?"

Ishiyama was close to laughing himself, and pointed at the laptop, "Just… read the contents page."

Ectoplasm leaned down to peer at the screen, and stared.

Midoriya had listed down several sections, including the pros and the cons of the pro hero. The section on pros was only two pages long, and the section on cons was over two hundred pages, and was divided into twenty plus other subsections which included the hero's personality, quirk, civilian casualties, and other categories that Ectoplasm was having trouble registering at this point in time.

Ectoplasm's eyes trailed to the number of pages of the document, and his eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets.

"Three thousand, nine hundred, and seventy three pages?"

Ishiyama nodded, smiling, "That's not even counting the appendix, which is around another thousand pages. Midoriya's not expressive by any normal means, but ... I'm just happy he is able to express himself somehow. Even if it's by being really passive-aggressive when it comes to homework."

Ishiyam grabbed the mouse, and scrolled down a few hundred pages to the section labeled as Enji's pros.

Which literally just contained a few paragraphs about how nice Todoroki was and the only good thing about Enji was that his kids were around.

And a few more paragraphs about Todoroki, Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Rei, with no mention of the hero himself.

Ectoplasm couldn't help himself, and scrolled down to the next section.

"While every hero has their pros and cons, most heroes have a balance of them, and with the help of other heroes, can help to negate the cons. However, in Endeavor's case, many heroes are required in order to negate just a few of this man's cons."

Ectoplasm chuckled; Midoriya certainly was correct about that.

"Heroes are supposed to ensure that collateral damage remains at a minimum, and civilian casualties should be avoided as much as possible. But clearly, a certain fire hero was not given the memo, though it was probably left somewhere, forgotten in his wake of fruitlessly attempting to become the number one hero.

In the past month alone, from the writing of this report, there have been eighteen cases of minor civilian casualties and thirty-seven cases where unfortunate victims that were caught in the crossfire had to be hospitalized.

Perhaps he would have better luck if he tried to avoid all this. At least All Might does not damage a building every time he takes down a villain."

Ectoplasm could barely contain his own laughter as he scrolled downwards. Midoriya's essay was hilarious, accurate, on point, and he was continuously throwing shade at Enji. How could that not be enjoyable?

"Endeavor's ego is inflated to the point where he cannot see what is in front of him, very literally. Apparently, he thinks that it is a good idea to not let his youngest son interact with the rest of his siblings for "training", which, in his dictionary, means "constantly attacking and hoping that his son will learn to use his quirk from being attacked." It is no wonder that Todoroki Shouto would have such a huge aversion to using the fire side of his quirk; who would want to use a fire quirk if they were constantly being set on fire and burnt?"

"Snipe, you should seriously read it. It's not as bad as you think." Ectoplasm stood up, and he spotted Snipe peeking out from the broom closet, "Seriously. It's hilarious, and I'm sure that as long as you don't need to check the references, it would be alright."

Out of the corner of his eye, Ectoplasm saw Nezu placing an order for fireproof paper. He wondered what that was about. Maybe he was giving something to Todoroki and he didn't want the boy to burn it by accident.

* * *

Midoriya looked around nervously. Aizawa had given him permission to bring Reiko and Ryuto, so there was that, but something about the trip just made him uncomfortable.

I'm probably overthinking it.

"Is that all you have?" Uraraka asked.

Midoriya looked down at his bag. He had a backpack, with a few days' worth of clothes inside, as well as his toothbrush, toothpaste and towels. He also had a few knives stashed everywhere, including in a few secret compartments in his shoes.

The perks of salvaging everything he owned from the dump; it was eco-friendly, and he could make as many modifications as he wanted.

"Hey, Midoriya." Shinsou greeted, walking over to stand next to the boy, "Sit with me on the bus?"

Midoriya nodded, trying to ignore the violent churning in his stomach. He was honestly glad that the purple haired boy had brought it up; he was more comfortable around Iida, Uraraka, Koda, Shinsou, and Todoroki, and he honestly didn't want to bother them and ask to sit with them. He did not want to end up with Ashido or Kaminari or Kirishima; as sweet as they were with trying to befriend him, they talked too much, too loudly, and constantly invaded his personal space.

Iida was talking to Yaoyorozu about the camp, chopping his arms left and right as he tried to order his classmates around. Apparently, they were going to board the bus soon, and Iida wanted everyone to get into pairs so that they could board the bus in an orderly fashion.

Same old Iida.

Shinsou heaved a sigh of relief, "Awesome."

Just thinking about asking to sit next to the green haired boy made Shinsou nervous, and he wasn't sure if Midoriya would agree or not. He was glad that Midoriya had accepted his offer.

"Can I take the aisle seat? Or do you have a preference?" Shinsou asked.

Midoriya shrugged, mumbling, "It's okay. I don't mind."

"Alright. I guess we should be getting on now." Shinsou turned, finding Ojiro and Hagakure boarding the bus with the rest of the students trailing behind them. Midoriya was trying to stop Shoji from putting his bag in the storage compartment of the bus, and Uraraka gave Shinsou a thumbs up while Midoriya was distracted.

* * *

"Midoriya." Aizawa stated, and Midoriya warily walked over to Aizawa. The bus had stopped by the side of the road, and there wasn't a toilet or anything around them, just a cliff and a forest below them, so there was absolutely no reason for Aizawa to call a stop here.

It had to be another one of his logical ruses.

"The Pussycats are here, and Pixie Bob will be using her quirk to send everyone down into the forest to fight her earth beasts."

Midoriya blanched, and immediately turned to face the pro hero in question.

"I'm just telling you beforehand so you can decide whether or not you want to join your classmates in this exercise. This camp is supposed to be for them to train their quirks, and you don't have a quirk that we can train. You can choose whether to sit out."

Midoriya clenched his fists, and his eyes trailed over the cliff. If Tsuchikawa made them fall…

He didn't want his classmates to get hurt.

As much as he hated to admit it, he kind of liked his classmates. No one telling him to kill himself, no one pushing him down the stairs or smashing him into walls. But they were probably just waiting for him to lower his guard before they broke his heart again.

He couldn't afford to let that happen. His heart wouldn't be able to take the damage.

But how he felt towards his classmates didn't change the fact that it wasn't fair that he could choose to sit out while the others didn't have a choice.

Midoriya looked up at Aizawa, and signed, "I'll join the exercise, but Reiko and Ryuto aren't going to."

"Alright then. Don't tell the others though, and please, don't stop Pixie Bob. She won't hurt the others on purpose." Aizawa replied.

Midoriya carefully handed Reiko over to Aizawa, before nudging the hawk that was on his shoulder and tilting his head towards Aizawa. Ryuto gave an annoyed squawk, and shook his head, but Midoriya just nudged him again.

Ryuto reluctantly flapped his wings, hopping over to perch on Aizawa's shoulder, and Midoriya shot Aizawa one final glare, before walking over to join Shinsou and Koda as they admired the scenery.

That glare was a warning. If either Reiko or Ryuto got hurt on his watch, Aizawa was going to have hell to pay.

"So... the Wild Wild Pussycats, huh?" Shinsou grinned, "Know anything about them?"

"Four-person agency hero team. Veteran team that specialises in mountain rescues!" Midoriya signed back. All his classmates were crammed in a relatively small space; he didn't want to talk.

"Huh, that's the kid, right?" Sosaki asked, moving over to stand next to Aizawa, "Nezu's little cub."

"Yep." Aizawa replied, as Ryuto looked at Sosaki curiously, wings slightly outstretched. Reiko gave a small meow, and Ryuto looked down at the cat. Sosaki cautiously stuck out her hand, and Reiko sniffed at her hand, before looking up at the hawk, meowing.

"They're more friendly than the pup is, that's for sure." Sosaski laughed, scratching Reiko gently behind her ears.

"Midoriya knows about the agreement."

Sosaki frowned, "You told him?"

"Figured it was for the best." Aizawa shrugged, "Plus, if Midoriya figured it out on his own, he would probably try to attack her, and I'm sure he had a few knives hidden… somewhere. Plus, he wouldn't trust Pixie Bob for the rest of the camp."

"Oh… yeah… trust issues. Got it." Sosaki nodded, "I'll tell her to start?"

Aizawa nodded, and Sosaki sent a telepathic message to Tsuchikawa, before replying, "All set. Now just one... two..."

"It's nine thirty in the morning. If you're fast, maybe around noon?" Tsuchikawa's claws glinted as she licked her lips.

Kirishima yelped, "Not good! Let's get back!"

"Back to the bus!" Ashido screamed, and all the students made a mad dash to the bus, save for Midoriya. The boy was just stood there, waiting for Tsuchikawa to make her move.

"Kittens who don't make it back by twelve thirty don't get lunch!" The pro hero grinned. She smashed her fist into the ground, setting off an avalanche of rocks and dirt that swept everyone off their feet and into the forest below.

"This is private land, so feel free to use your quirks as you see fit!" Tsuchikawa grinned, yelling down the cliff, watching as Midoriya balanced himself on one of the larger rock slabs, easily riding the wave of dirt and stones to the bottom of the cliff.

"The pup's scrawny as hell, but he's got skill." Tsuchikawa whistled.

Kota just watched the green haired boy as he skidded down the cliff.

Why did he seem so familiar?

* * *

"Help! What are these!?" Kaminari screeched as he ran from one of the beasts. Midoriya whipped out one of the knives out of back pocket, and leapt onto the earthen monster, viciously stabbing his knife into the monsters neck. With a quick twist, the rock that made up the beast's neck cracked, and the monster's entire head fell off.

Midoriya jumped off the beast, landing on the ground, just as the monster he had decapitated crumbled and disintegrated into nothingness.

"Whew. Thanks." Kaminari sighed, leaning against a tree, panting, before another earth monster burst out of the trees, flapping its wings before taking to the sky.

"Holy shit! What the hell!" Ashido screamed, spraying one monster directly in the face with her most potent acid.

"Does anyone have a plan?" Jiro asked, stabbing her earphone jacks into a monster, distracting it, before Iida rushed in and kicked the beast to pieces.

Midoriya pointed to Jiro and Shoji, pointing to his ear before pointing into the forest. Iida immediately got the message, "Jiro, Shoji, take the front! You guys have the best hearing, try to head in that direction!"

Jiro plugged her earlobes into the ground as Shoji transformed his limbs to into ears.

"Camp's that way." Jiro pointed, "I hear someone called... Tiger, or something?"

Midoriya nodded.

"Alright! Gather in a group, stay together, don't get separated from each other!" Yaoyorozu yelled, whipping out a metal pole and bashing a beast into the ground. "I don't think these are real animals! Koda, stay away from them!"

Midoriya immediately hacked away at the beast that Koda was trying to talk to, slicing it's arms and legs off. Todoroki finished the job with a well aimed blast of fire.

"Aim for the joints!" Shinsou shouted, as he bashed another beast to dust with a pole that Yaoyorozu had given him.

Kirishima and Sato were easily smashing through the earth beasts, and Jiro was sitting on Shoji's shoulders, guiding the group through the forest.

"On your left, Midoriya!" Kaminari yelled, ducking under a monster that Ashido melted with her acid. Midoriya promptly whirled around, kicking another beast's clean off, before nodding at Kaminari.

Kaminari squealed, and Sero pulled the electric boy out of the way as a flying beast swooped down on him.

Midoriya snapped his fingers, getting Sero's attention, before pointing at the beast's wings. The tape boy grinned, "Gotcha!"

He shot his tape out, tangling the beast's wings with the tape, and yanked the monster towards the ground, where it collided with another monster and they both crumbled to dust.

"Fuck you!" Bakugou roared, blasting one monster to bits, before he turned around to blast another, "And fuck you too!"

Dark Shadow was cackling as he tore the monsters apart.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Kendo waved.

Kan and Aizawa talking about something, with the four Pussycats by their side, and 1-B standing next to them, patiently waiting for instructions.

Monoma looked down at 1-A's disheveled uniforms. Bakugou and Todoroki's uniforms were singed and torn, and everyone's uniforms were pretty much covered in holes and scratches. All save for Midoriya, whose uniform looked completely untouched, pristine and clean.

Ryuto gave a squeak, hopping off Aizawa's shoulder and flying over to Midoriya. The bird settled down in Midoriya's messy bush of hair, before starting to preen, and Midoriya reached up to scratch the hawk's head. Reiko had leapt out of Aizawa's arms, and was currently pawing at Midoriya's pants. Midoriya scooped her up, and deposited her on his shoulder.

"Well, looks like everyone made it one piece." Sosaki grinned, "Go grab your stuff and see the rooms. The bus already dropped off all your bags. The boys and girls rooms are labelled. We'll have dinner in two hours, and you guys can also use the hot springs later, so get moving."

"Who's that?" Kirishima asked, pointing at the black haired boy that stood with the Pussycats.

"Ah, that's my nephew, Kota. He's currently staying with us." Sosaki replied, watching curiously as Kota kept his eyes glued on Midoriya.

"Hi!" Kirishima waved, but Kota just huffed and looked away from them.

"I like him." Bakugou grinned, only for Todoroki to reply, "Well... he does act a lot like you."

"What you say, Icy Hot?"

"The truth."

Kendo sweatdropped as Bakugou and Todoroki started bickering again, and pulled Monoma away before he could start commenting on 1-A's lack of teamwork.

Midoriya moved to pick up his bag, before he turned to look at Kota, who was looking at him again.

There was something familiar about him, Midoriya had noticed that when he first saw the boy on top of the cliff, but he still couldn't put his finger on it.

* * *

"Aw man, this tastes awesome!" Kaminari wolfed down his food.

"This is the only time we will make food for you. Any other times, you will have to make your own food, so enjoy it while it lasts." Tsuchikawa grinned, watching the students shovel food into their mouths.

Except for one.

Midoriya Izuku.

The boy was just watching his classmates eat, having pushed his plate away in favour for a glass of water. As far as Sosaki was concerned, Midoriya had just taken a small helping of rice. Wasn't he hungry?

"Hey, Kota, wanna eat with us?" Kirishima offered, but the small boy just snapped back at him, "Shut up! I don't want to be friends with hero wannabes like you!"

Kota got up, before walking over to the cliff, settling down by the edge.

Sosaki sighed.

Reiko nudged Midoriya's arm gently, before turning back to the carrot that she was nibbling on. Ryuto was eating some of the meat that the Pussycats had served to the students, curiously listening as the students chattered.

Midoriya continued to look at Kota.

It finally clicked.

He recognised that look in his eyes; he saw it every time he looked at himself in the mirror.

Those were the eyes of someone who had lost everything that they had cared about.

He turned back to his water, taking a large gulp of it, before putting the cup down.

"You seriously not going to eat anything?" Monoma asked, and Midoriya shook his head, his stomach churning uncomfortably from the sheer sight of so much food on the table.

* * *

Midoriya stood inside the locker room, watching as his classmates changed their clothes. He had seen his classmates changing before, since he always changed relatively quickly inside a cubicle and leaving while his classmates were talking, and he had no intention of actually soaking in the hot springs. He would just keep an eye on Mineta, take a quick shower, and maybe do some personal training before going to sleep.

What was a hot spring, anyways?

Uraraka had insisted that Reiko go to the female's side of the hot springs, since she was a female, and Midoriya reluctantly let his cat follow Uraraka, since Reiko seemed pretty excited about the thought of a hot spring.

His classmates finished wrapping their towels around their waists, and made their way out. Midoriya followed behind them, keeping his eyes glued on Mineta.

He watched as his classmates slipped into the water, and Ryuto glided down from his perch on Midoriya's shoulder, sticking a talon into the shallow part of the water experimentally. He gave a content purr, before hopping into the water, creating a small splash.

"Food and stuff isn't that important. That's not what I want." Everyone turned to look at Mineta, who was starting at the wall that separated the female and the male baths. Midoriya turned to look at the orb-haired boy, reaching into his pocket to fish out a knife.

Kaminari splashed some water at Ojiro.

"What I want is far beyond that wall!"

"What are you talking about?" Kamakiri asked, turning his attention from his friends to face the orb-haired boy.

"You see, for them to not stagger bathing times for men and women is an accident. Yes, an accident waiting to happen." Mineta continued, and Shinsou sighed, sinking into the water, watching as Midoriya glared at the shorter boy.

Mineta had just dug his own grave.

"Mineta, no!" Iida yelled, standing up, and Monoma poked Shinsou, "You seem to be way too calm about this."

"Eh. Midoriya would deal with it. He's less tolerant of Mineta's antics than all of us combined." Shinsou shrugged, sitting up to watch the drama.

"What you are doing is demeaning for both you and the girls!" Iida shouted, starting to march out of the hot springs, "It is shameful behaviour!"

"You're too fussy." Mineta calmly replied, reaching up to pop an orb off his head, before leaping upwards, scaling the wall, "Walls are meant to be - AAACKK!"

Mineta was cut off as a knife was lodged into the wall, mere millimeters from his face. Mineta promptly lost his balance, and crashed into the cold, hard ground.

Monoma blinked. He had been watching Midoriya, but the boy had just acted before his mind had even registered it.

"Oww... what was that for?" Mineta groaned, sitting up to see who had thrown the knife, "Who even brings a knife to -"

He shrieked again, as a knife flew past his face, tumbling to the ground. He looked up, seeing Midoriya leaning against the door, casually twirling yet another knife between his fingers.

"You can't just -" Mineta tried to protest, but Midoriya just looked up, glaring at Mineta right in the eye.

He raised the knife, and Mineta shrieked once more, bringing his arms to protect himself as he heard the knife flying through the air for the third time.

Mineta blinked, as he felt nothing, and looked around, only to jump in shock as a knife fell downwards, almost stabbing his foot. Monoma's jaw dropped. Midoriya had just easily dislodged the knife from the wall with another well aimed throw, and that was no small feat at all.

Midoriya walked towards Mineta, and bared his teeth, growling. Mineta yelped in fear, immediately diving into the hot springs. The green haired boy proceeded to collect his thrown knives, before returning to his position by the door.

"That was so manly." Kirishima grinned, and Tetsutetsu replied, "I know, right?"

"Mineta really is the worst, isn't he?" Ashido was heard over the wall, "I thought he would have learnt his lesson after that first time Midoriya scared him."

"Thanks, Midoriya!" Hagakure yelled, and Midoriya just gave a small grunt.

Kota peeked over from his position on the wall, eyeing the boy's side of the hot springs warily, before turning to look at Midoriya.

Midoriya looked up at the black haired boy, and Kota growled, before ducking back down, out of sight.


	43. Chapter 43 - And the monsters

"Pity you missed out on the hot springs, Midoriya." Kaminari laughed, as he tried to dry his hair with his towel, "It was really nice and warm. You would have liked it."

Midoriya was also trying to rub the water out of his hair. He had taken a cold shower, and he could feel the chill seeping into his bones, washing the tiredness away.

_Something was definitely wrong. He had to keep his guard up. He couldn't afford to be distracted._

He remained quiet, listening to the aimless chatter of his classmates as they arranged their futons. Midoriya waited as his classmates argued over who took which spot, until there was only one futon left available.

It happened to be right next to the window, the one spot that no one wanted to take due to the wind that came in.

Midoriya didn't mind too much. He wanted the spot by the window anyways.

He laid down on his futon, trying to calm his beating heart and slow his breathing. The lights were switched off, and the chattering slowly died down into silence. He waited for the last of his peers to fall asleep before he creeped out of the window, Reiko in his hood and Ryuto on his shoulder. He made his way to the edge of the cliff, before climbing up a tree.

From his vantage point, he could see all that land that was the Pussycats' territory. He pulled out his notebook, and began to sketch.

Something was going to happen, and it was going to happen soon.

He needed to be as prepared as possible, and in order to do so, he had to know his surroundings inside out.

* * *

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we will begin the training camp to increase your strength in earnest. The goal in this training camp is to increase everyone's strength, and with that, for everyone to obtain their provisional licenses. It is to prepare all of you to face threats that are becoming more real by the minute. Proceed carefully." Aizawa ordered.

He kept a close eye on Midoriya. Midoriya had been up long before the others had woken up. Aizawa had found him in the common room at four in the morning with a cup of coffee, scribbling in his notebook. Ryuto and Reiko had been curled up in his lap, sleeping.

His eye bags even more prominent than usual, and Aizawa wasn't even sure that the boy had slept.

And once again, the boy had barely eaten anything for breakfast; he just had some reheated leftover rice from the previous night, and the only reason it was hot was because Aizawa insisted he do so in case of insects and bacteria.

Aizawa and Kan quickly told the students how they were supposed to train their quirks, before turning their attention to Midoriya.

"Midoriya, you don't have a quirk, so here's what you're going to do." Aizawa started, as 1-A and 1-B watched on curiously, "I want you to explore. Every nook and cranny about this place. That should help with your analysis skills. If you can, make a map of the area as well."

Midoriya merely fished his notebook out of his pocket, flipping a few pages, before presenting it to Aizawa.

Aizawa blinked. In his hands, was a complete, hand drawn map of the Pussycat's territory, with details like the stream all in place, as well as a legend.

He mentally facepalmed.

"Alright, then, can you analyse the Pussycats' quirks? They will be working with the students, so you can -"

Aizawa was cut off as Midoriya flipped a few more pages, revealing twenty full pages of notes about the Wild Wild Pussycats as a whole, their individual quirks, personalities, as well as pros and cons.

Shiretoko doubled over in laughter, "The pup's prepared, got to hand it to him!"

The students were also laughing as Aizawa attempted to find something for Midoriya to do.

"Well... since we'll be busy managing forty students, he can help take care of Kota." Sosaki suggested, and the black haired boy snapped, "I don't need a baby sitter!"

Midoriya turned to face Kota, and Kota merely growled, "Get away from me. Leave me alone!"

He stomped away from the group, and Midoriya watched as Kota moved further and further away from them.

Midoriya turned to look at Aizawa, and Aizawa nodded, "Go after him. But come back at around noon."

The green haired boy nodded, and gave a sharp whistle. Reiko and Ryuto were in one of the trees that surrounded the students, and the hawk immediately burst out of the foliage, landing on Midoriya's shoulder. Reiko leapt down from the branch she was on, landing gracefully, before running up to Midoriya's side.

Midoriya picked Reiko up, before heading in the direction that Kota had gone in.

"So... you've noticed, too." Aizawa grunted, watching as Midoriya easily picked his way through the forest as if he had lived there his whole life.

"They're both curious about each other, for some reason." Sosaki muttered, "This is the first time I've seen Kota take an interest in someone."

"Well, what are you guys looking at?" Kan turned to face the students, "Get training!"

* * *

Kota made his way to his secret hideout, and plopped down on the ground. It was quite a distance from where the students were training, so there was no way that the green haired boy that his aunt had told to babysit him would follow him all the way here, right?

He heard footsteps behind him, and sighed.

Midoriya had actually followed him all the way up here.

He knew who the boy was; he had watched the UA Sports Festival on television because he was bored, and his name had been mentioned several times by the students and the heroes.

But he did not know that Midoriya didn't have a quirk.

Kota turned away as Midoriya walked up to him, pretending not to notice as the greenette sat down beside him, hanging his legs off the edge of the cliff. A white cat curled up on his lap, and the bird on his shoulder started nibbling on Midoriya's earlobe affectionately.

It took an hour of both of them sitting there silently, with the only sounds being the meowing and the chirping from the two animals, before Kota lost his patience.

"What do you want?! Aren't you going to say anything?!" Kota growled, turning to look at the green haired boy, "Why are you just sitting there and not doing anything!?"

Midoriya looked at Kota from the corner of his eye, before he went back to looking at the trees beneath their feet.

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Kota blinked, confused, "What?"

Midoriya didn't even turn to face the Kota.

"Losing your parents. I'm sorry."

Kota snapped, "What are you even talking about!? You don't know anything about me at all! Who are you to say "sorry" like that would help anything!? It's not like you've lost anything too!"

Midoriya turned to look at Kota, right in the eye, and Kota flinched.

_That was why he was so familiar._

Kota stared right back into Midoriya's empty, emerald orbs.

_He understood._

Kota settled back down beside Midoriya, watching as the cat eyed him curiously. It sniffed his arm, before crawling into his lap and laying down there.

"Is it your cat?"

Midoriya nodded, "She. Not it. Reiko."

Kota looked back down at Reiko, and touched her head curiously. Reiko purred, patiently letting the small boy pat her all over.

The hawk fluttered off Midoriya's shoulder to his leg, and looked at Kota. Kota reached his hand out cautiously at the bird, and watching as the hawk leaned forward, lightly nibbling at his finger.

"Ryuto."

Kota turned to face Midoriya, "His name?"

The greenette nodded once again.

"Cool."

Kota didn't know why, but he felt oddly at ease. Finally, someone wasn't praising his parents for being heroic or that kind of bullshit. Everyone else just said that he should be proud to have heroes as parents, praising them like heroes were the most perfect beings ever. There was absolutely nothing heroic about dying and leaving a three year old kid orphaned.

For once, someone understood how he felt.

_How it felt to lose the only people that they loved._

* * *

"Midoriya." Aizawa greeted, as the green haired boy walked over to him. He had requested that the boy come back at around noon, and it was currently half past eleven. Kota was sitting on a bench, Reiko and Ryuto sitting beside him.

"I think it would be okay for you to have a small fight, but be careful." Aizawa said, before calling Chatora over, "Hey, Tiger. Give him a shot."

Chatora grinned, and cracked his knuckles. He did notice that Midoriya seemed to have something around his neck, a collar of some sort. But who was he to judge? He was a fully grown macho man rocking a mini-skirt, the pup could wear whatever he wanted.

Midoriya eyed the tired forms of his peers scattered all over the training field.

"Alright, guys, go get some water."

"Ah, he's fighting Midoriya?" Kaibara panted, pushing himself up, "Come on, guys."

"I don't wanna move." Kamakiri grumbled, but Kaibara just pulled him up.

"So... I saw the Sports Festival. You're not too bad, kid." Chatora smiled, eyeing the green haired boy. He certainly didn't look like much, given his small stature, but Chatora knew that this boy wasn't to be underestimated.

Chatora shifted into a fighting stance.

"Throw a punch."

Midoriya eyed Chatora suspiciously, but the pro hero merely laughed, "Come on, you can make the first move."

Confused, Midoriya did as he was told, barely putting any power into his punch. Chatora caught his fist, with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm serious, Midoriya. You're going to have to do better than that."

Midoriya blinked, still confused, and signed, _"Why would you let the enemy hit first? That's illogical."_

Chatora blinked, before internally facepalming.

"Kid, it's just training, okay?" Chatora sighed, "Just sparring. I need to see what you're capable of before I can tell you what to improve on, got it?"

Midoriya nodded, before shifting into a proper fighting stance, and lashed out. He dished out a punch, eyeing Chatora as he used his quirk in order to dodge the attack.

Midoriya quickly changed the trajectory of his punch, shocking the hero as he hastily moved out of the way.

Chatora delivered a punch of his own, as Midoriya jumped out of the way, dodging.

"You're not that bad, pup, but there's more to come." Chatora grinned.

He delivered a volley of punches, but Midoriya dodged them all, before jumping up onto a nearby tree to create some distance between them.

Chatora elegantly leapt after him, but Midoriya just jumped to the next tree. Midoriya grabbed the branch and swung around, aiming a kick at Chatora's chest, but the hero just grabbed his foot at threw him to the ground.

Midoriya rolled, and got up almost immediately, and Chatora jumped down from his perch on the tree.

Suddenly, he felt the air shift, ever so slightly, and he turned, looking into the forest.

Chatora lunged forward, and Midoriya continuously danced around Chatora's endless assault of attacks, weaving in and out of Chatora's fists as the hero tried to hit the agile boy.

And suddenly, the hero stopped, and frowned, as Midoriya's movements dulled.

"You're distracted."

Midoriya didn't seem to register that Chatora was talking to him, and continued looking into the forest.

"Hey, hey, kid?" Chatora walked over to Midoriya, waving his hand in front of his face. Midoriya blinked, before he turned to face the taller man.

"What's going on?" Chatora asked.

_"Something's going to happen."_

Chatora blinked, quickly deciphering the boy's signing, "You sure?"

He quickly called Tsuchikawa over, "Hey, can you make more earth beasts to patrol the area? The pup thinks that something bad is going to happen."

Tsuchikawa merely shrugged, "Alright. But we're all safe here. No one knows you're here, and we're pretty out of the way. I really think he's just paranoid."

"Why do they keep calling Midoriya a pup?" Yanagi asked, "I know they're based on cats... but it's not like baby cats are called pups."

"Can you really imagine anyone calling Midoriya a kitten?" Kendo sweatdropped.

"Well... he's as fluffy as one." Kodai muttered.

* * *

They found that Midoriya could not cook.

Sure, he could cut up the vegetables and meat in record time, but he refused to go anywhere near the stove.

The students were okay with just letting Midoriya deal with cutting. They had more than enough people to man the stoves, after all, and the last time they tried to coax Midoriya into cooking, he had immediately charred the wok they were using.

Which shouldn't happen at all.

It didn't take too long for the curry and the vegetables to be cooked, and pretty soon, and students were happily eating and talking about their day.

"Eat!"

Sosaki looked up, only to see Kota shoving a plate in Midoriya's face.

"You need to eat more than that! That's why you're so short and scrawny compared to everyone else!" Kota growled.

Midoriya did not look impressed at all, just staring as the small boy continued ranting on why he needed to eat proper food.

"Even Reiko eats more than you." Kota snapped, "And you didn't even eat breakfast! _I saw! _Don't try to deny it."

Everyone watched as Kota climbed up onto the bench Midoriya was sitting on, and stuck his finger in his chest, "You want to be a hero, don't you!? Then eat!"

"Okay... what is going on?" Tsuchikawa blinked, "Is Kota _actually_ talking to him?"

"Err... yes?" Chatora replied, watching as Midoriya just continued staring at the little boy who was ranting on how short Midoriya was, "Look! You're like, shorter than everyone! Except the grape kid and the bird-headed one!"

Mineta immediately took offence that Kota didn't remember his name, and Tokoyami merely snorted in amusement. Shinsou and Uraraka were trying their best to cover their mouths to prevent them from laughing out loud.

Probably to satisfy the black haired boy, Midoriya grabbed his chopsticks and reluctantly picked a small piece of broccoli out of one of the plates, and put it in his mouth.

Kota just stared at him.

"That's cannibalism."

Kaminari and Sero could not hold back their laughter, and promptly fell out of their seats, roaring with laughter. Kirishima was smacking the table as he laughed, and even Iida had a small smile on his face as they processed what Kota meant.

Midoriya merely stared at Kota, before looking at the rest of his classmates, chewing on his piece of broccoli in confusion.

Aizawa was the only one who managed to keep a straight face. Kan had choked on his rice from laughing too much.

Midoriya quickly signed, _"What's so funny?"_

"Oh, Kota just called you a broccoli." Shinsou replied, finally calming down from his laughing fit.

He saw the slightest hint of a frown on the boy's face.

_"But I'm not a vegetable."_

"You're hair, Midoriya." Iida replied, taking another spoonful of curry, "It's green and fluffy."

* * *

Midoriya was very bored.

1-B was stationed in the forest, and they were supposed to scare the 1-A students who were supposed to go into the forest, grab some tags with their names on it and return back to the group.

It was supposed to have some bonding exercise, or something, but it seemed more like a hide and scare game in a dark forest; one of the very games that Midoriya hated.

Hide and Seek was bad enough, but the version where they were supposed to scare others on purpose?

_Not fun at all._

Still, it wasn't like he could complain. The others seemed hyped about it, and the Pussycats were the ones who suggested the game, on their territory. He didn't have the right to complain.

Kota was probably on his own, sitting by the edge of the cliff. Midoriya wanted to tell Sosaki about Kota's so-called "secret hideout", but that would be an invasion of Kota's privacy, and Midoriya didn't want to do that.

Aizawa and Kan were back in the common room, probably working on more plans for the students.

They had an odd number of people, so one of the groups ended up having three people instead of two. Midoriya just so happened to end up with Shinsou again, somehow, and Sero. Bakugou was unlucky to end up with Todoroki, and Mineta had been paired up with Shoji, much to the relief of the other girls.

Yaoyorozu and Jiro were grouped together, and they had just set off into the forest. Asui, Uraraka, Tokoyami, Shoji, Bakugou, and Todoroki had set off before them.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Sero laughed, jumping around excitedly, "We've got Midoriya, we're so going to win!"

Midoriya looked around cautiously.

The wind direction was different. The leaves were rustling more violently than before. There was a weird smell in the air, but Midoriya could not place his finger on it.

_Something had changed._

* * *

Kota stood by the cliff, before plopping himself onto the ground.

He didn't like heroes, never liked them, really, but there had been a time when he had loved and admired heroes like any other kid his age.

When his parents were alive, he thought they were the best people ever. They never made it to the top ten, but they were well within the top two hundred.

He loved them, admired them, wanted to be a hero just like them. His father could create water, and his mother could control it, making them the perfect duo for any mission, dousing their opponents with water with ease.

His quirk had manifested a few days after their death; the ability to shoot water from his palms and control it at will.

_He hated his quirk._

_It reminded him too much of his parents._

Then there was Midoriya, who was quirkless.

He wondered what Midoriya's parents were like, before they died. When did they die? When did they leave Midoriya alone? Were they heroes as well, like Water Hose? Or were they just normal civilians?

Kota was lost in his own thoughts, when the forest burst into flames. He staggered up, watching as cyan flames slowly consumed the forest, when the ground rumbled.

He quickly whirled around, a voice echoing in his head that he distinctly recognised as Sosaki's, _"I'm sorry! I don't know where you usually go off to! I'm sorry, Kota! I can't go save you!"_

A figure dressed in a black cloak and a white face mask appeared in front of him.

"I tried searching somewhere with a nice view, and I ended up finding a face not on our list. Hey, by the way, nice hat, kid. Trade with me for this lame mask. They made me wear this since I'm new, saying they couldn't get the shipment in time or something."

Kota stepped away from the cloaked figure, and turned around, trying to run away, but the masked man merely jumped in front of him, blocking the exit, and whipped off his masked. Muscle fibres erupted from under his skin, enveloping his arms, and Kota found the face of his parents' killer staring back at him, "Let me get a shot in to cheer up."

Muscular punched the ground right in front of Kota, grinning as Kota tumbled backwards, yelping in terror.

He aimed a punch at Kota again, purposely missing, and he laughed maniacally as Kota shrieked, trying to get as far away from the villain as his legs could carry him.

"I love it when they scream!" Muscular cackled, "Scream for help! Yell for your little heroes! Shout louder!"

"You know, on second thought, maybe I'll just take you with me!" Muscular laughed, picking Kota up in his hand and jumping off the cliff, ignoring Kota's attempts to get out of his grasp, "It will be much more fun to kill you in front of those other kids, won't it? Watch them scream and cry! Killing is so much fun!"

* * *

_"Everyone! We're being attacked by two villains, but it's possible that there are more! Pixie Bob's down! Everyone who can move, get back to camp immediately! If you come across the enemy, don't attack and just retreat!"_

"Villains? Why are there villains here?" Kan asked, standing up.

"Stay here, Vlad King. The students will most likely be coming back here, I'm leaving his place to you." Aizawa ordered, and Kan nodded in acknowledgement.

Aizawa rushed out of the room, out into the open, only to find thick black smoke filling the air above.

"Is your worry taking precedence?" A man with black hair asked, grinning, before shoving his hand into Aizawa's face, blue fire erupting from his palm.

Aizawa quickly leapt into the air, lashing on to the roof with his capture weapon and dodged the fire, before jumping down and wrapping his capture weapon around the intruder. The Erasure hero smacked his face into his knee, before smashing the villain into the ground.

"Tell me your purpose, numbers, and positions." Aizawa ordered

"Why?" The villain sneered.

"Otherwise, this would happen." Aizawa harshly twisted the man's arm, and a loud crack was heard as his shoulder was dislocated. "You're other arm's next. Let's do this logically. Breaking your legs would just make transport more annoying."

"Are ya in a hurry, Eraser Head?" The man taunted. "Are your students important?"

Aizawa growled, and kicked him again, only for the man to melt into brown goop.

"I hope you can protect them to the end."

"Fuck... A clone..." Aizawa cursed, as he surveyed the smoke that was emerging from the forest, the sky alight with cyan flames.

He ran into the forest.

* * *

Mineta shrieked in terror.

Tsuchikawa had glowed red for some reason, before flying backwards, a sickening crunch ringing out as she was bashed into the ground by a long, thick staff held by a person with long red hair and sunglasses, alongside a person with green skin and purple hair.

Koda was hugging both Reiko and Ryuto, as Midoriya turned to see who the villains were.

He didn't recognise the green skinned man, but he did recognise Hikiishi. She had committed nine armed robberies, three murders, and twenty attempted murders, at the very least, and her Magnetism quirk was going to be a pain to deal with, given how many students there were.

Hikiishi laughed, "How are you this evening, UA High School?"

"We're the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains!" Iguchi yelled.

"The League? What are they doing here?" Ojiro hissed.

"Should I crush her face?" Hikiishi mocked, placing a foot on Tsuchikawa's body, as Sosaki's claws emerged, "Don't you dare!"

"Like we'd let you!" Chatora growled.

"Wait up, Big Sis Magne. You too, Tiger. Calm down. Don't be hasty. It just depends on whether having power over life and death follows Stain's tenets or not." Iguchi pulled Hikiishi back slightly.

"You're the ones his ideology brought!?" Iida demanded, but Kirishima pulled him back before he could attack.

"Oh yeah! You! With the glasses!" Iguchi grinned, taking out his weapon, which looked like a multitude of blades tied together, "You were the one that helped bring about Stain's end in Hosu City, along with Endeavor's kid! I apologise for the late introduction, but I'm Spinner! The one who spins his dreams into reality!"

Midoriya pushed his way to the front of the group, just as Iguchi's eyes trailed over to the green haired boy, his eyes widening.

"Void. Or should I say, Midoriya Izuku." Iguchi bowed slightly, "Stain called you a true hero, and it's an honour to meet you, finally, face to face."

Sosaki was shocked that Midoriya was the infamous vigilante than almost all the heroes were talking about, but she pushed it to the back of her mind; she had more important things to think about at this point of time.

"Get out of here." Sosaki ordered, "I sent out instructions. Vlad King and Eraser are back at camp, and Ragdoll should be helping 1-B and the others in the forest. Don't fight. Class Rep, you're in charge! Go now!"

"Yes ma'am!" Iida nodded, "1-A! Let's go!"

Midoriya looked like he wanted to fight the two villains, but he still followed Sosaki's orders.

Suddenly, something shot through the air, and Midoriya pushed Kaminari and Ashido out of the way before it collided with the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Ohh, look what we have here." A voice rang out, as the dust faded, revealing Muscular, "Look, all of your little friends!"

Sosaki whirled around, sparing a glance at Muscular, before she eyed the small figure in the hero's grasp, "Kota!"

Midoriya's eyes zeroed in on the boy, struggling in the villain's grip.

_Muscular is going to be much more of a problem than Magne._

"Let's see how loud you can scream when I do this!" Muscular laughed, dropping Kota on the ground, before raising his arm, ready to attack.

Midoriya rushed in as Muscular pulled his punch, scooping Kota up in time and skidding out of harm's way. He deposited Kota on the ground, before he whipped a knife out of his pocket and threw it at Muscular, cutting through several muscle fibres.

"Midoriya! Get away!" Ashido yelled.

Before Midoriya couldn't even register what he had done, he swerved to the left, narrowly dodging another punch that Muscular had thrown at him.

"Ah! A face on our list." Muscular muttered, as more muscle fibres popped out to replace the ones that Midoriya had cut, "You don't look too interesting though. Pity. That Bakugou kid seemed like more fun."

Midoriya tried to dodge the next hit, but sadly, Muscular was too fast. He smashed his fist into Midoriya's body, sending him smacking into a tree, before leaping after the downed boy. Sero quickly used his quirk to lash Kota towards the group, out of the way of the fight.

Midoriya coughed out some blood. He tried to bring his arms up to block Muscular's attack, but Muscular was just too strong, easily pushing past Midoriya's defence and smashing him into the ground, a cracking sound ringing out through the air.

"Midoriya! We've got Kota! Just retreat, you can't beat him!" Kaminari yelled.

_This was was starting to remind him of the fight that Midoriya had with the Nomu._

Muscular was way out of his league. He was too strong, too fast, and with Midoriya's quirkless status, there was no way he could outspeed or overpower the villain.

Midoriya just bared his teeth, before what Muscular said registered in his mind.

_He was on the list. _

_They villains came because t__he League of Villains wanted him._

_Kota was hurt because of him._

A spark of anger erupted from the depths of his very being.

His mind was racing.

_Robotic eye._

_More muscles, more nerves, more pain._

_He's a villain! Hurt him like they all hurt to you. HURT HIM! MAKE HIM HURT! HE DESERVES IT -_

Midoriya pushed himself up, and spat the blood out of his mouth, growling, glaring at the villain.

"Ready to take more?" Muscular grinned, "That's really cute."

Midoriya dodged the incoming punch, ignoring the pain that flared through his arm.

_It was broken, so what?_

Midoriya whipped out another knife, twirling it between his fingers, before he dodged another attack. He slashed at Muscular's muscle fibres, before taking out another knife and jabbing it into Muscular's shoulder, giving him some leverage, and pulled himself up to slash at Muscular's face.

"Midoriya, stop!" Chatora growled, as he dodged an attack by Hikiishi, "Just retreat! We'll cover for you!"

Muscular turned around to punch him, but Midoriya merely dislodged the knife and dropped to the ground, taking a few steps back to create some distance between them.

Midoriya merely lunged again, aiming a slash at Muscular's side that the villain caught. The green haired boy just used that distraction to yanked out another knife and flung it at Muscular, the blade embedding itself in the villain's robotic eye.

The eye sparked, before it exploded, Midoriya jumping away as Muscular roared in pain at the device exploding in his skull.

"Now... now you've done it." Muscular hissed, glaring at Midoriya with his lone good eye, "I'll get you for that."

Before Midoriya could even react, Muscular had grabbed onto his broken arm, crushing it with his bare hands. He threw Midoriya to the ground, before stepping on his leg, snapping it almost instantly. He picked the boy up, and Midoriya hissed as Muscular tightened his grip, putting more and more pressure on his ribs until they snapped. He threw Midoriya to the ground, before punching his other leg, and kicking the boy into a tree.

"Oi! Muscular! Don't hurt him!" Iguchi snapped, but Muscular just flipped the lizard man off, his empty socket smoking from the explosion, "I do what I want! I want to hurt him! I'm going to kill him! I want to kill, it's fun, so I kill!"

And that fire in his stomach roared to life.

_Fun?_

_It's fun?_

_Killing is fun?_

_Inflicting pain on others is fun?_

Muscular had killed Water Hose, and many other heroes, but Water Hose's death was the most notable. Midoriya knew that the female hero of Water Hose was related to Sosaki, there were many pictures of them together in their youth that Midoriya managed to find from digging through the archives.

_Which meant -_

His mind connected the dots.

The two members of Water Hose were Kota's parents.

_Muscular had killed Kota's parents._

Midoriya had never liked Muscular; the man seemed to have _fun_ killing others, something that Midoriya couldn't tolerate at all.

But something about seeing Kota, trapped in the villain's grasp, and _knowing_ that Muscular was the one that made Kota so cynical, the one who hurt him by killing his parents?

_"… please… get out of here, hurry… "_

Midoriya felt his anger boiling over, erupting into a burning inferno.

Muscular turned his attention away from the broken boy, and advanced on the group of students, before he froze. A menacing aura had erupted out of nowhere, putting so much pressure in the air that he could barely breathe.

"I hate... people like you..."

Muscular slowly turned around, seeing the green haired boy pushing himself to his feet, despite his broken body. Every fibre in his very being was screaming at him _to run._

1-A slowly took a few steps back from the fight; they recognised that aura anywhere, and this was so much stronger than the last time Midoriya unleashed it.

"You just... hurt others... for the fun of it..."

Midoriya ignored the pain running through his entire body.

_He had something more important to deal with._

Midoriya lifted his head, his emerald orbs meeting Muscular's, locking the blonde villain in place.

_"I'm so sorry, Zuku… there's no time..."_

"What... what are you?!" Muscular breathed, wanting to tear his gaze away from _this monster that was standing in front of him_, but he couldn't find it in him to do so.

"You... hurt him... Kota..."

Midoriya took a step forward, and Muscular took a step back unconsciously, snapping, "How are you still standing!? I broke your bones!"

Heroes and villains alike didn't faze him at all. He just easily crushed them with his overwhelming strength; there was no reason to be afraid.

_So why was he so scared of this scrawny, little green haired boy who was barely half his size? Why was fear seeping into his very being, clouding his mind and body?_

Midoriya bared his teeth, roaring, "I won't let you get away with it! You'll pay for that!"

His parents were dead, as were Kota's. But the villain that had done the deed was still alive, standing right in front of him, and he was only here because they wanted Midoriya. He couldn't make his parents murders' pay for their crime, but he could do it for Kota.

_He won't let Kota get hurt anymore._

_He wouldn't let Kota break._

_He wouldn't let Kota turn out like him._

He lunged at the larger villain. Muscular barely registered that Midoriya moved, and sloppily dodged as Midoriya appeared in his face and slashed with his knife._  
_

Sosaki and Iguchi had stopped their brawl when they felt the intense pressure hanging into the air, trying to figure out what was going on, before their eyes landed on the green haired boy who _seemed to be getting faster_ as he landed on a tree, immediately jumping off and slashing apart the muscle fibres on Muscular's arm.

"Woah..." Iguchi breathed, "He's really awesome."

Sosaki could only watch in awe as Midoriya smoothly twirled around Muscular's sluggish attempts to hit him, skidding under Muscular's arm before bringing his leg up to knee the villain in the gut.

He flicked one of his knives that had fallen to the ground into the air, before kicking it towards Muscular. The blade rocketed through the air, stabbing into his side. Muscular stumbled backwards, bringing his arms up to defend as Midoriya shot forward, stabbing his knife with so much force into Muscular's unprotected hand that it broke, but not before the blade was embedded in the villain's hand, penetrating the metacarpals.

Muscular clutched his hand in agony, as Midoriya threw the handle of the now-useless knife at Muscular, the handle hitting the villain's head.

The villain turning around desperately to find the boy, before Midoriya made an odd movement and he felt himself falling to the ground. Midoriya sped up even more, and lunged, flipping himself over and smashing his foot into Muscular's unprotected face, breaking the villain's nose.

For good measure, Midoriya brought his leg up, and kicked one of the trees that Muscular had partially destroyed, completely knocking it over. It crashed into the villain, pushing the knife that was embedded in Muscular's side further into his gut.

"You won't die. That would be too much of a mercy for someone like you."

Muscular tried to push himself up, but was met with a foot to the face, and passed out.

The green haired boy lowered his foot, before turning his head to the side to spit out more blood, as he surveyed his handiwork. He had kicked Muscular in the face one more time, and it seemed like that was more that enough to knock him out. The villain as strong, but he was hella stupid; the face was one of the more delicate and weaker parts of the body, and he hadn't bothered to defend it.

_What an idiot._

Midoriya closed his eyes and exhaled, feeling the rush of adrenaline seep away, and the fire that was pooling in his stomach simmered down to nothingness in satisfaction.

He turned to his classmates, eyeing them carefully. None of them seemed injured, so that was good, at least.

His eyes landed on Kirishima, holding onto Kota tightly, and the black haired boy teared up.

* * *

Kirishima was openly gaping as Midoriya mercilessly assaulted the villain.

He was pissed, that was for sure, and it was _scary _to see the normally calm boy continuously attacking so viciously.

He finally heaved an internal sigh of relief as Muscular finally fell, and Midoriya reeled that terrifying aura back in, panting.

He watched as Midoriya's eyes skimmed over them, almost like he was checking them for any injuries. Midoriya's hoodie had been completely ripped to shreds, as were the bandages that were wrapped all over his body. There was blood running down the left side of his face, and all over his body, and his arms and legs were distinctively broken.

That was really manly and all, but _how the hell was he still standing?_

The two green eyes settled on him.

Kirishima heard a sniff, before Kota broke out of his grip and ran towards Midoriya, wrapping his arms around the injured green haired boy, not even caring that there was blood all over the place.

"Why... why did you do so much..."

_"Kota, about your mother and father… Water Hose… It's true they ended up leaving you behind… But there were definitely lives saved because of what happened to them. I'm sure that someday, you'll meet someone, and then you'll understand. Someone who'll risk their life to save you, someone who'll be your hero."_

Midoriya just stood there, motionless, panting, not even seeming to what the smaller boy was doing.

"Crap... he beat Muscular..." Hikiishi muttered, "I don't think we can get him. Spinner, let's go and just focus on Todoroki and Bakugou."

"Got it." Iguchi nodded, as they both turned to run into the forest.

"Crap." Sosaki hissed, before activating her quirk, "They're after Todoroki and Bakugou, and they're in the forest. Ragdoll? Ragdoll?"

She turned to Chatora, "Something's wrong. Ragdoll hasn't replied."

Midoriya had heard what Hikiishi had said, and he lifted his broken arm, patting Kota on the shoulder, muttering, "Stay with them... There's something... I have... to do..."

"You're injured! What else can you do in that state!?" Kota shouted, but Midoriya gently pried himself out of Kota's grip. He shot a look at Reiko and Ryuto, before running into the forest. Both of them were trying to get out of Koda's grip, but one look from Midoriya stopped them, and they could only look on helplessly as Midoriya disappeared into the forest.

"Hey! Hey! Midoriya! Come back!" Chatora shouted, as Shinsou ran after Midoriya.

"I'm not a target, I'll be fine!" Shinsou yelled over his shoulder, "Iida, bring the others and Kota back to camp, and get Aizawa-sensei."

"Tiger, follow the pup." Sosaki ordered, "I'll go with them."

"Got it! I won't disappoint you!" Iida nodded, before herding the rest of the class away from the clearing, towards the camp.


	44. Chapter 44 - Are my only friends

"Mandalay!" Aizawa yelled, as he spotted the Pussycat, along with the rest of the students.

"Eraser, I take it you got the telepathic message." She asked, and Aizawa nodded.

She continued, "Midoriya just took out Muscular, he's injured, but he went into the forest, and Shinsou followed him. He won't listen to Tiger or I; I've been sending him telepathic messages to come back, but he's too stubborn. If you tell him to come back, maybe he'll listen."

Sosaki heard Aizawa mumbled, "Problem child." under his breath, before the Erasure hero looked at her, "Okay, what about 1-B?"

"Still in the forest, I think. Magne and some other guy called Spinner went into the forest, and Tiger went after them already."

"Got it." Aizawa nodded, "Tell the students to use their quirks; I'll take full responsibility!"

"Huh?" Sosaki was taken aback as Aizawa growled, "There's a villain with a fire quirk, and I'm sure he's the one setting the forest on fire, which means they also have another villain with a cloning quirk. They're targeting the students, Bakugou and Todoroki specifically. As of now, they need to survive, and to be able to match up against villains who are willing to kill and have much more experience, they need to use their quirks! Also, Midoriya may be a target as well. He's had previous interactions with the League, and I'm sure that Shigaraki holds some sort of grudge against him."

"Alright." Sosaki muttered, quickly sending out the message, "I'll bring the kittens back, you take care of the villains."

Sosaki turned to leave, before she paused, "Doesn't Shinsou have a mind control quirk? Can't he use that on Midoriya?"

"Tch." Aizawa sighed, "Midoriya won't speak if he has to, and if he's injured by Muscular, the damage can't be good. He's probably in so much pain that he'd snap out of Hitoshi's mind control immediately."

Sosaki blinked.

_First name basis?_

She waved the thought away. They had more important things to deal with. She would question the Erasure hero once all the students were safe.

* * *

"Get away from me! You'll die!" Tokoyami screamed, as Dark Shadow rampaged about.

Shoji ducked behind a tree, trying to hide from Dark Shadow, as he heard footsteps. He eyed the forest warily, before a bleeding Midoriya burst out of nowhere, with Shinsou close behind, hot on his heels.

"Midoriya, slow down - Shoji? Tokoyami? What's going on?"

Shoji quickled shushed them.

"We got the warning. A villain came out of nowhere, and we managed to get out at the cost of losing a bit of my arm. It's just a duplicate, so it will heal, but I don't think he took it well." Shoji showed them his limb, which was already starting to heal, "We heard Mandalay's messages, and you... Midoriya... I don't think you should be moving around like that."

Midoriya just shot Shoji a small glare, before turning to look at Dark Shadow.

"Righteous indignation and regret are strong emotions. Coupled with a sentient quirk…" Shinsou muttered.

"Yep." Shoji nodded, "It's attacking indiscriminately, reacting to any kind of sound. Getting fire, or finding Aizawa should help."

"Where's Bakugou and Todoroki? They went before you." Shinsou asked, but Shoji shrugged, "Don't know. We've been here on our own, before this guy in black and really long teeth-knives popped out of nowhere and - Midoriya, what are you doing?"

Midoriya had walked out from the trees, right into Dark Shadow's line of sight. Dark Shadow caught sight of him, and screeched, but Midoriya didn't even flinch.

"Midoriya! Get away!" Tokoyami yelled, tearing up, but Midoriya merely faced the quirk.

"Calm down."

Shoji blinked.

"He'll speak if he has to. There's no time to translate anything now... and I don't think he can sign anyways. And he's more comfortable around the quirk." Shinsou muttered, before Shoji could ask any questions, as Dark Shadow screamed, "Calm!? Calm!? You want me to calm down!? They hurt him! They hurt him, they hurt him, they hurt -"

The quirk dived down towards Midoriya, "How dare you! Who are you to even - Mi... doriya?"

Dark Shadow halted his movements, eyeing the injured green haired boy, who didn't even react.

Midoriya reached his hand out, placing it on Dark Shadow's beak, "You're angry."

"Of course I'm angry!" Dark Shadow spat, "Shoji's injured, and I can't find the damn bastard that DID THIS TO HIM! Who hurt you!? I'll tear them apart!"

Midoriya just looked up emotionlessly at Dark Shadow, "Dealt with. Calm down. Your letting your anger get the better of you and it's not helping anyone. You're scaring Shoji and hurting Tokoyami."

Dark Shadow froze, before he turned backwards, staring as Tokoyami panted and cried out in pain, before looking at Shoji and Shinsou, who were hiding behind a tree.

"You rampage in the dark because Tokoyami can't see his enemies, and you want to protect him." Midoriya moved closer to Dark Shadow, "You want to protect them. Don't let your anger blind you. Use the anger to motivate you, but don't let it control you."

Dark Shadow nodded, calming down slightly, letting Midoriya pass as he went to help Tokoyami up.

"I... I didn't know..." Tokoyami shook, taking Midoriya's hand, "I thought... he was rampaging for... no reason... and tried to control him... I'm so sorry..."

Midoriya turned to look at Shoji, and Shoji, somehow, got the message.

"The villain went that way." Shoji pointed into the forest, and Midoriya nodded, starting to move in that direction.

Tokoyami, Shoji, and Shinsou followed suit.

* * *

"Ohhhhh... tasty... so many targets..." Moonfish muttered, blocking with his teeth as Todoroki blasted him with ice, doing his best to protect an unconscious Tsuburaba. Monoma growled, blasting some fire at the villain with Todoroki's quirk. He had been with Tsuburaba, when Todoroki and Bakugou stumbled into their area, before this giant blade tooth monster started ripping the ground apart.

Tsuburaba had tried to protect himself with his quirk, but his Solid Air shield was easily torn to shreds by the villain, and he had been knocked out.

Bakugou blasted a blade away, screaming, "DIE, YOU MOTHERFUCKER!"

"We're getting nowhere. You guys are the main targets! I'll hold this thing off." Monoma growled, "Bring Tsuburaba back to camp!"

He didn't have time to be hostile to 1-A at the moment. He'd just make up for it later, when they were safe.

"Are you underestimating me?! I dont need your fucking help, blondie!" Bakugou screamed, completely destroying another blade, as Monoma smiled to himself.

Yep, as easy to aggravate as usual, but the angrier he got, the more he attacked, so it all worked out well.

"Some people are coming." Todoroki said, looking behind him, the fire on his hand blazing to life in case he needed to attack. Midoriya, Shoji, Tokoyami and Shinsou emerged from the foliage, and Todoroki sighed in relief.

"You! You were the one who hurt him!" Dark Shadow screeched as he erupted out of nowhere, harshly grabbing Moonfish and snapping all of his blades off, "You'll pay for what you've done!"

Dark Shadow roared as he smashed Moonfish into the ground, over and over, before he finally sent Moonfish flying. The villain crashed into tree after tree, before he came to a rest, sprawled motionless on the ground.

"Take that, bastard! That's what you get for hurting my friends!" Dark Shadow snapped, before he shrunk down to the he normally was in the daylight.

"Thank you." Tokoyami gave a small smile, scratching the quirk's head affectionately.

Monoma rubbed his arms, "Alright, now that's done... Thanks, Tokoyami."

The blonde eyed the students that had just appeared, and his gaze stopped on Midoriya, "Jeez, are you okay?! What happened? Why aren't you helping him!?"

The green haired boy was supporting himself against a tree, panting, as blood dripped off his body.

"I tried. He won't let me touch him." Shoji retorted, before turning to Shinsou expectantly for an answer.

"He beat up Muscular. Got injured in the process. Badass as usual." Shinsou replied, and Todoroki's eyes widened.

_Wasn't he that super powerful villain that smashed everything up? How the hell did Midoriya beat him?_

"Anyways, we need to head back to camp. They're after both Bakugou and Todoroki, and we don't know how many other villains are out here." Monoma stated, and Shinsou and Todoroki both nodded.

Midoriya decided to keep quiet about the fact that he, too, was also a target. His life didn't matter; he'd gladly give his life up for the others if he had to, if he could even die in the first place.

"Okay. Dark Shadow can lead; he can cover more ground and tell us if we're going the right way." Todoroki stated, "Bakugou and Todoroki can still fight; you guys take the sides. Shoji, your hearing is the best out of all of us; you stay in the back so you can check if anyone's following us. Midoriya's injured, and Monoma... you don't look like you're holding up to well. Carry Tsuburaba and stay in the middle?"

Midoriya gave a small frown, and raised his hands to sign something when another telepathic message shot through their heads.

_"Midoriya may also be a target, and he's pretty badly injured too. If you guys see him, try to get him back to camp as fast as possible."_

"Yeah... makes sense, since he killed the League's pet bird thingy." Monoma muttered, "Come on, the more we loiter here, the higher the chance of use getting jumped."

A shriek tore through the air, and Todoroki turned in the direction of the yell.

"Uraraka?" He muttered, just as Midoriya growled and ran in that very direction, whipping another knife out of nowhere.

"Midoriya! Don't run off on your own!" Shinsou yelped, running after him, as Shoji, Monoma and Todoroki followed behind.

"How many of those things does he have?" Tokoyami asked, starting to chase after the group, and Bakugou snapped, "Who the fuck cares!?"

* * *

Uraraka shrieked as a needle was plunged into her leg, sucking out her blood. She had tried to pin Toga down, but the blonde villain was nowhere near defeated, and she had been distracted by trying to get Asui to restrain her. Asui was still pinned to a tree by her hair, her tongue bleeding from Toga's previous attack.

Toda quickly pushed the stunned Uraraka off her, before raising her knife.

Suddenly, a knife shot out of the forest, and Toga jumped away, barely managing to dodge the blade, as a green haired boy rushed out of the forest, lunging at Toga with another knife.

"Midoriya!" Asui yelled, dislodging the knife that pinned her to the tree. She quickly ran over to Uraraka, as Midoriya slashed his knife at Toga.

The blonde villain managed to parry it away, but Midoriya kept up the relentless attack, growling as he glared at the villain.

"So much blood..." Toga breathed, and she grinned like a maniac, "Midoriya... Izuku... Shigaraki speaks highly of you."

Midoriya blinked in confusion, and took a step back, putting himself between his classmates and the villain.

"Ne, I want to be friends! I call her Tsu!" Toga smiled, pointing at Asui, "You're so cute, Izu-kun! Can I call you that?"

"Midoriya!" Monoma yelled, and Asui turned to, seeing Tokoyami, Shinsou, Monoma, Bakugou, Shoji and Todoroki running up them.

"Aww... there's more people now, and I don't want to be killed..." Toga gave Midoriya one last smile, "So bye!"

"Who was that woman just now?" Todoroki asked, watching as Toga ran into the forest. Midoriya coughed, spitting out some more blood, before wiping his mouth with his hand.

"A villain... a crazy one... kero..." Asui replied, just as Uraraka surveyed Midoriya from head to toe, rubbing the slash on her arm.

"Midoriya?! What on earth happened to you?!" Uraraka yelled, and Midoriya turned to look at her blankly.

"Villain. This isn't the time to stand around and talk." Shoji cut in, "Let's go back to camp."

"Fuck you, don't order me around!" Bakugou screamed, but Monoma just snapped, "Shut up. Stop making so much noise. The villains will hear you!"

"Tch, as if that crazy psycho bitch won't tell them our position." Bakugou growled, and Shoji muttered, "That's exactly why we need to move."

"Mandalay said that you may also be a target, so we've got Bakugou, Todoroki, and Midoriya that the League are after." Asui spoke up, "We should stay together; we have strength in numbers and everyone here is strong. Err..."

Asui looked around, "Weren't Shinsou and Tokoyami here with you?"

Midoriya blinked, and straightened up, looking to where he swore Shinsou and Tokoyami were standing, right at the back of the group.

"Ah.. the boys you're looking for... I took them with my magic." A cloaked figure standing in a tree replied, holding up two marbles, "They're not on our hit list, but their talents don't belong to heroes. We'll take them to a stage where they can stand out more."

Midoriya growled.

_Shit... I let my guard down for a second..._

_This is all my fault._

"Give them back!" Uraraka snapped, "Who are you?"

"My my, my name is Mr. Compress! And give them back? Shinsou and Tokoyami don't belong to anyone, you egoist. And yes, I do know all your names." Sako replied, fiddling with his marbles.

"Move!" Todoroki snapped, stepping forward, unleashing a torrent of ice that Sako easily dodged from his position in the tree.

"A brainwashing quirk, and a rampaging creature of darkness." Sako spoke up, "Moonfish is a cutthroat on death row with a dismissed appeal, and his quirk took him out one-sidedly. Don't think I didn't see the little bird's rampage."

"He got them without making any noise? And even Midoriya and Shoji didn't notice him?" Monoma growled, "He must be good."

He eyed Midoriya, as the boy panted, glaring at Sako. He didn't blame Midoriya, the guy shouldn't even be standing right now, let alone noticing villains that even Shoji, who had excellent hearing, couldn't detect.

"To go out of your way to talk to us... Don't underestimate us!" Todoroki growled.

"It's a bad habit." Sako admitted, "I was once an entertainer, and bad habit die hard."

Todoroki quickly stuck out his foot, about to create another glacier, when suddenly, Sako appeared behind him, hand on his shoulder.

"Bad move, Todoroki. You're leaving yourself open." Sako shook his head, activating his quirk and encapsulating Todoroki within another marble.

_What kind of quirk is that?_

He dodged as Midoriya threw another knife at him, stumbling slightly, before jumping up onto a tree, twiddling the three encapsulated students between his fingers.

"I'm not going to stay and fight heroes who are hero candidates." Sako said, turning around to run, dodging another knife that Midoriya had thrown.

Midoriya growled, running after Sako, slipping two knives out of his shoes and dumping them in his pocket. He usually had two knives in his hoodie, four in his pants pockets, and another two in his shoes, with three more in his bag. One knife was broken from his fight with Muscular, and another was buried in the villain's gut, but Midoriya had been stupid enough to not retrieve his two other knives that he had thrown from his fight with Muscular. Three of his knives where somewhere in the forest, after he attacked Toga and Sako, but he didn't have time to go look for them now. He'd just have to make do with the three remaining ones he had.

"Dammit! Leave Purple Fucker, Bird Brain and IcyHot alone, you fucking Mask Bastard! The only one that can kill them is me, got it!? I'll fucking kill you, bitch! Don't think you can get away from me!" Bakugou roared, chasing after Sako, Asui, Shoji, Monoma, and Asui hot on his heels. Uraraka had used her quirk on Tsuburaba, making him easier for Monoma to carry.

"If only Iida were here... he would be able to catch up in no time..." Uraraka panted,

Sako reaching up to tap his earpiece, "Vanguard Action Squad! Target Two and two more kids successfully collected, but I've got Target One and the _other one_ close on my tail! I'm bringing them all in! The show will come to a close soon! Head to the retrieval point in the next five minutes!"

"Shit... they're expecting us to chase him!" Shoji snapped.

"What the fuck do you expect us to do, Arm Fuck!?" Bakugou growled, "Let this fucking Marble Asshole Bastard take them!? Hell no!"

"This... just confirms it..." Asui exclaimed as she hopped along, "Midoriya isn't a target, kero..."

Midoriya growled, his eyes practically glowing with rage, and he seethed, "Who cares about that!?"

"But we're not fast enough. At this rate, he's just getting away!" Shoji replied.

"Uraraka, make us float! Bakugou, Shoji, and I." Midoriya snapped, "Asui, throw us as far as you can with your tongue! Measure the distance with your eyes and drop us. Shoji, use your arms, and Bakugou, your explosions, to correct our trajectory! Then you three bring Tsuburaba back to camp!"

He didn't want to bring Bakugou and Shoji into this, but he wasn't dumb; in his current state, there was no way he could take on all the remaining villains who were at the so-called retrieval point, let alone single Sako out, wrestle his classmates away from him, and find some way to release his quirk.

"Whatever, just hurry the fuck up!" Bakugou screamed, as Asui wrapped her tongue around the three students. Uraraka quickly activated her quirk and tapped them, and Asui flung them in Sako's direction.

"Go get em!" Uraraka yelled, tapping her fingers together and releasing her quirk, causing Bakugou, Shoji, and Midoriya to crash into Sako like a human bullet. She turned around, and reactivated her quirk on Tsuburaba, "Let's go."

Monoma nodded, as they started making their way back to camp, before Monoma blinked.

"Wait, did Midoriya _actually_ talk!?"

* * *

"Man... these gas masks Yaoyorozu made really helped." Tetsutetsu panted, collapsing to the ground as the gas slowly dissipated, "I hope they're doing okay, bringing the others back to camp."

Kendo flexed her fingers, watching as gas disappeared, "Come on. We need to go and help them. Awase, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu can't carry all of them. Can you move, Tetsutetsu?"

"Yeah... he got me in the arm, but my quirk blocked most of the damage. It's just bruised." Tetsutetsu panted, slowly pushing himself up onto his feet, "Let's go."

They ran back in the direction they came from, ducking behind some trees as a Nomu lumbered pass them. They continued on their way, coming across Jiro, who had Kodai, and Awase, who was picking Shiozaki up from the ground as Yaoyorozu carried Honenuki unsteadily, her forehead bleeding.

"We saw a Nomu... are you okay?" Kendo asked, before she glanced at Yaoyorozu, taking Honenuki from her, "What happened to you?!"

"There was a Nomu!" Awase growled, "Many arms, bashed Yaoyorozu into the ground and started chasing us with a fucking buzzsaw! Then it stopped for no reason and walked away! And then she made me stick something on it!"

"A tracker." Yaoyorozu mumbled, her eyes foggy with pain from the wound on her head, "Let's go back..."

"Yeah. There was some other lizard guy and woman but they just ignored us and left, saying that they didn't need us." Jiro muttered, "Did you guys hear Mandalay's message? About Bakugou, Todoroki, and Midoriya?"

"Yeah." Kendo nodded, "But we don't know where they are, so we can't help them. We should go back first, and get Yaoyorozu some help."

"No..." Yaoyorozu muttered, as Tetsutetsu supported her, "It's over... we can't help them..."

"What do you mean? We can't just give up like this!" Tetsutetsu retorted, but Yaoyorozu shook her head, "No... those things... only respond to orders... someone gave it an order to leave..."

"Oh..." Jiro gasped, "That means... they got what they came for. One of them... at the very least."

"Yeah... they're smart... ambushing us in a foreign environment. They can't handle all three of them at one go, that's for sure. But Midoriya's injured... and he went after Bakugo and Todoroki..." Yaoyorozu muttered, before she shook her head, "Midoriya may be quirkless... but he's strong."

"Whatever it is, let's get back to camp." Kendo clenched her fists, "The teachers and the Pussycats can do something about it, but they can't do anything while we're not all accounted for. We'll help them by lessening the burden on the teachers."

* * *

Kan quickly ushered Kodai, Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Shiozaki, Awase, Kendo, and Tetsutetsu into the building, ordering some of the other students to help them while getting Sosaki to send a message to Aizawa about their arrival. Some of the 1-B students were passed out due to the gas, but some, like Kamakiri and Kuroiro were starting to stir, while most of the members of 1-A were safe and unharmed.

Most of the students were in the building, save for Monoma, Bakugou, Todoroki, Tsuburaba, Shoji, Tokoyami, Midoriya, Shinsou, Asui, Uraraka, and some of the 1-B students that had stationed themselves deeper into the forest.

Kan continued to keep on the lookout for any students, as Chatora came and went, slowing bringing back the 1-B students. He wanted to go out and search for them, but he couldn't leave Sosaki to take care of everyone and to look out for villains at the same time. Reiko was taking watch with him, since she could detect anyone getting near the camp much better than he could. She had sniffed out one of the villain clones and Kan had smashed it to bits before it could do any damage.

Reiko turned her head towards the forest, as Monoma, Asui and Uraraka, carrying Tsuburaba, finally ambled into sight. Kan growled as they reported that some masked guy had captured Tokoyami, Shinsou and Todoroki, and the remaining students were going after them. He ordered Sosaki to relay the message to Aizawa, before clenching his fist tightly.

_How the hell did they find them here?_

_It was supposed to be safe, unknown to anyone except for the teachers involved, as well as Nezu. They couldn't even call the other teachers in case the villains intercepted the calls and found their location._

_Nezu had purposely placed Midoriya in the camp so that he would be safe, away from danger._

_So how the hell had it turned out like this!?_

* * *

Aizawa headed straight for the heart of the fire; the gas was already gone, but he needed to stop the fire so that he could find Tokoyami, Shoji, Midoriya, Shinsou, Bakugou, and Todoroki.

And if what Sosaki said was accurate... they already had Tokoyami, Shinsou and Todoroki.

He made his way into a clearing, watching as a black haired scarred man talked to another guy in a bodysuit and another blonde girl. He was about to take them down when he heard screaming, and the Erasure hero looked up into the air.

"Ohh! This is so much fun!"

"Shut up, Toga. Dabi, that's Compress!"

"I know, Twice."

Aizawa quickly identified the villains, as Sako crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Dabi stepped back as three cyan marbles rolled to his feet. Dabi blinked, trying to comprehend what had happened, before a green blur shot out of the dust, snatching them up. Bakugou blasted Sako in the face with an explosion, "Let them go, bastard!"

Sako shot out his hand, and Shoji pushed Bakugou out of the way, resulting in the multi-limbed boy being encapsulated as well.

"Fuck!" Bakugou cursed, as Dabi raised his hand, "Get out of the way."

"Got it." Sako nodded, compressing himself with his quirk as Dabi's flames washed over him, forcing Bakugou to retreat. Sako unencapsulated himself, and moved towards the villains, Dabi lighting his arm on fire once again as Bubaigawara took out his tape measure, moving in to protect Sako.

"Izu-kun! Remember me?" Toga asked, waving her arms about.

Dabi's eyes trailed to the green haired boy, his entire body shaking as he clutched the three encapsulated students. Shigaraki had said that Midoriya was Void, but Dabi didn't quite believe him at first. But he recognised those emerald green orbs; that very boy had saved his life before.

_He didn't want Shigaraki to get his hands on him._

Aizawa growled, "Midoriya, let go!"

He turned to face Sako, activating his quirk, and Midoriya threw the three capsules behind him just in time as Shoji, Todoroki, Shinsou and Todoroki were released from their prisons. Sako had been holding the capsule containing Shoji, and the multi-limbed boy blinked in confusion, before promptly smashing all six of his fists into Sako, leaving the villain dazed and confused.

"Eraser... I did ask if your students were important... but I'm impressed that you re-aquired one of our targets." Dabi grinned, turning slightly to face Shoji. He reached out with a blazing arm, and Shoji jumped backwards to dodge the attack.

"Get behind me, all of you." Aizawa ordered, "Especially you, Midoriya. You're in no state to fight right now."

Midoriya glared at Aizawa, as Bubaigawara lashed out with his measuring tape, forcing Midoriya to dodge. Midoriya stumbled slightly, but quickly regained his balance, bringing out another knife as he tried to slash Bubaigawara.

Shinsou growled, as Toga bounded up to them, grinning as she raised her knife, "Aww, you're pretty cute too!"

"You think so?" Shinsou raised his eyebrows.

"Mhm! I think -" Toga stopped her assault, her eyes glazed over, and Shinsou heaved a sigh of relief as he activated his quirk.

"Toga, you idiot." Dabi sighed, "We did warn you about him. Twice, deal with it."

"Alright! Why the fuck can't you do it?!" Bubaigawara snapped, disengaging from his fight with Midoriya to slam his measuring tape at Shinsou's feet, forcing the purple haired boy to dodge. The villain smacked Toga on the back, snapping her out of her brainwashed state.

Iguchi and Hikiishi ran out of the forest, "Sorry, we got lost."

"Well, fuck." Shinsou hissed.

"Ah... sorry..." Sako apologised, finally regaining his bearings and pushing himself to his feet, "I lost them."

"It's not okay, bastard! People make mistakes all the time, don't worry!" Bubaigawara replied, as Hikiishi activated her quirk on Toga, pulling her out of the way as Todoroki blasted ice at her. She then activated her quirk on Midoriya, and the functionally quirkless boy couldn't do anything as he was violently tugged towards Hikiishi's magnet.

He smashed into the magnet, and Hikiishi plunged her weapon into the ground, crushing Midoriya underneath.

"Hey!" Iguchi protested, "He's injured enough already! Leave him alone!"

"After what he did back there!? I'm not taking any chances!" Hikiishi retorted, lifting her magnet and smashing Midoriya into the ground again.

"You're going to kill him!" Iguchi protested.

"It doesn't matter." Sako mumbled, "He's the one Shigaraki really wants, dead or alive. But preferably alive. The others are merely bonuses."

"Midoriya! Dark Shadow, go!" Tokoyami yelled, watching as the green haired boy desperately tried to push himself up from under Hikiishi's magnet, and Dark Shadow emerged, enlarging his claws and smacking Hikiishi away. He grabbed the magnet and crushed it to bits in one claw, using his other claw to carefully pick up the injured boy.

"Dabi, fire. Light weakens it." Sako yelled, and as much as Dabi didn't want to do it, the villain lifted his arm and shot his cyan flames towards Dark Shadow, careful not to hit Midoriya. Dark Shadow screeched as he was enveloped in flames, and dropped Midoriya as he weakened, shrinking under the light from Dabi's fire.

Midoriya pushed himself to his knees, yanking a knife out of his thigh; Hikiishi's attack had dislodged one of his knives and Dark Shadow dropping him had accidentally forced it into his leg.

_He was on his last legs, and he was drained, quite literally._

He was too far away from his classmates and teacher to be able to get out of this. Midoriya reached up to his neck, and shakily peeled off his collar.

_He had no intention of dying, not yet, not when he was their real target._

_Not like he could anyways._

Out of the corner of his eye, Iguchi saw Midoriya moving, but made no comment about it. He liked Midoriya, and he did _not_ approve of Shigaraki trying to capture him; the kid was going to be a hero no matter what anyone said.

Midoriya forced himself to his feet, ignoring what felt like liquid fire coursing through his veins, and hissed.

_He was fucked up in the head ever since his parents died, he knew that at the very least. There was no way he could ever live a normal life like the others; it was just wishful thinking._

_He was the only one that deserved this fate. The others deserved a chance to live without him dragging them down._

_He had his own demons, his own personal monsters to deal with._

Midoriya threw his collar at Shinsou, before he twirled his knife between his fingers.

_And the monsters are my only friends._

He knew Shinsou the longest; he had saved the boy from his previously abusive household, and the boy was aware of his boundaries and did his best to prevent himself and his other classmates from crossing them, and was just sweet in general as he translated everything he signed to his other peers.

If there was anyone he trusted the most within the group of students, it was him.

His eyes glinted in the darkness, and he growled, before lunging.

* * *

Shinsou felt something flying at him, as he tried to kick Iguchi away, and he instinctively reached out to catch it. He unclenched his hand, and blinked as he looked at the collar, trying to process what had just happened, before ducking down as Iguchi tried to hit him with a knife.

"I told you not to take any chances -"

Shinsou looked up, watching as Midoriya swung his knife with deadly accuracy, parrying Toga away as he kicked Hikiishi in the back of her neck, knocking her out. Aizawa was busy fighting Dabi to prevent him from setting them on fire, and Tokoyami, Todoroki and Bakugou were trying to keep Sako away from everyone with their long ranged attacks; they were very, _very_, wary of his quirk, but Sako was just throwing encapsulated objects at them, and they were forced to dodge.

Shoji was currently grappling with two Iguchi clones, while Shinsou himself was dealing with the real Iguchi with a knife that the villain had given him for a "fair fight".

Bubaigawara had gone off to drag Hikiishi clear of the fight, before going to help Toga deal with Midoriya. Midoriya whipped out another knife, blocking Bubaigawara's attack. Midoriya could feel his arm giving way as Bubaigawara pressed on with his attack, and jumped out of the way, rolling backwards, before getting up again and charging.

Midoriya was never a power fighter, the only thing he had going for him was his speed, but with his injured, beaten up body, his mind foggy with pain, even that wasn't going well for Midoriya. He barely spun out of the way as Bubaigawara slashed at him, knocking his knife out of his hands, only for Toga to sink a knife into his back.

"Ne... Izu-kun... you're really cool and pretty with all that blood on you..." Toga cooed, as Shoji destroyed the two Iguchi clones and tried to make his way over to Midoriya. Bubaigawara merely made two more and sent them after Shoji.

"Get back here, Midoriya!" Aizawa growled, erasing Dabi's quirk again and flinging him into a tree a fair distance away.

Midoriya disengaged, and turned, trying to take another step towards the group, when he felt pain shooting through his entire body. His knees buckled, and he crashed into the ground harshly, as Toga and Bubaigawara pounced on him.

"We got him! Yay! We can go now!" Toga stood up and waved at Dabi, as Bubaigawara sat on Midoriya, preventing him from getting up.

Midoriya tried to reach for his fallen knife, but Bubaigawara smacked it out of the way. He desperately tried to push the villain off him, but his body finally failed him and _he just couldn't move._

Dabi pushed himself up and sighed, as Sako reached up for his earpiece, "We got the highest priority target. We're good to go."

Aizawa felt a shiver run down his spine, as Iguchi pushed Shinsou to the ground and helped Hikiishi up.

_They had been fooled._

_They had never been after Bakugou or Todoroki this entire time. Their main target had been Midoriya all along, using his classmates to lure Midoriya into a situation where he couldn't win._

A portal appeared out of nowhere, and Iguchi made a dash for the portal, as Toga helped him with Hikiishi. Sako hastily broke free from his fight with Tokoyami, Todoroki and Bakugou, dropping an encapsulated boulder on top of Shoji, before grabbing Dabi and rushing to the portal. Bubaigawara picked up the limp but still conscious Midoriya up, before running for the portal.

The green haired boy tried to bite Bubaigawara in desperation, Bubaigawara merely ignored him; the boy was too weak at this point to do any kind of damage at all.

"Midoriya!" Shinsou yelled, lunging at the portal, as Aizawa, grabbed his capture weapon and threw it at Bubaigawara. The portal closed just as Aizawa's capture weapon reached it, and Shinsou tumbled to the ground, collar tight in his grasp.

"FUCK!" Bakugou angrily blasted the bolder off of Shoji, as Todoroki and Tokoyami stood there, stunned.

"Dammit!" Shinsou growled, slamming his fist into the ground, as he looked up at the forest that was set alight with cyan blue flames.

* * *

The air at camp was gloomy.

Chatora had found the rest of the 1-B students that had fallen prey to the gas, and now, all they were missing were Aizawa, Shiretoko, Tokoyami, Todoroki, Bakugou, Shoji, Shinsou, and Midoriya.

"Fuck off, shithead!"

"Hey, it's Bakugou!" Ashido grinned, making her way to the door, watching as Aizawa emerged from the forest, along with Tokoyami, Todoroki, Bakugou, Shoji and Shinsou, all of them covered in cuts and bruises.

They currently were missing six students, and Kan did a mental count in his head.

_One, two three, four, five -_

Kan frowned, and counted again.

_One, two three, four, five. _

"Shinsou! Where's Midoriya!" Uraraka and Iida yelled in sync, running out towards them, as Reiko desperately pawed at Shinsou's leg, meowing, but Shinsou just had his eyes glued to the ground, refusing to look at his friends, "They took him."

"But... weren't Bakugou and Todoroki the targets?" Kan asked, as he ushered the tired students into the building, as Bakugou snapped, "Does that even fucking matter!? They fucking took him!"

"They tricked us. Midoriya was their highest priority target all along." Aizawa mumbled, "They pretended to be after Bakugou and Todoroki to lure Midoriya away from us, so they could take him down once his body gave out. They knew that Midoriya would fight even after sustaining all those injuries."

Reiko froze, taking a few steps back. She ran towards the forest, watching as the smoke rose into the air, before letting out the most sad, pitiful wail that anyone had ever heard.


	45. Chapter 45 - Never saw nothing

Nezu slammed his paws into the table in frustration. He had just heard the news, and he was absolutely livid with himself. Chatora had called the emergency services, and it didn't take too long for the fire in the forest to be put out, and for the students to be sent to the hospital. Muscular, Mustard, and Moonfish had been arrested, but Nezu didn't give a shit about that.

Who cared if the villains were arrested!? They had taken his kid and no one had any idea where the fuck they had brought him.

The camp was supposed to be safe. He had sent Midoriya to the camp _specifically_ to avoid a situation like this.

And yet, he had been taken as the main target of the villains' raid.

He pressed his head against the table, as tears formed in his eyes.

If he hadn't sent Midoriya to participate in the training camp, this wouldn't have happened. One pro hero missing, and one seriously injured. Fifteen students unconscious from the gas, twelve injured, and one missing.

He had failed once when the USJ had been attacked the second time.

_And he had failed once again._

* * *

Midoriya slowly opened his eyes, but his vision remained black. He moved his arms experimentally, and was surprised to find that he could move them, but there was something cold around them, and there was a clanking sound as he did so. He tried to move his head, feeling some weight on it as he did so. There was definately something blocking his vision, and there was also something pressing uncomfortably against his jaw, preventing him from opening his mouth.

"Midoriya Izuku."

He strained his ears to figure out what was going on; he couldn't see, he couldn't move, all he could smell and taste was his own blood, he could rely only on his hearing at this point in time.

"So, he's the one that you suspect to have some of anti-death quirk?"

It was a voice that Midoriya didn't recognise.

"Yes, Sensei."

_Ahh... that was Shigaraki for sure. He recognised that malicious, deranged aura._

A man took a step towards him, before he could hear the faintest sound of a door being opened.

His heart hammered in his chest.

_Where was he?_

He felt someone pressing a hand against his forehead, and a phantom feeling of something inside poking around, looking for something in him. He felt something else, something sifting through his thoughts, invading his personal privacy.

The hand let go of him.

"Interesting... You're right, Tomura. He does have a quirk. He can keep it." The unknown voice continued, "Do whatever you like with him."

"You're not going to take his quirk?" Shigaraki asked.

"It won't be beneficial to us." The unknown voice replied, before Midoriya heard some footsteps that grew softer and softer, but he was still there in the room; Midoriya could sense that.

"Huh. Hello, Void." Shigaraki's voice rang out, pressing all five fingers against his shoulder, slowly disintegrating it, "We have a lot to talk about."

Midoriya could _feel_ his skin peeling off, exposing the blood vessels and muscles beneath, and in one quick movement, he leaned forwards, and shoved his forehead where he assumed Shigaraki's face was. A loud bang rang out, before another sound of something hitting the ground, before there was a harsh sound of someone hitting what seemed to be metal bars.

"Feisty..." The unknown voice muttered, echoing about; Midoriya could tell that he was currently in a pretty small room.

"Why you..." Shigaraki growled, "I would really like to get back at you for that, but there's some stuff I have to do first. You're going to be here a while, don't get too comfortable."

The villain let go of his shoulder, before standing up, slamming what sounded like a metal door shut.

Midoriya shook his head, trying to get rid of the dizziness, before slumping back against the wall.

He needed to save as much energy as he could, if he wanted to get out.

* * *

Shinsou turned back to the couch in the dorms, before speaking, "Reiko, Ryuto, Dad's driving me to the hospital again... you guys want to come?"

He had moved into the dorms before everyone else, since his parents were also teachers, and he had also been taking care of Reiko and Ryuto since Midoriya was also living in the dorms. Midoriya's collar was in his pocket, and even though Shinsou did not feel that he deserved to have it, Reiko had insisted that he keep it.

According to her, with Koda's translations, Midoriya had given it to him for safekeeping, because he trusted him enough to do so, and Shinsou wasn't going to break that little bit of trust that Midoriya had placed in him.

There was no response, and Shinsou looked into Midoriya's room, only to find it empty.

"Reiko? Ryuto?"

Shinsou looked all over the dorms, in the empty rooms, the kitchens, everywhere, but there wasn't even a single feather or a strand of fur anywhere. He was worried; the cat and hawk had barely eaten since Midoriya's kidnapping, and only ate the smallest bit if Shinsou coaxed them.

Though... come to think of it... they _did_ finish all their food last night for some odd reason...

_Where were they? _

Shinsou hastily grabbed his phone, and dialed Aizawa, "Dad... they're gone. Both Reiko and Ryuto..."

_"Hitoshi, calm down. They're probably somewhere in the building, so don't worry. They can't open doors on their own. I'll bring you to the hospital, and I'll tell Nezu so that he can come and check, alright?"_

Shinsou wearily agreed, before making his way out of the dorms and towards the car.

The ride to the hospital didn't take too long. He had been injured, but like many of the others, they were just minor cuts and bruises that didn't need too much attention.

Most of the 1-B students were awake, luckily, since the gas had been quite a fair distance away from the forest they were using for their activity, but Shiozaki, Bondo and Kaibara were still out cold. Yaoyorozu was also still in the hospital from being hit in the head, but she was conscious, and Shinsou was currently heading in the direction of her room; he had been there the previous day with Uraraka and Todoroki, before the police had come to speak with her.

He found the door, and push it open.

"Does this mean you're going to have her make another receiver?"

"What if it does?"

"This is something we should leave to the pros! This isn't the place for us to act, you idiots!"

Shinsou blinked, "What's going on?"

Uraraka turned to face Shinsou, "We went to visit Yaoyorozu yesterday... and when you went to the bathroom during the questioning, she told us she had placed a tracker on the Nomu they encountered and she can create a device that can receive its signal. We were thinking -"

"Todoroki! This is going to end up like that incident with Stain all over again!" Iida yelled.

"Please... quiet down..." Yaoyorozu spoke up, sitting on her hospital bed, "This isn't the place for you all to be yelling."

"I know that, but you weren't there." Todoroki muttered, barely loud enough for everyone to hear, "Midoriya was focused on protecting Bakugou and I... he literally fought to the point where he couldn't even move. He did everything in his power to save us, and I couldn't even do a thing when he needed us the most!"

Todoroki looked up at Iida.

"Midoriya saved us from Stain, and from the League twice. He risked his life over and over for us, and now that he's gone, we can't even repay him that favour!? You want us to just stand back?"

"Iida is right." Asui spoke up, "We don't have the strength or the power to help. Even Midoriya... he had the experience of being a vigilante and knows how to deal with situations like this."

"You're all right." Shinsou spoke up, pushing himself to the front, and turned to look at Todoroki and Uraraka, "But I don't care. Count me in."

Iida's face fell, "Shinsou! You can't just -"

"You weren't the only ones that Midoriya saved." Shinsou glanced at Iida, "If it weren't for him... I wouldn't be here. I'm going to go help him because that's exactly what he did for me six years ago; helping someone he didn't even know when he didn't have to."

"Wait... so you want Yaomomo to make a receiver, follow it, and save Midoriya?" Ashido asked.

"I think that's the plan?" Shinsou scratched his head.

"They weren't actually after Bakugou and I... they just said that to lure Midoriya away so they could take him down." Todoroki added, "I don't think they want to kill him, but we all know how deranged Shigaraki is... he could just snap and decide to kill Midoriya any time. Shinsou, Uraraka and I are going."

"Don't go overboard with your messing around." Iida snapped, but Shoji stepped in, "You weren't there, Iida... Midoriya literally fought until his body couldn't handle the strain. I understand their frustration of having Midoriya stolen from right in front of them. I'm frustrated too... we all are... but we can't let our anger get the better of us. It's just like Midoriya said to Dark Shadow; we can't let our anger consume us and make rash decisions."

"We should leave this to the heroes... plus... Aizawa's order for us to use our quirks was only for the duration of the raid." Aoyama stammered.

"Aoyama is right. I can't say much since I needed saving as well, though." Tokoyami sighed, and Asui spoke up, "We're all shocked from Midoriya's kidnapping, but let's think this through calmly. No matter how you feel, if you say that you want to fight and break the rules... those are the same acts as those of a villain."

"You don't get it."

Everyone turned to Shinsou, as he clenched his fists tightly.

"You don't get it. You'll never get it! Midoriya never fought for himself. He fought Muscular for Kota. He fought the League for Bakugou and Todoroki! You guys won't understand cause you've all got awesome quirks... you don't know what years of abuse and suicide baiting can do to a person!"

"Shinsou?" Uraraka asked worriedly.

"Midoriya doesn't do anything for himself! He didn't care about his life when he went in to fight Muscular, or the rest of the League! He was willing to die there for Kota! He was ready to fight to the death to protect us! He was fully prepared to die if it meant we got out unharmed!" Shinsou growled, "He keeps breaking himself over and over again, and he thinks it's okay for him to get hurt for us! You can't just expect me to sit back knowing that he's willing to throw his life away so easily, because he _thinks_ so lowly of himself!"

The door opened, and a doctor poked his head in, interrupting the ongoing argument, "Uh... I would like to check up on Yaoyorozu?"

"Ah... okay... we should leave..." Sero pointed out, and Yaoyorozu lifted her head, "Alright. I would like to speak with Todoroki, Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida for a second."

The rest of 1-A nodded, and exited the room, leaving the five students standing by Yaoyorozu's hospital bed. She paused, and took a deep breath, "Heroes started out as vigilantes too."

"Yaomomo?" Uraraka frowned, but Yaoyorozu continued, "Vigilantes break the law, using their quirks to save people as well. The earliest heroes started out as vigilantes."

"Yaoyorozu, you can't be serious -"

"I am, Iida... on one condition." Yaoyorozu looked up at the class representative, "The law states that you cannot use your quirk to harm others, but they can be used in self defence. Your quirks can only be used to protect Midoriya, not to attack villains. No fighting. We'll save Midoriya while toeing the line on the rules. Only then, will I agree to help you. Do you agree to my terms?"

* * *

"Sensei... I have a question."

All for One looked up at Shigaraki, "Yes, Tomura?"

"I don't understand... he has a quirk that doesn't let him die... and while you do have a quirk that allows you to be immortal, you're not immune to being killed on the battlefield." Shigaraki pointed out. "I would have killed that boy long before the Nomu should have been in the picture, and yet, he _killed_ it. It's clearly somewhat useful."

"Tomura," All for One reached out his hand, and placed it on Shigaraki's shoulder, "I have several reasons for not taking his quirk, and it not being useful to your cause being one of it."

"Then... you have some kind of plan?" Shigaraki asked hesitantly.

"Of course." All for One replied, "Like I told you before; do whatever you want with him. He can most definitely take it. In fact, if you want to, you can get your little band of friends to play with him as well."

Shigaraki frowned, as All for One continued, "Midoriya, or Void, as you prefer to call him, won't die. He can't die, and his suffering can only get worse. Do you know why I suggested to keep him in a different building, away from the hideout?"

"Because he's bleeding and he'll make the hideout dirty? And if the heroes come and try to take use out and save him, they won't find him here." Shigaraki asked, and All for One laughed, "Smart boy. Those, among other reasons. The main reason is that we can use him to take down the hero society as a whole."

"Really?"

"Tomura, think about it. UA, one of the best hero schools in the world, allowing a student to get kidnapped on what was supposed to be a safe, secure camp; that would shake the entire world, and make them lose trust in the heroes. And imagine; if the public finds out that the heroes, probably the best few in Japan, tried to save him, and _failed_, the trust that the public has in heroes would just fall even more."

"So..." Shigaraki's eyes glinted, catching on to the plan, "You want us to break Void. He won't die... and he'll slowly lose faith... even he'll stop trusting that the heroes will find him. But the heroes _will_ find him eventually... and Void will blame them for letting him suffer and for not saving him earlier. That's why you also want Void's status as _quirkless_ to be revealed at the press conference... the mass media outbreak will completely destroy Void's faith in the society of heroes, and break him even further."

"Exactly." All for One nodded; his boy was catching on quick, he was really proud of him.

Shigaraki grinned menacingly, "Those heroes... they think they're all so perfect, that they have to follow the rules and keep everyone safe... Void won't die... the heroes will find him eventually... and the guilt for not being able to prevent him from getting hurt so badly to the point where he should be dead... it will eat them from the inside out."

"I got it... UA's press conference is in a few days." Shigaraki spoke up, "They're most likely to try and take him back then, assuming that we're distracted with watching the trust the public has in heroes crumble. I'll tell Kurogiri to be on the lookout. They may target the Nomy factory too, but I don't think they know where it is."

"I'll take care of that; don't worry about it." All for One pat Shigaraki's head, "That other pro is inside as well... they can't be too reckless. Now, rest up, I'm sure you have some _things _planned for our little guest."

* * *

"To have a student kidnapped is UA's greatest failure." Snipe sighed, "They have stolen the trust people had in us heroes, along with Midoriya. And for him to be the same person that had gotten injured in that attack on UA... the news outlets are filled with criticism of UA right now."

"Midoriya had thwarted both the League's initial attack on the USJ and the secondary attack on UA." Nezu seethed, "It's no wonder that Shigaraki holds a grudge against him for that. We were complacent, and assumed that the camp would be safe."

Kayama nodded. Nezu had informed them that Shigaraki and specifically sought Midoriya out during their shopping trip, and they had all agreed that Midoriya should go on the camp. Midoriya's kidnapping wasn't just Nezu's fault; it was all their faults.

"We need to guarantee the safety of our students." Nezu stated, trying to push his emotions away, "The dorms are built, and we should have the students stay in UA."

Yagi lifted his head, and spoke up, "I just talked with Tsukauchi. He has stated that there has been an unexpected development. They have determined the location of the League's hideout, and Yaoyorozu had apparently placed a tracker on a Nomu, so we also know where they are being stored."

"So we can go save him." Ishiyama replied.

"Yes." Yagi nodded, "The police force is currently asking other pro heroes for their cooperation on this, and Tsukauchi mentioned that they may need Present Mic and Midnight's help, as well as mine."

"But Aizawa has to be present for the press conference." Kan pointed out, "If Aizawa doesn't show up, the public would lose even more trust in UA."

"We'll focus on the details later." Nezu stated. "Present Mic, Midnight, All Might, all of you take care and be ready in case you really get called in."

He was also worried. He had checked in the dorms, and all over the campus with the aid with the teachers, but Reiko and Ryuto weren't anywhere in UA at all. There had been a mini-blackout in the night, while everyone was asleep, but that was the last time they had been seen, sitting on Midoriya's bed.

He really hoped they were all okay.

* * *

"We have gathered some of our finest heroes here. Now.. let us begin our strategy meeting." Tsukauchi started. "We currently have two places of interest. One, the League of Villain's hideout, and two, the Nomu Warehouse. Both places are located in buildings that are supposed to be empty, so we can strike."

"The pup is quirkless, so I really doubt that they will be trying to use him to make a Nomu." Chatora stated, "He fights well; they may be trying to turn him into a villain."

Most of the heroes were somewhat aware of Midoriya's quirkless status. Nishiya and Takeyama knew about it from the previous USJ incident, Kamihara had heard it from Shinsou during his internship, and Torino knew about Midoriya from Yagi. Enji had known through Todoroki, while Hakamata and Sakamata only knew about Midoriya because Nezu liked to talk about him.

"What use could he be? He doesn't have a bloody quirk." Enji snapped.

"Quirk discrimination." Kayama stated, "As far as we've known, Midoriya's suffered from quirk discrimination. They might be trying to use that and turn him against us."

"Whatever the reason, I think we all agree that Midoriya won't be at the Nomu Warehouse, and that he'll be in the main hideout." Tsukachi nodded, "Now... for Ragdoll... her quirk is useful for keeping track of people, so she's probably at the Nomu Warehouse."

"So, one hostage per building. We should proceed with caution." Kamihara dryly said.

"We should have All Might, Gran Torino, Kamui Woods and Edgeshot take the main hideout." One man suggested, "All Might can easily power through the villains, Edgeshot can take the teleporter, Kurogiri, out before they can escape, and Kamui Woods can easily restrain them. Gran Torino and Midnight can easily knock them out, and the boy in question has trust issues; a friendly face might be good to calm him down."

"I should go too." Enji growled.

"According to the reports... they brought three Nomus to the training camp. It's very possible that they may have more. The police will be standing guard in Kamino, and with so many people, we're bound to be a target. If they do decide to send the Nomus at us, you're quirk will be perfect to prevent them from regenerating." Tsukauchi stated, "Present Mic, you too. You're quirk can prevent the Nomu's from getting any new orders."

Yamada and Enji nodded, the later very much reluctantly.

"Tiger can infiltrate the Nomu Warehouse and rescue Ragdoll. Mt Lady can then destroy the warehouse with all the Nomus inside, while Best Jeanist and Gang Orca can take down any active Nomus and any other villains, if they are inside." Another man suggested, and Tsukauchi nodded.

"Alright, that's the plan. Any disagreements? If there aren't, then you're dismissed. Just rest until we move out."

Tsukauchi watched as the heroes exited the meeting room, as Yagi stopped right in front of him.

"What if... it's really _him_?" Yagi whispered, and Tsukauchi just pat him on the back.

"Don't worry about it. If we have to, we'll call Aizawa; the police and hero commission will take full responsibility for disrupting the press conference."

* * *

"And now, please watch a clip from UA High School's apology press conference that just occured!"

"Oh... it started..." Yaoyorozu muttered, pulling her classmates along to one of the televisions in Kamino. Nezu, Aizawa and Kan were standing up, but Nezu was so short that only his head could be seen from behind the table.

"Aizawa-sensei and Vlad King-sensei... and even the principal..." Uraraka gasped.

"We deeply apologise for the incident that allowed harm to come to twenty eight first years of our hero course due to being unprepared. We apologise for causing unease in society due to our negligence in properly defending ourselves as a place of learning. We are truly sorry."

Kan, Aizawa, and Nezu all bowed, and Kirishima stammered, "Even... Aizawa-sensei?"

"I'm from Yomiuri Television! This isn't the first time that this so-called League has targeted UA, and not only were there were even more students injured, the same boy who had gotten injured in the second attack on UA is the one that got kidnapped. How are you going to explain this to their parents, and what specific countermeasures are you taking?"

"We will increase policing in the surrounding area, and review the security within the school, ensuring the students' safety with a strong position. That is what we told them." Nezu stated.

"What bullshit. They're not being protected at all." One man said.

"Hero schools aren't usually defeated by villains..."

"How's that supposed to ensure anything?"

"Shit... this is bad..." Yaoyorozu mumbled.

"How can they say things like that? It isn't like UA wanted to be attacked..." Uraraka was close to tears.

Another reporter stood up.

"We've overheard some students claiming to be Midoriya Izuku's old classmates... stating that Midoriya, the missing student in question, is in fact, quirkless."

Shinsou bit his lip.

_Shit... now everyone knows..._

"Quirkless? And that kid beat Todoroki? What a farce." A man laughed, and Todoroki internally seethed. Not because he was beaten, but because they never saw how hard Midoriya worked, how determined he was, and just assumed that he sucked.

The reporter continued, "And apparently, he's managed to beat very promising students from the Hero Course, such as Kamakiri Togaru, Bakugou Katsuki and Todoroki Shouto, who possess quirks that far surpass him in strength and power, despite being from the General Education course where they have no lessons on fighting at all. What does this have to say about the lessons that the Hero Course are receiving?"

"Exactly! How is a quirkless kid supposed to keep up with people with quirks?"

Yaoyorozu took a step back, "I... didn't know... that they thought so badly of the quirkless..."

"Midoriya is a very hardworking child, and he's very intelligent. He is able to analyse his situation well and make appropriate decisions in order to defeat his peers." Aizawa stated calmly, "Analysis is a skill that can be learnt and taught, but it does come easier for some people. It isn't a quirk, but it is a very useful tool that we are also teaching our aspiring heroes."

Another reporter spoke up, "There has been no such thing as a quirkless hero as we're all aware that they don't have any powers, like everyone else. Is that, by chance, the reason why -"

"Are you implying that we let them take him because he's quirkless?" Aizawa growled, and Kan also turned to glare at the reporter.

"No..." The reporter stammered, "But everyone knows that he can't be a hero -"

"No buts." Much to everyone's surprise, the most civilized of the trio, Nezu, stood up on his chair and hissed, "Midoriya has worked very hard, much harder than his peers to make up for his lack of a quirk. We don't know much about his past, but he's been pushing and training himself in order to keep up with his classmates. Just because he's quirkless, you looked past all the hard work that Midoriya put into his training!"

"That doesn't just mean that he can -"

Nezu continued, "Listen to yourselves. What if the villains are letting Midoriya listen, letting him watch this right now?"

All the reporters at the press conference promptly clammed up.

"What if he can see just how little you believe in him?" Nezu spoke up, breaking the silence, "What if he can see just how little people care about him?"

"Are you suggesting that the villains can win him over?" One brave reporter shakily asked.

"Midoriya's heart is too big; there's no way he'd turn to the villains side." Nezu growled, hopping to the ground. "I suggest that you think about your next questions carefully. We will not tolerate any more questions about Midoriya. This press conference is supposed to be about how UA will deal with the current influx in villains, _not_ to badmouth Midoriya behind his back on whether or not he can be a hero because of his lack of a quirk."

"Come on. Jiro said that she'll record it for us." Yaoyorozu muttered, as a receiver emerged from her palm, "We don't have time to waste. Let's go save Midoriya."


	46. Chapter 46 - I'm just a liar

"So, Void," Shigaraki started, unlocking the metal door and stepping into the confined space. Midoriya barely reacted to his words, but he was aware that the villain was here.

He heard Shigaraki step closer, and felt a hand reach out, slowly but surely disintegrating his shoulder.

"Do you think the heroes care about you?"

Midoriya paused at the question; he definitely hadn't been expecting that from the man. He had to be careful; Shigaraki was up to something for sure.

"I mean... I know it's not publicly known and all that you're quirkless... but do you think they'll come and save you? Even with that knowledge?"

Midoriya split his focus between his leg and Shigaraki's words. He needed to figure out what was going on. Shigaraki knows that he'll get out of his alive due to his quirk... so what on earth was he planning? Was he trying to make him lose faith in the heroes?

"I know that you know that you can't speak. You have a fucking muzzle." Shigaraki growled, "But you can fucking nod and shake your head. Answer me."

Midoriya weakly nodded his head. He knew that this event would probably be broadcasted all over Japan... and he knew for a fact that Nezu would want to save him. The other heroes... Midoriya wasn't too sure about. They'd probably do it for the publicity; that, and it would look bad on the hero society if they didn't save a student from one of the best schools in UA.

"Do you think they really want to do it? Do they really want to save a useless, quirkless child?"

If Shigaraki wanted him to lose faith in heroes... he was doing a pretty bad job at trying to hide his real intentions.

Which meant that Midoriya shouldn't agree with him. He'll just refuse to agree with everything Shigaraki said... piss him off... make him frustrated...

Use his emotions against him... cloud his mind...

If he made Shigaraki angry enough... maybe he'd find out more about their real intentions. Find out what they were planning.

That was the only way he could be useful; by knowing.

Midoriya nodded his head again.

"Well then... you're pretty stupid then." Shigaraki laughed, "But you'll learn, in time. Well, hope you're having fun."

Midoriya could feel that Shigaraki's quirk had sped up, disintegrating his muscles, eating away into his shoulder until he reached the bone. Blood was flowing profusely out of his arm, and Midoriya bit his lip to prevent himself from making a single sound.

_You deserve it... don't you agree... you deserve to suffer... after all, you're just a worthless, pathetic child who can't do anything right... you deserve to die... but you can't even do that right..._

Midoriya tried to block his own thoughts on his head, and focused on the fresh, metallic smell of blood in the air.

_... no one really wants to save you..._

* * *

"Hi, Izu-kun!" Midoriya heard Toga chirp, as the female villain stepped into his cell, "I hope you missed me!"

Midoriya didn't reply; he didn't want to, and he couldn't even if he had wanted to.

"You look so pretty, you know? All covered in blood… though it's a pity I can't see your cute face… Shiggy said that we can't remove that thing for safety reasons or something. I bet you're cute with all that blood on you..." He could feel her staring intently at him.

"Aww... pity it ain't fresh, though... except for your arm... Fresh blood is way better than dried up blood, don't you agree?" Toga cooed, and Midoriya heard her squat down in front of him.

He heard the sound of a knife being taken out of a sheath, and the rustling of Toga's sleeve, almost as if she were resting her elbow on her knee and bringing her head to rest on her hand.

Toga pressed the knife against his stomach, and pushed against it slightly, breaking the skin.

"Do you mind? Don't mind if I do -"

Midoriya couldn't stop himself from taking a sharp intake of breath as Toga sunk the knife into his gut and ripped it out harshly, tearing apart more of his flesh as she did so.

"Whoopsie! Fresh... red... blood... so tasty... Does quirkless blood taste different from other kinds of blood?" She laughed, and sank her knife into Midoriya's chest again.

"You should struggle a bit more... it's more fun!" She giggled hysterically.

Midoriya internally sighed. This girl was crazy. He probably wasn't going to be able to get anything out of her. He'd just sit back and wait it out.

* * *

"Sup, kid."

Midoriya shifted slightly. His entire body hurt; apparently the metal cell he was in was electrified, and Hikiishi had fun using her quirk on him and standing her ground from outside the cell, letting him slam into the cell bars and constantly get electrocuted.

Initially, the chains that connected his cuffs to the wall were short, and he could barely even stand up, but they were eventually elongated before Hikiishi came in.

"We, well, Spinner and I saw what Magne did to you, from the hideout. Shigaraki said we can do whatever we wanted with you."

Despite not being able to see anything, Midoriya blinked.

_Security cameras?_

He heard the cage door open, and Dabi walked into his cell, settling down to the left of the chained boy.

"And I don't feel like harming you. You cold, kid?" Dabi asked.

Midoriya seriously didn't know. He wasn't even sure if all his limbs were intact at this point; the electricity was numbing his senses and Toga had stabbed and slashed him all over the place.

Midoriya suddenly felt some warmth on his left, and Dabi chuckled.

"I can't remove the muzzle; Shigaraki might be watching. You hungry? I can try to convince Shigaraki to let you have a bite or two."

Midoriya wasn't hungry at all, and that wasn't surprising at all; he wasn't even sure his stomach was in one piece. His quirk had activated when he fought against Hikiishi; his back had snapped when she had shoved him into the ground with her gigantic magnet. And even though he was sure that he was supposed to be bleeding out, at the very least, his quirk wasn't doing anything to heal him. There was also blood leaking into his lungs from where his ribs had pierced them, and Midoriya was really not sure what was intact and what wasn't. He really didn't know what the heck his quirk was supposed to do; he just knew that it was as fucked up as he was.

He didn't want to respond; he knew Dabi was somewhat of a decent guy, but he didn't want to waste his energy.

Dabi chuckled, "You don't have to reply if you don't want to. I do know you're trying to conserve your energy. You gave Shigaraki a very good thwack on the head last night, I can tell you that."

The two of them continued to sit in silence, the only sound being the wind that was blowing from a few small cracks in the walls and blood dripping to the ground.

"I'm not sure if you remember me... six years is a long time, after all... you saved me from those thugs after I overused my quirk and burnt myself." Dabi gave a dry laugh, "I really thought they were going to kill me... You even went to a pharmacy and bought burn cream, trying to treat my self inflicted injuries, berating me about taking care of myself. You're the only people that... went out of their way to help me... and I'm grateful for that."

Dabi pat Midoriya on his undisintegrated shoulder, "The look in you eyes have changed since then... but I'm not going to ask about it. Don't lose hope, okay, kid? Those heroes better fucking bust you out of this hellhole, or Spinner and I will have to do it ourselves."

* * *

Iguchi sighed, as he kept an eye on the camera. Midoriya could actually walk around his cell when he actually had the strength and energy to do so, which was very rarely. Shigaraki, Hikiishi and Toga were constantly with him, and this was one of the rare times when they left him alone.

Sako had spent a couple hours with him in total, but all he did was just talk and talk, and then, talk some more, his dramatic flair getting the better of him. He even said that it was too dark in the room for him to put up a show, and asked Shigaraki if they could install a light, but Shigaraki vehemently refused. The same went for Bubaigawara; the man just kept talking and contradicting himself. Iguchi himself, as well as Dabi, usually just spent their time talking to the boy.

"How's the squirt?" Dabi asked, as Kurogiri poured him a glass of water and another for Iguchi.

"Moving a little. Probably regained some energy and is curious about his surroundings." Iguchi replied, taking the water, "Thanks."

Dabi drained his glass, "At the rate they're going... they're going to kill him before the press conference comes around. Heck, probably sooner. Shigaraki said he could take it without dying... but I'm not sure how he's going to do that without a quirk. Pure determination? Ha."

Iguchi sighed, "Shigaraki hates him, Toga likes blood, and Big Sis Magne is terrified of him after he beat Muscular to a pulp."

"Good. I never liked Muscular; that bastard deserved it." Dabi grumbled, eyeing the screen, "He stood up? I thought his legs were broken."

"They were broken." Iguchi winced at the memory, "Twice checked; he apparently had cloned this random guy with a x-ray quirk in his youth. The only bones that aren't broken is his spine and neck; heck, the kid's skull is cracked a bit here and there."

"Yeah..." Dabi watched the screen intently, "I think he's making it worse."

"Huh?" Iguchi frowned, before he turned to the screen and nearly fell off his chair, "Holy fuck. What is he doing?"

"Charging at the bars and getting electrocuted." Dabi dryly replied.

"I can see that." Iguchi growled, "I'm not blind. Should we stop him? He's going to die even faster."

Kurogiri frowned, and he put the glass he was wiping down, "I'll deal with it."

Minutes later, the security feed buzzed out.

* * *

Midoriya could hear the sound of a portal opening.

His entire body was numb and hurting at the same time, but he was too tired to care at this point. The chains, while long enough to let him move, weren't long enough to let his hands reach the bars. He charged against the metal bars again, bashing his head against the metal, ignoring the pain that flared down his spine. He heard electricity crackling, and he could feel the tingle running through his body.

Kurogiri watched helplessly as Midoriya desperately threw himself against the bars, again and again. He may be a villain, but he wasn't heartless.

At least, he wasn't as heartless as Sensei and Shigaraki.

"Stop." Kurogiri muttered. He knew that Midoriya had heard him, he had seen that small, miniscule, almost unnoticeable flinch from the boy, but the child merely ignored him and continued bashing himself against his cell, electricity racing through his body.

Kurogiri teleported into the cell, and quickly grabbed Midoriya's arms, pulling him away from the bars.

"You're not stupid. You know that's not going to help." Kurogiri berated, gently helping Midoriya to the ground.

Okay, so _maybe_ he was slightly sorry for the boy, but who wouldn't be sorry, after seeing him so desperately trying to escape by using himself as a human hammer.

Kurogiri teleported back out of the cell. Midoriya seemed to have calmed down, or at least, had stopped throwing himself at the bars. Satisfied with his work, Kurogiri teleported back to the hideout.

* * *

Reiko sniffed the ground, before letting out a meow. Ryuto swooped down from the sky, landing next to the cat, before they looked around Kamino Ward, watching as people rushed to and fro, cars honking loudly in the busy streets.

_They could finally start looking for their human._

Reiko had been on Yaoyorozu's bed when she had been interrogated by the officers, and had watched as Yaoyorozu created the receiver, and switched it on, just to make sure it was working, before passing it to the police. She managed to get a quick glimpse of the screen, and caught two words on the screen, _Kamino Ward._

And as much as she didn't feel like it, she forced herself, and Ryuto, to finish all the food that Shinsou had set out for them.

They were going to get their human back; they were going to need the energy.

Reiko had a general idea of where to go; Midoriya had shown her a map of Japan a couple of times. Musutafu was located near Tokyo, and Yokohoma was to the southwest of Tokyo. She wasn't sure exactly how to get there, but she just followed that tingly feeling in her gut that got stronger when she was closer to Midoriya.

They had left UA in the middle of the night; Shinsou and Aizawa had been asleep, and while she hadn't figured out how to sneak out without anyone, especially Nezu, noticing, there had been a small blackout as Yamada had accidentally short circuited the the main generators, so that had solved that problem for them. Reiko and Ryuto had used the few minutes before the back-up generator kicked in to slip out of Midoriya's room and exit the premises.

The doors were the easiest part of the plan; actually getting to Kamino Ward was the hard part, and then they had to figure out how to get Midoriya out of the clutches of those stupid villains. They'd burn that bridge when they got to it; they had to get to Kamino first.

They had gotten lost in the messy placements of buildings a few times, and there were a few times where kids were chasing after them for being "cute", and they had been forced off track.

The only people who could call her cute was Midoriya and his friends, dammit. The only reason she didn't claw their eyes out was because it would just bring more attention to them, and it was more trouble than it was worth.

They had started seeing street signs with directions to Kamino Ward, and while Ryuto couldn't _exactly_ read, he recognised the characters well enough for him to scout a straight path to their destination.

It had taken them around twelve hours in total for them to reach Kamino Ward, but now, they were finally here. They had left at around four in the morning, and now, it was afternoon; the sun was going to set soon, and they needed to find Midoriya before the evening rush hour started.

Reiko ducked into an alleyway, before nodding upwards. Ryuto immediately got the message, and shot into the sky. He couldn't fly for a very long time, or do complicated manoeuvres, but his elevated vantage point and keen eyesight would be vital in finding Midoriya quickly.

Reiko looked around, and closed her eyes, trying to block out all the loud sounds and nauseating smells, focusing on that small tingle that had gotten stronger since they had arrived. Nezu had suggested that it was a quirk, but Reiko didn't really care; quirk or no, she was finding her human no matter what and no one was going to stop her.

She turned her head, and tried to locate the direction where that tingle grew stronger. She let that feeling guide her, as she weaved between buildings, ducking behind trash cans and hiding behind bushes, making her way forwards. She knew that Ryuto could see that she was on the move, and was following her in the skies, flying smoothly and silently over buildings.

Slowly, the crowd thinned, and Reiko looked around in confusion. She eyed the dilapidated buildings around her warily; this was certainly not what she was expecting.

Ryuto let out a small squawk as he fluttered down beside her, but Reiko quickly pressed her paw against Ryuto's beak, shushing him immediately. She couldn't sense anyone malicious, but she wasn't going to take any chances, not when they were this close to finding their human.

Ryuto sniffed the air, and shrunk back, fluffing up his feathers. Reiko tilted her head; her sense of smell wasn't as acute as Ryuto's, and she wondered what happened to make her baby bird flinch like that. It didn't matter that the seven week old bird was bigger than her; he was still her baby.

Ryuto took another sniff, before he perked up, and started walking in one direction. Reiko followed behind him; they were close, very close, but she couldn't figure out which building Midoriya was being kept it. Ryuto slowly led her towards one building, and Reiko paused, picking up a very familiar smell in the air.

_Blood._

It was Midoriya's blood, for sure. She had been around Midoriya long enough, and as much as she hated to admit it, she had smelt enough of his blood from his injuries, from villains and self inflicted, to recognise it immediately.

Ryuto turned to look at her, tilting his head slightly, and Reiko nodded, giving her confirmation that they were on the right track. They followed the metallic smell, reaching a broken, abandoned building, and paused. Ryuto fluttered up to the door, and tried to push the handle down, to no avail.

He looked down at the cat, and shook his head. He tapped a talon against the door, and gave a low purr.

_Locked._

Reiko growled slightly, before surveying the building. There was a tinted window, but they couldn't just break it; they had no means of doing so, Ryuto would most definitely injure himself if he outrightly kamikaze-crashed into it, and they had to find a way in without doing any damage, or the villains would find out about their presence.

She walked around the building, sniffing the ground. It was an old, abandoned building; there _had_ to be an opening _somewhere_. With all their hiding and sniffing about, it had taken them another few hours to figure out Midoriya's location, and the sun was setting.

There was the _tiniest _crack between the wall and the ground. It was smaller than Reiko herself, but cats _are_ known for fitting into small, narrow spaces, after all. Ryuto wouldn't fit, though; he was too big, and the cracked wall could damage his flight feathers.

Ryuto fluttered down beside her, and Reiko pawed at the hole, before nuzzling Ryuto and placing her paw on the ground, telling him to stay put. They couldn't understand each other's native tongue; Reiko didn't speak bird and Ryuto didn't speak cat. But they understood each other; their body language, combined with their bond, allowed them to get the message across just fine, and it was the same with Midoriya.

The hawk waited patiently by the hole as Reiko squeezed herself through the miniscule hole, before quickly shaking herself all over, getting rid of all the dust and dirt on her fur. She looked up, and the metallic scent of blood hit her like a freight train; her sense of smell was being overwhelmed by all the blood.

_Midoriya's blood._

Reiko quickly looked around the room, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. There was a vent in the room, on the ceiling, but they didn't have a screwdriver, and she couldn't reach it from her position on the ground anyways. The door wasn't barricaded, merely locked, but Reiko couldn't unlock reach the doorknob either, and there wasn't anything in the room that she could climb and jump from.

She heard a faint tap on another tinted window, one that was just above the whole she had slipped through, and she froze.

There was silence.

And then, another tap, followed by a chirp.

Reiko released the breath she was holding, and she let out a faint meow, letting Ryuto know that she was still there; there wasn't anyone around to hear them. There were a bunch of metal bars connecting the ceiling and the floor together, and she made her way over to investigate.

She went to sniff at a metal bar, but she stopped. She could sense something else in the metal bar, and she wasn't eager to find out what it was. She slipped through the metal bars, careful not to touch them, before spotting a figure lying against the wall lifelessly, barely breathing, sitting in a puddle of water.

_Midoriya._

There was something over his eyes, and another thing, a _muzzle_, she noted, covering his mouth.

She took a step forward hesitantly, placing her paw in the puddle of water. She lifted her paw, and paused. It didn't feel like water at all; it was too sticky, and stuck to her fur uncomfortably.

_Blood._

Reiko didn't like getting her fur dirty, but at this point, she didn't even care. She rushed up to Midoriya, not caring that blood was spilled all over the ground, not caring that she was making the blood splash around as she ran, ignoring the fact that she was getting more of it stuck to her fur.

She stopped when she reached Midoriya's arm, and sniffed it, getting nothing but that horrid metallic scent.

Reiko nudged his arm lightly, got no response.

_His arm was cold._

Reiko looked up, and meowed, pushing his arm again, but slightly harder this time.

She heard the sound of metal hitting against each other, and she spotted the faint twitch of his finger. She looked upwards, seeing Midoriya move to look at her despite his vision being blocked. Reiko settled down by Midoriya's hand, and tried to think. She didn't know how much time she had spent thinking, but by the time she got up and made her way back outside, the sun had already set.

Reiko climbed out of the hole, and let out a meow. Ryuto had been perching on the window ledge, and he glided downwards. Reiko nudged her head towards the sky, and made a faint, rumble-like purr that sounded like an engine.

Ryuto blinked, before flapping his wings slightly, elevating himself a few centimeters off the ground, before landing. He fluffed up his feathers, and let out a high pitched screech, before tilting his head. Reiko nodded, and Ryuto let out an exhausted but determined chirp, flapping his wings and zooming into the sky; it didn't matter if they found Iida or Uraraka or Shinsou or Yamada or some other pro hero, they just had to find someone that could help Midoriya.

Reiko slipped through the hole again, before carefully climbing up onto Midoriya's lap, careful to avoid any injuries that he had, which wasn't easy; there was so much blood everywhere that she wasn't too sure where Midoriya was injured and where he wasn't.

She let out a faint purr, and stayed completely still.


	47. Chapter 47 - Without deceiving

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Shinsou asked.

"Yes." Yaoyorozu nodded, "This is the spot the receiver is showing."

"Looks... kinda rundown. You sure we're going to find him here?" Uraraka pointed out.

"Well... I guess this is their hideout. Or, at the very least... some sort of storage facility." Shinsou spoke up, "The tracker was placed on the Nomu, right? Not on the villains themselves."

"That is true..." Todoroki muttered, "Also... just because the Nomus, and maybe the villains as well, are here, doesn't mean that Midoriya is here too."

"We have very little to go on." Yaoyorozu admitted.

"The only person who excels in sneaking around is Shinsou, given that he's aiming to be an underground hero, but I will still stop you if I think it's dangerous." Iida stated, "Just because I'm your friend, I will not hesitate to call the police if you attack."

"Well... Kamino is huge." Shinsou sighed, "We should check this place first. It's our only lead so far."

The group cautiously made their way closer to the building.

"No reaction. The lights aren't on either. It doesn't look like anyone's inside." Todoroki stated. "There's not a lot of people... but there are a few."

"We can't do anything to stand out." Uraraka whispered, "What should we do?"

"Let's try the back. Maybe we'll find something." Yaoyorozu muttered.

They made their way into an empty alleyway, trying to figure out how to get around the building, when suddenly, a squawk reverberated through the air. Shinsou looked up just as something shot towards them like a bullet. He reached his hands out just in time, catching the object before it hit the ground.

"What was that?" Iida asked, "A projectile?"

Shinsou took a closer look at the object, when he saw a bird in his grasp, shaking its head. He recognised the white and brown feathers, "Ryuto?"

The hawk looked up at the mention of his name, letting out a tired sounding cry.

Shinsou carefully smoothed out Ryuto's feathers. The bird was trembling, his feathers covered with dirt, and he looked completely exhausted.

"Where have you been all this time? What are you doing in Kamino? What happened to you?" Shinsou asked, carefully cradelling the hawk in his hands.

Ryuto gave a weak warble, but there wasn't anyone around that understood him.

"Shinsou, take care of Ryuto." Yaoyorozu ordered, "We'll continue looking for Midori-"

Ryuto's head shot up at the mere mention of Midoriya's name, and started screeching, flapping his wings wildly. Shinsou feared that he would fall out his grasp, but one thing was clear; whatever the bird had been doing since he disappeared, it was clearly related to Midoriya.

"Ryuto, shush! Calm down, look at me." Shinsou spoke up, and the hawk tucked his wings back in and turned to face the purple haired boy.

"Midoriya. Do you know where he is?"

Ryuto's eyes lit up, and he nodded.

Uraraka felt hope bubbling up in her chest, "Is he okay?"

Ryuto paused, thinking, before he shook his head, though he seemed a bit hesitant as he did so.

Shinsou bit his lip nervously, "Alright. Can you lead us to him?"

Ryuto nodded, and leapt out of Shinsou's arms. He staggered slightly, before straightening out, flapping his wings as he zoomed off in one direction, the students trying their best to keep up with the hawk. They could barely see the avian against the night sky, but Shinsou managed to keep an eye on the bird, until they finally reached another section of Kamino, where it consisted of mostly old and broken buildings.

"Huh... this is quite a fair distance from there..." Yaoyorozu looked at the tracker, "This section has been marked to be torn down to free up space in a few weeks, and it's pretty near the main streets; they're just a block or two away. All the plumbing and electricity, as far as I know, has been cut off. Is this really their hideout?"

"I guess we'll find out." Todoroki muttered, eyeing Ryuto carefully as he flew towards one building in particular, "Ryuto seems to have found something."

Ryuto suddenly paused, as a figure walked out of the shadows.

"You." Todoroki growled, as Dabi smirked, putting his hands up, "Relax, kid. I'm not guarding the kid or anything. When it comes to Void, I'm on your side."

"What?" Uraraka blurted out, confused, as Dabi sighed, "Kid saved my life a few years back. I owe him this."

The villain reached into his pocket, and fished out a key, before dropping it on the ground, speaking with a very sarcastic tone, "Oh no. I'm so clumsy. I dropped the key to the cell door and now I can't find it."

The students stared at the villain in confusion, as Dabi walked away, "I don't have the keys to the main door or his cuffs. The generator is around the back. Have fun."

"What was that about?" Iida asked, frowning, bending down to pick up the key, and Shinsou muttered, "We got lucky. One of the villains, Spinner, I think... thinks very highly of Midoriya, and didn't want to hurt him. Now, this other guy is working behind the League's back to save Midoriya."

Ryuto looked where Dabi had disappeared to, before he flew off again, and landed on the door handle. He pecked at the keyhole a few times, before he looked up expectantly at the group.

"He's in here?" Iida asked, "It's so... quiet."

Ryuto let out another warble, and flew to Uraraka's shoulder as Todoroki tested the doorknob, "No good. It's locked."

"Yaoyorozu, can I borrow two hairpins?" Shinsou asked, and Yaoyorozu took them out of her hair, "You know how to pick locks?"

"My dad taught me." Shinsou replied, inserting a pin inside the keyhole and fiddling the other about inside. A few soft clicks were heard, and Shinsou twisted the pins around, before he stood up and reached for the handle. The door opened, and all they saw was darkness.

They heard a meow.

"I can't see anything. Todoroki, can you make a small fire?" Yaoyorzu asked, and Todoroki nodded, complying.

Immediately, the fire in his palm lit up the room, and behind a multitude of metal cell bars, they made out a figure slumped lifelessly against a wall. He had a thick, secure blindfold on, as well as a muzzle, and there was a lot of blood on the floor.

Ryuto let out a chirp, and they saw something move. By the figure's lap, they saw mismatched cyan and mint eyes gleaming, and Shinsou bit his lip nervously.

"Reiko? So... this really is... Midoriya -" He reached out for the cell door, and flinched backwards as he felt the electric shock.

"That's what he meant by generators. I'll deactivate it. I've seen my father do it before." Uraraka clenched her fists determinedly, before running out. It took a minute or two, before Uraraka re-entered the room, "Alright, it's done."

* * *

"Shigaraki is a greenhorn, a new villain. There is no way he could have come up with all their plans on his own, not without help. The League definitely has a brain behind it. And his strength is comparable to that of All Might, and he's also crafty and cautious. If his safety isn't guaranteed, he will not appear. We must capture Shigaraki and arrest the others as soon as possible."

Tsukauchi paused, "This is a race against time. The press conference was in place to deceive the villains. Nezu is upset, the entirety of UA is, but they're not supposed to show it usually. I told them to let the cameras see how distressed they are, so the villains won't think that we'll rush in on the very same day."

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Yamada scratched the back of his head, "Doesn't this seem a bit too... straightforward?"

"We don't have a choice, Mic. Time's running out." Kayama grit her teeth, "We need to get Midoriya out of there as soon as possible; Shigaraki hates his guts, and the longer he remains in their grasp, the more he suffers."

Jeanist pat Yamada on the back, "I know you're all worried about your student. Have some faith. Heroes are supposed to be able to turn any situation around, aren't they?"

* * *

Shinsou stuck the key into the keyhole, unlocking the metal cell door. He flung the door open, and ran into the cell, squatting down beside the green haired boy, "Midoriya?"

Yaoyorozu felt like throwing up. The metallic smell in the room was nauseating, and in the flickering light from Todoroki's flame, she couldn't even tell if Midoriya was alive or dead. There was a lot of blood splattered all over the ground, most of it dried up, though it glistened slightly, signifying that it had just dried up recently.

"Is he..." Uraraka trailed off, not wanting to finish her statement. Shinsou gently reached for Midoriya's bloody neck, careful to avoid what looked like a couple slashes across his throat, trying to search for a pulse.

"I found a pulse... it's faint... but it's there." Shinsou nodded, "Midoriya, you awake?"

A clunking sound rang out, as Midoriya attempted to move his arm. Shinsou gently grabbed his hand, "Stop, don't move, okay? I'm going to try and take off your blindfold and muzzle, alright?"

There was no response from Midoriya, but Shinsou still reached out, carefully trying to undo the mess of knots and loops that kept the thick blindfold on Midoriya's face. Shinsou growled, "They're dead knots, and they're too tight. Midoriya, can I cut the string?"

Shinsou saw Midoriya nod slightly, and the lavender haired boy slipped a penknife out of his pocket, and began gently sawing away at the string.

Iida opted to survey the room. There was a camera in one corner, but he wasn't sure if it was working or not, but besides from that, the room was pretty much barren.

Shinsou finally sawed through the string, and gently removed the blindfold. He passed it to Uraraka, who placed it gently on the ground. They didn't want to make any loud sounds that would startle Midoriya and set him off.

Midoriya weakly opened his eyes, and blinked, his eyes adjusting to the light from Todoroki's fire.

"Alright, I'm going to try and take the muzzle off now. Just... stay still..."

Shinsou rested his knees on the ground, trying to ignore the fact that his was kneeling down in Midoriya's blood. He reached up, much more stable this time, and slowly undid the buckle, carefully slipping the contraption off Midoriya's face.

Almost immediately, Midoriya lurched forward, gurgling noises erupted from his torn and battered throat. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and coughed, before he lurched forwards again, spitting out some more blood.

"Midoriya! Are you okay?" Uraraka asked, although the answer was pretty obvious at this point.

Shinsou wanted to help Midoriya, but the problem was that he didn't know where Midoriya was injured.

Midoriya's harsh coughing fit finally died down, and he leaned back, breathing heavily. His was bleeding from the chest, and Midoriya lifted his hands to try and rub the blood off his mouth.

"Midoriya. Stop. You're just going to make it worse." Uraraka mumbled, carefully grabbing Midoriya's hand and guiding it back to the ground. "Shinsou, can you pick the cuffs?"

"I don't see a keyhole." Shinsou shook his head, as Midoriya weakly slumped against his arm. The lavender haired boy felt his heart stop as he realised just how cold Midoriya's limp form was. Shinsou carefully shifted himself so that he could sit down beside Midoriya, and let the green haired boy rest his head against his shoulder.

"You're cold. How long have they left you like this?" Shinsou seethed.

Iida bent down and gently pressed his head against Midoriya's forehead, trying to avoid the blood that was currently dripping down the boy's face.

"He's burning up, though. He's sick, too." Iida muttered, as Midoriya coughed out more blood, "We need to get him help, fast."

The fire coming from Todoroki's arm flickered, as the boy growled, "I can try to melt the chains."

"And you'll hurt Midoriya if you do that." Uraraka shook her head, "We need to get some help from the pros."

"But we can't just leave Midoriya here like this." Yaoyorozu stated, as the ground rumbled.

* * *

_"Hello, this is Pizza-La, Kamino store."_

Dabi facepalmed. Really? This was the best that the heroes and police could come up with?

The wall behind him exploded, as Yagi burst into the room with a punch.

"They brought All Might?" Iguchi gasped, as Nishiya elegantly swung into the room with his quirk, binding the villains and pinning them to the ground.

"A tree? Are they stupid?" Dabi grumbled, activating his quirk, only for Torino to zoom in and kick him into a daze, "Don't be impatient! It'll be in your best interests to stay put."

"You can't run anymore, League of Villains!" Yagi declared, "Why? Because we're here!"

Kamihara slipped in and letting Kayama in.

"You bastards! If Void were in the same room as us, you would have killed him!" Iguchi angrily snarled, struggling as Nishiya tightened his grip on the lizard man, "That's hella irresponsible!"

"Wait... Midoriya... isn't here?" Kayama surveyed the room carefully.

"The warper isn't here either..." Kamihara muttered, before he blinked, "Don't tell me -"

"Holding a press conference right after we kidnapped a student... did you really think we were that stupid to fall for that?" Shigaraki cackled, standing up, "You won't find your precious little Void here... we didn't want to keep his broken, bleeding body here, after all!"

Kayama gasped, "What did you do to him!?"

"Oh... wouldn't you like to know." Shigaraki smirked, "Justice... peace... I'll destroy this garbage heap that you put a lid on with such vague ideas. It was for that reason I set All Might apart... until Void came into the picture."

"Get to the point. Where is he?! What did you do to him?!" Kayama demanded, stomping up to the villain, but Shigarakia merely laughed, "Void leaked our first attack on UA, killed my Nomu in the second, and then took down that powerhouse Muscular..."

Torino and Kamihara blinked. This was about Midoriya... so why were they talking about that mysterious vigilante? And didn't Sosaki say that Midoriya was the one that beat Muscular, and Nishiya did mention that Midoriya killed the Nomu that was designed to take out All Might -

_It finally clicked._

Midoriya was Void.

It seemed that Kayama had some knowledge about this, though Yagi looked as confused as they were. It was highly likely that Nezu knew as well, given his relationship to his cub, but this wasn't the time to be wondering about that.

_They had to get the pup back, then they'll get their answers._

Shigaraki smiled, "He always was a pain, you know. Why would I want to give him back when I can make him suffer more?"

A portal erupted out of nowhere, depositing a few Nomus in front of the heroes. Before any of them could react, more portals appeared, sucking all the villains right out of Nishiya's grip and out of the room.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Nishiya yelped.

"It wasn't your fault. We didn't do anything either!" Kamihara growled, evading a Nomu.

"Endeavor! We need backup!" Nishiya turned around, only to find that the police force on the streets below them were swarming with Nomus that were being deposited via portal.

"Warehouse Team, are you there?" Kayama yelled, dodging a strike by a Nomu.

"Aim for the exposed brains!" Yamada screamed, ripping a knife out of his belt, "Eraser, I fucking love you for teaching me to use a knife."

_"Yeah... we got the warehouse and Ragdoll. Mission __accomplished__."_ Hakamata's voice reported.

"Is Midoriya with you?" Kayama asked, driving a knife into the exposed brain of the closest Nomu.

_"No... isn't he supposed to be at the hideout?"_

"Shit..." Kayama growled, "Midoriya's not here, and he isn't at the warehouse either! Tsukauchi!"

"What a mess. Tsukauchi! Expand the evacuation area!" Enji growled, as he roasted two more Nomus.

_"All Might, you mentioned some guy with a face mask... he's here."_ Hakamata continued, and Tsukauchi hissed; they must have more than two hideouts.

"All Might! Go to the warehouse! _He's _there, Jeanist said so! Also, keeps the comms open! I'm calling for backup!" Tsukauchi yelled, tapping his earpiece twice, barely managing to dodge out of the way of a Nomu before Yamada killed it.

"Endeavor... are you okay?" Yagi asked, and Enji hissed, "What on earth are you looking at to ask a question like that? Do you need bifocals? If you need to go, then just go, dammit!"

"Yeah. I'll leave it to you!" Yagi nodded, before he leapt into the air.

* * *

Takeyama smirked, as she brought her foot down on the warehouse, completely obliterating it. She grabbed a wriggling Nomu in her hand, and crushed it. Chatora had already found Shiretoko, and had already checked the entirety of the building; as predicted, Midoriya was nowhere to be found.

Hakamata and Sakamata restrained the rest of the Nomus, as the police force came charging in.

"Urg... are these really alive?" Takeyama grimaced, "Isn't this too easy, Jeanist? Maybe we should have been on the Hideout Team instead of the Warehouse Team."

"Don't think about difficulty and importance together." Hakamata, ensuring that the Nomus were firmly bound with his denim fibres, "Riot squad, get ready. Be careful, they may still be here. Please continue to give it your all."

"Yes sir!"

Hakamata tapped his earpiece, hearing Kayama's voice coming through, _"Warehouse Team, are you there?"_

"Yeah... we got the warehouse and Ragdoll. Mission accomplished." Hakamata replied.

"Ragdoll? Please answer me! Ragdoll?" Chatora cradelled Shiretoko in his arms, and Sakamata walked up to him, "Is that your teammate? She's breathing, so that's good."

"But her condition... what did they do to you?" Chatora sighed.

"It was the perfect opportunity, so I took it."

"Tiger, get your teammate to the medics, fast, and come back to help."Sakamata whirled around, hissing at the voice that was approaching from the shadows, "Are you with the League? Someone get a light! "

"Got it." Chatora nodded. They had already called for an ambulance earlier, and the vehicle was already waiting, a stretcher already taken out and ready. Chatora gingerly placed Shiretoko's limp body on the stretcher, and the medics expertly carted the stretcher onto the ambulance.

"After my body turned into this, I also depleted a lot of what I stocked up." The voice continued, as the ambulance sped off, and Sakamata growled, "Stop. Don't move."

The figure that emerged from the shadows continued walking, and Hakamata quickly activated his quirk and forced the fibres of the man's clothes to weave together tightly, restricting his movements.

"Wait! What if he's an ordinary citizen?" Takeyama asked, and Hakamata merely replied, "Think about the situation. That instance of hesitation could decide the fight. Don't let the villains do anything."

Suddenly, a shockwave blasted outwards. Hakamata tried to do his best to keep this newcomer restrained, but the masked man was just that strong, and merely sent everyone flying a fair distance back.

_"Is Midoriya with you?"_

"No... isn't he supposed to be at the hideout?" Hakamata growled, pushing himself up. The shockwave wasn't that strong, and Sakamata and Chatora were already pushing themselves up, and Takeyama had barely been fazed, "All Might, you mentioned some guy with a face mask... he's here."

"Well, I'm out of practice." He flexed his fingers, as red electricity crackled around his arm, before a much larger shockwave tore through the ground.

Hakamata quickly grabbed Sakamata, Chatora and Takeyama, yanking them out of the way as the ground exploded beneath them.

"As expected of the Number Four hero, Best Jeanist." The masked man merely stood where he originally was, "I thought I would have blown everyone away. To be able to manipulate everyone's clothes and pull them to the side in an instant... that quick decision making and skill... you must have nerves of steel. This is strength from a huge amount of practise and practical experience... Just like Void. I don't need your quirk... it doesn't fit with Tomura's disposition."

Yagi burst through the sky, a punch aimed at All for One's torso, "I'll have you return everything, All for One!"

All for One reached up and grabbed Yagi's fists, attempting to block the hit. He was sent skidding back, but managed to hold off most of the damage, and watched as the rest of the heroes tried to hold their ground as another shockwave rippled outwards.

"Will you kill me again? You're a little late, you know? It's a little more than five kilometers from the bar to here. It was easily thirty seconds after the first part of the plan was enacted before you arrived. You've gotten weaker, and more forgetful as well."

Chatora pushed himself up, and hissed. Midoriya was Void... he knew that much at the very least, from Iguchi's interaction with Midoriya at the training camp.

But Midoriya wasn't at the League's hideout, like they expected. He wasn't at the Nomu Warehouse either.

_So where on earth were they keeping him?_

"Where is Midoriya?" Chatora growled, helping Hakamata up. The Fibre Hero raised his hands, ready to restrict All for One again as the denim of his hero outfit unraveled, though he knew that they were hopelessly outmatched without Yagi.

"At least... someone seems to remember the child... the child that should have died a long, long time ago." All for One chuckled.

"What are you talking about?" Yagi snapped, readying his fists, as All for One laughed, "Oh, you really don't know, do you? Then again, I doubt the boy knew about it himself."

All for One reached his hand out, "Just how much do you know about Midoriya Izuku?"

"What are you talking about?" Yagi growled, very much confused.

All for One cackled, "Do you want to know why he isn't dead yet?"

The villain didn't even wait for a reply, as he watched the heroes readied themselves for a fight.

"Because he wants to die."


	48. Chapter 48 - You've tuned me out

Usually, when a member of the League came into the tiny room, whether they were malicious (Hikiishi, Toga or Shigaraki), downright confusing (Kurogiri, Sako and Bubaigawara) or nice (Dabi and Iguchi), they had always entered via a portal. It had happened so often that Midoriya could always sense the portal whenever it opened; a small, cold spot outside his cell, the air slowly but surely moving towards it, as if it were being sucked in, before that faint, hissing sound as the portal opened.

And the second the portal opened, he could also tell which member of the League it was.

Shigaraki was the easiest to identify. He had the air of confidence and a complerely deranged aura. Toga had a more playful, cheeky, but equally deranged feel to her. Bubaigawara had a very clonflicting aura; there were times where he was calm, then agitated, then happy, then sad, all in a span of a few seconds. Sako had the most grandeur aura; he always wanted to show off, but it seemed that he couldn't figure out how to do that when all the boy could do was listen. Hikiishi seemed the most afraid of him out of all the members of the League; she was the easiest to discern from the rest.

Dabi was warm, literally. It didn't take much to tell him apart form the others. And Iguchi... he seemed to have an air of _admiration _around him, for some reason? It was confusing, to be honest, but Iguchi really seemed to like him a lot... it was odd.

Kurogiri was the weirdest, though. Midoriya could sense emptiness from him, a certain hollowness. It reminded him of those Nomus... except Kurogiri could talk, and had his own opinions. He was either a very weird Nomu... or he was trying to figure out what his purpose in life was, besides serving Shigaraki. Midoriya didn't dwell on it too much.

So, when Midoriya could hear the door opening, he found it odd. He was immediately on guard; Reiko was with him, and he wasn't going to let anyone hurt her. He had a muzzle on, and he couldn't see what was going on, but he wasn't going down without a fight.

"I can't see anything. Todoroki, can you make a small fire?"

_Wait, was that Yaoyorozu?_

He could sense some heat from where he presumed Todoroki was, and heard a chirp.

_Ryuto._

"Reiko? So... this really is... Midoriya -"

He could practically smell the ozone in the air as Shinsou shocked himself by accident; it had a very distinct smell that Midoriya had gotten accustomed to after being slammed into the bars repeatedly and getting electrocuted. It was nasty, but at least Shinsou didn't seem too hurt by it.

"That's what he meant by generators. I'll deactivate it. I've seen my father do it before." He heard Uraraka walking out, before walking back in a few minutes later, "Alright, it's done."

_What on earth where they doing here?!_

He heard the sound of a key being inserted into a lock, and the sound of a metal cell door opening. He knew that there was a door, but how his classmates had gotten their hands on the key...

_Did they actually come all the way here to save him?_

He heard footsteps as someone got closer; Midoriya couldn't tell.

"Midoriya?"

_It was Shinsou._

He felt Shinsou's hand pressing against his neck, and suppressed the urge to hiss; Toga had slashed him across the throat a few times, but Shinsou's hand was warm and it just felt _nice_, for some odd reason, that his classmates had come all this way for him.

_For you? Don't be silly. Do you actually think they care about you? Or is this just a more drastic way of trying to gain your trust? So that they can break you again?_

"I found a pulse... it's faint... but it's there. Midoriya, you awake?"

Midoriya didn't know anymore, as he tried to respond. His heart told him that they really came because they cared about him... but logically, it made sense that they didn't really want anything to do with him. No one did.

"Stop, don't move, okay? I'm going to try and take off your blindfold and muzzle, alright?"

He felt a warm sensation on his hand; Dabi was warm, but the contact between someone's hand, probably Shinsou's, since he was the closest, and his just made him feel weird inside; it was odd.

"They're dead knots, and they're too tight. Midoriya, can I cut the string?"

Midoriya nodded slightly, pushing the pain in his throat away as he did so. His mouth was filled with blood, and he often felt like throwing up, but he couldn't do anything; he couldn't open his mouth due to the muzzle, and he couldn't swallow, it would just make his throat hurt more from the bile.

The pressure around his head drop, and he could feel the blindfold being taken off his head. He experimentally opened his eyes; he had slammed his eyes shut the second he had realised he was blindfolded; leaving his eyes open would just distract him from focusing on his surroundings.

Almost immediately, a white hot pain flashed through his retinas, and he prompty slammed them shut, trying to block out the nausea that came with it.

"Alright, I'm going to try and take the muzzle off now. Just... stay still..."

Midoriya felt Shinsou fiddling around with the buckle of the muzzle; he had tried to undo it once on his own, but just moving his fingers _hurt like shit._

He could feel the damned contraption being slipped off his face, and he couldn't resist the urge to throw up anymore. He jerked forward, emptying his mouth of its bloody contents, before he felt more blood rushing up his battered throat. He promptly spat it out, before he slumped back against the wall weakly. He reached up to try and wipe the blood that he could _feel_ dripping down his jaw, but padded fingers, that was Uraraka for sure, no doubt, grabbed a hold of his hand and stopped him from doing so.

"Midoriya. Stop. You're just going to make it worse. Shinsou, can you pick the cuffs?"

He sensed some warmth, and his body instinctly moved against his will, and he pressed himself against the source of warmth. Almost immediately, his body was flooded with a warm, fuzzy feeling, and the tension in his body immediately leaked away to nothing.

_It was oddly __comforting._

It was probably against his better judgement, but it just felt nice. He could feel someone reaching out for him, a muscular arm that was most definately Iida, but at this point, he no longer cared. There was more to come, but for now, he just felt completely relaxed. He felt that he no longer had to put his guard up, he no longer had to worry about _who_ was going to step through that damned portal.

For the first time since the training camp started, he finally felt _safe._

* * *

"What on earth are you talking about?" Yagi snapped, "Where is Midoriya Izuku?"

_Because he wants to die... _All for One's statement echoed in his head.

"Of course, you don't know." All for One was oddly calm as he stood amongst the rubble, facing Yagi, "Are you aware that the poor child... has attempted suicide on many, many occasions in the past? He tried to give himself an overdose thrice, slit his wrists open a few more times. He's jumped twenty seven times, at the very least, and even tried to hang himself on one occasion."

"Tsukauchi, is everything he said true?" Chatora asked, and there was a long pause until Tsukauchi replied, _"... yes."_

"Why is he telling us this?" Sakamata growled.

"Shut up! What does this have to do with anything?" Yagi snapped, rushing forward with a punch as Takeyama gasped in horror as the _sheer number of times_ that the boy had tried to kill himself.

"Everything. That boy shouldn't even be alive now." All for One grinned beneath his mask, and Hakamata growled, "Well, there's something wrong with your quirk, Tsukauchi. Midoriya's quirkless; there's no way he could be alive if this _villain _is really telling the truth."

"That's where you're wrong. The boy does indeed have a quirk." The villain reached out and intercepted Yagi's punch with a powerful blast of wind, knocking the hero back into a building.

"That's impossible." Sakamata hissed, "We saw the boy's medical records. Two pinky toe joints."

"Have you ever heard of trauma induced quirks?" All for One asked patronisingly, shaking his head, "Of course you don't. Ignorant fools. Everyone has the capacity to develop a quirk, but not all of them are so straightforward in their unlocking. Some people are just unlucky... and the conditions required to activate them are more... complicated. Not impossible to unlock, but it requires _so_ many specific conditions for its usage that they might as well be non-existent. But the coding for a quirk exists within; quirks are, after all, just genetic mutations. Of course, in self preservation, the body itself may mess up the coding."

"What are you trying to say?" Yagi dislodged himself from the building, and rushed at All for One again, and the villain brought his arm up block it.

"Not much. Merely the fact that you heroes are failures. The boy has a quirk that allows him to live, and that it is so deeply tied to his soul that I can't take it. Trauma induced quirks _are_ special, in their own way." All for One growled, using the long spikes from his Forced Quirk Activation quirk to stab Yagi's arm, casually deflecting the hero's attack.

"Wait... so that means... Midoriya isn't dead..." Chatora's eyes widened, as he processed what All for One had said. He looked around, eyeing all the broken

"Only by sheer dumb luck." The villain calmly replied, "You're _very_ lucky that the boy wants to die so badly."

_"Hang on. Keep him talking. We're on our way with backup! Endeavor's mopping all the Nomus up."_ Nishiya's voice came over the earpiece.

The villain raised his hands, his arms crackling with more electricity. Sakamata fired off a massive hypersonic wave, but All for One easily intercepted it with a powerful shockwave, causing a huge explosion that destroyed all the neighbouring buildings.

"What kind of heroes would let a child die like that?" All for One asked, shaking his head patronisingly, "You can't even save one child. You don't even know where he is. How are you going to "save" him like that?"

* * *

The ground was shaking violently, and Shinsou smacked away a wooden board that fell from the ceiling in an attempt to protect Midoriya. Uraraka and Yaoyorozu were crouching on the ground, trying to stabilize themselves, as Iida growled, "What's going on?"

Todoroki swerved aside as a chunk of concrete fell downwards, "Fighting on a wide scale. I'm going to deactivate my quirk."

The room was plunged into darkness, and Yaoyorozu hastily created a flashlight, "We're good... I think the shaking stopped."

"We need to get out of here, fast." Todoroki looked upwards, "I don't think the building can take two or three more quakes like that."

"But Midoriya's still chained up." Urakaka harshly whispered, "And we don't know what's going outside. If the villains see us, it's all over."

"We'll stand out like a sore thumb." Iida mumbled, before his eyes lit up, "Do you have some pen and paper?"

Uraraka dug into her pockets, fishing out a small ballpoint pen and a crumpled up piece of paper, "Yeah... I don't know why I bought them. I thought it may be useful."

"Thank goodness. Pass it over."

Iida took the pen and paper from her, and hastily scribbled on it. He retrieved the blindfold, and with Shinsou's penknife, cut off the string.

"A note. But we can't deliver it." Yaoyorozu stated.

"We can't, but Ryuto can. They won't pay any attention to a bird." Todoroki's eyes glinted, turning to the hawk that was currently settled with Reiko on Midoriya's lap.

"That would work..." Uraraka hummed, as Ryuto perked up, and hopped over to Iida. He stuck a talon out, much to Iida's surprise, but Iida rolled the note up and quickly tied it to Ryuto's talon.

"Alright. That should do. Be careful, alright?" Iida pat Ryuto on the head, before the bird flapped his wings and zoomed out of the door, disappearing into the night.

"Now... we just wait." Yaoyorozu sighed, as the building was hit by another quake.

* * *

"Now, we're going to -"

Nezu was cut off as Aizawa's phone vibrated, and the Erasure hero leaned over to check on it. It was set to only vibrate if he was contacted by the police or any other heroes...

_... that meant they needed him for something._

The press conference was purposely located three cities away from Kamino, so Aizawa could get there quickly, while not being affected by the attack on the League. The only thing All for One had going for him was his ability to steal and use multiple quirks. Even if Aizawa couldn't fully erase the effects of All for One's quirks, he would definitely give the heroes an edge.

Aizawa quickly unlocked his phone, and opened up the message that Tsukauchi sent him. He quickly glanced at Nezu, and the animal principal nodded.

"Where are you going!?" A reporter yelled.

Nezu turned to address the crowd of reporters as Aizawa slipped out of his seat, "Aizawa has been called to do some hero work, and will not be present for the rest of the press conference."

"You can't just do that! You didn't do your job when-"

"So let him do his job, right now." Nezu growled.

Aizawa quickly donned his hero costume, and exited the building via the backdoor. He hopped onto a motorbike, and fished the keys out of his pocket. It was Kayama's bike, but she was participating in the attack on the League, and had lent him her bike in case he was called in as well. He started up the engine, before he sped off towards Kamino Ward.

It only took him a few minutes to get to the city right next to Kamino, and he quickly parked the bike, and hopped off, opting to go the rest of the way by foot.

"Eraser!" Nishiya yelled, spotting the Erasure Hero as he made his way to where All for One was, "Come on. Gran Torino, Present Mic and Endeavor's got the hideout covered, we need to go to the warehouse, fast."

"Where's Midoriya?" Aizawa asked, running alongside Nishiya, as Kamihara caught up to them, "Not in the hideout, and apparently, not in the warehouse as well. We're were planning on finding him while you help All Might deal with that villain."

"He's called... One for All? Or was it All for One?" Nishiya asked.

"Doesn't matter." Aizawa growled, "Let's go."

They quickly reached the evacuation perimeter that Tsukauchi had set up, and the police force quickly parted to let the three heroes through.

"How are you going to find Midoriya?" Aizawa asked, as the sound of an engine was heard, gradually getting louder and louder.

Tensei skid to a stop, "Alright, I'm here. Tsukauchi told me that we had to find Midoriya?"

"Yep. He could be anywhere, but our top priority is the area surrounding the fight between All Might and the villain." Nishiya said, "They're causing a lot of destruction; if Midoriya were to be in any of them..."

"Let's go. We don't have time to waste." Kamihara stated, as a screech rang out through the air, "What was that?"

Aizawa looked upwards, as a small black speck in the sky suddenly dived downwards, barrelling towards them. Nishiya quickly extended the wood on his arm to try and catch the object, but it merely swerved out of the way, dodging Nishiya's attack entirely.

"Watch out!" Kamihara growled, and was about to activate his quirk when Aizawa realised who it was and put his hand out, "Stop."

"What? This is that villain with multiple quirks we're talking about." Nishiya protested, "Anything could be -"

"He's harmless." Aizawa glared at Nishiya, before holding his arm out slightly, "Ryuto!"

The bird, they finally managed to make out what it was, swooped down, slowing his descent, before landing on Aizawa's arm.

"I didn't know you had a pet." Tensei stared at Ryuto, as the hawk moved to his leg, grabbing the note that was tied there, before turning to face Aizawa, chirping.

"He's Midoriya's bird, and he went missing this morning from the dorms." Aizawa grumbled, unrolling the note, as Tensei blinked, "Uh... UA is seven hours away by foot."

Aizawa stared at the note, and groaned, shoving it in Tensei's face, "Ingenium, what is your little brother doing here?!"

Tensei took a close look at the note.

_"Dear Heroes. We have currently found Midoriya Izuku. He is located in an abandoned building, badly injured, and is chained to a wall. This hawk will lead you to his location. Please come and save him."_

It wasn't signed, but it was clearly Iida's handwriting.

"Well, we don't have time to waste. Let's go. Ryuto, right? Lead the way to Midoriya." Kamihara spoke up, "Ingenium, Kamui and I will get him back. You go help All Might."

Ryuto perked up at the mention of Midoriya's name, before taking to the skies once more, Kamihara, Nishiya and Tensei hot on his trail. Aizawa turned as a shockwave blasted outwards, kicking a huge cloud of dust up into the air. He growled, running towards the cloud of dust, "You hurt my student, I'm going to make you wish you never even attacked UA in the first place."

* * *

"I'll tell you this, the child you seek is somewhere in this city." All for One spoke up, catching Yagi's punches, "Are you saving your strength, just in case he's close? Well... it's too late for that, anyways. He could be a blood splatter under one of these rocks right now. It's rough, ain't it? To be these creatures called "heroes"."

All for One reached out to try and attack, and frowned slightly when there wasn't any red electricity. A band of grey was wrapped around his hand and yanked to the side, and All for One looked up, just in time to see an angry Aizawa charging at him.

"You!" Aizawa spat, using his capture weapon to knock All for One off balance, kneeing him in the face. He quickly dove out of the way as Yagi charged, All for One quickly regaining his balance and blocking another one of Yagi's punches.

"An erasure quirk. Haven't seen one of those in a very, very long time. You're a rare breed, Eraser Head." All for One stated, "And your scarf. Interesting. Did you know that your kind used to be killed, back in the days. No one wanted their powers to be gone, after all."

"Says you." Aizawa growled, throwing his capture weapon out again.

All for One easily dodged it, "Too bad you weren't caught alongside Void and ... Ragdoll, was that her name?"

"Don't get near him." Yagi faced Aizawa, "He wants your quirk, now. If he touches you, he can take your quirk."

"Well, that's bloody obvious." Aizawa snapped, "Or else he would have taken everyone else's quirks!"

"Eraser! Do you know where Kamui and Edgeshot are? They were supposed to be here a few minutes ago!" Chatora yelled, intercepting a stray shockwave before it could destroy another building.

"They went with Ingenium to find Midoriya!" Aizawa replied, jumping backwards as All for One lunged at him, before activating his quirk on the villain, allowing Yagi to land a punch.

"Speaking of the child... are you aware that his quirk is the reason he's like this?" All for One smirked, waiting for the moment Aizawa blinked to blast Yagi into a building, before using his warping quirk to warp Aizawa directly in front of him.

Aizawa blinked in confusion, and All for One grabbed onto his head.

"Smart boy." All for One laughed, looking down into Aizawa's crimson, glowing orbs, "You're smarter than I took you for. But I wonder how long you can keep that up, your dry eye coupled with the injury from our raid on UA."

Sakamata fired off a hypersonic wave at All for One, distracting the villain, letting Hakamata pull Aizawa out of the villains grasp, "Careful. If he gets your quirk -"

"He can't use my quirk here." Aizawa shook his head, "He has no eyes; I saw. He wants to take my quirk out of the equation, probably for future League endeavors."

"Got it. But still... you should keep your distance." Sakamata walked over as Aizawa activated his quirk on All for One again, letting Yagi overpower him and knocking him into a building.

"I see that you're putting more strength into your punches. You think that your comrades can find him so quickly?" All for One asked, "You may have avoided the worst outcome, his death, because of sheer luck, but you cannot avoid the second worst outcome. The boy will suffer, regardless of whether you find him or not."

All for One reared his fist back to attack, and Yagi blocked the punch.

"You're not just fighting to save the child. You're fighting because of _her _as well. I merely came to talk about Midoriya's quirk... but if you really want to fight, I will fight too. In the past, that fist crushed my comrades and you were named as the Symbol of Peace. You must have had a very good view from atop our sacrifices. I won't let you fight without reserve, though. Heroes have a lot of things they need to protect, don't they? You will get him back alright, broken in both the mind and body."

_"We found him, and he's really not doing too well. Call an ambulance, quick!" _Nishiya reported.

The villain laughed, "Too bad. You can't even protect one child from himself. How are you supposed to be the Symbol of Peace?"

"Shut up! You always toy with people like that! You break them! Steal from them! Take advantage and control them! Scoffing irrationally at people trying to live their lives! He's just a child!" Yagi growled, as All for One raised his non-existent eyebrows.

"Breaking the boy was really none of our doing. The boy was already so far gone before Tomura even laid his eyes on him. So many failed attempts to kill himself... Are you aware that Midoriya's quirk traps him here, not just in the world of the living, but in the very mindset that makes him hurt himself? His quirk makes him want to die, just so that he wouldn't perish. His body forces him to suffer in order to live. Even if I could take it... it would be absolutely useless to me, Tomura and his comrades. Such a screwed up sense of self-preservation, very unfortunate, is it not?"

All for One attacked Yagi, only for the hero to harshly grab his arm in anger.

"You're laughing at his suffering!? I can't forgive you for that!"

Yagi slammed his fists into All for One's face, breaking his mask, cracking the ground beneath them.

"Oh? Is that anger and guilt I'm seeing? You seemed to be very worked up about something. I heard the same line from the previous One for All successor, Nana Shimura. You two really are similar. She was a woman with no skills whose ideals got ahead of her. She's an embarrassment to me, who created One for All. She died in a very pathetic way."

_"Toshinori, calm down, you idiot." _Torino's voice growled through the ear piece, _"He's trying to piss you off and make you act rashly. Don't let him talk."_

Yagi tried to ignore the news helicopter that was flying about above, and focused on All for One. He needed to focus; his fighting style was a lot different from the last time he had fought the villain. There was no way he could win in a head on fight; he needed to be tricky.

Yagi growled, before charging forwards. All for One quickly activated a few of his quirks in order to tank the damage, but the hero merely grabbed All for One, and tossed him into the distance, before jumping after him. He needed to get away from the other heroes; All for One could use that warping quirk of his to try and use them as human shields.

* * *

Another quake shook the building, and more debris came falling down on the students. Iida batted the falling concrete away, preventing it from hitting Yaoyorozu, who was trying to find some way to break the cuffs that held Midoriya prisoner. Uraraka was holding the flashlight up for her.

"Urg... I hope Ryuto's okay..." She murmured, "He could have gotten hurt out there."

"We don't know if there are any other heroes around." Todoroki spoke up, "All Might may be the only person here, fighting off some villain."

Midoriya was still leaning on Shinsou's shoulder, and his condition hadn't gotten any better. He was still coughing out a lot of blood, and his breathing had gotten heavier.

"Hang on, okay, Midoriya?" Shinsou muttered, "Help's coming real soon. Yaoyorozu, instead of the cuffs, can we melt the chains directly?"

Yaoyorozu shook her head, "No. The chains are made of a metal with a very, very high heat capacity. Todoroki won't be able to melt it before the heat travels down to the cuffs and hurts Midoriya. It's also very strong; we can't just break it with force, and we don't have anyone that strong."

"What about the bricks that the chains are attached to?" Todoroki asked.

"Too risky. The chains were practically built into the wall, and the building is unstable enough. One wrong move and everything comes falling down on us." Yaoyorozu shook her head, "We don't have many other options. The safest way is to wait for the pros to come. They'll probably have better ideas than us."

Suddenly, Reiko perked up, when another quake hit the building, and a loud rumble was heard overhead.

Iida looked upwards, "The building's coming down on us!"

"Huddle together and crouch down!" Todoroki ordered, shooting to his feet. Yaoyorozu pressed herself against the wall, as Iida and Uraraka shuffled closer to Shinsou and crouched down. Todoroki lifted his right hand, as ice blasted upwards, catching all the falling debris.

He reeled in his quirk, before examining his handiwork. He couldn't hear anything moving or falling, but his ice was much more brittle can concrete; any more incoming quakes would destroy his ice, and while Todoroki could keep putting his ice up to protect his friends, the ceiling was getting lower and lower, and the cold, icy temperature wasn't helping Midoriya's condition one bit.

Todoroki turned to Yaoyorozu, "Protecting Midoriya only. No fighting. I still remember your rules."

He spared a glance at Midoriya, who had unconsciously curled in on himself, desperately trying to conserve his own body heat. "Sadly... I can't use my fire, or the ice will melt."

Shinsou shuffled slightly closer to Midoriya, "Should we call Aizawa-sensei? I know he's at the press conference... but -"

Another quake hit, shattering the ice. Todoroki stumbled, and was about to try and stop the debris from falling on them again when a voice at the door yelled out, "I got this!"

Wood rushed into the room, rapidly creeping through every nook and cranny available and supporting the entirety of the building, and the students looked towards the door, as two figures ran in, a bird flying in a few seconds later.

* * *

Tensei continued to follow Ryuto.

If this really was Midoriya's bird, then he couldn't be more than seven weeks old; according to Iida, Midoriya had gotten him right after the Sports festival.

What he was doing in a place like this, Tensei didn't know.

Ryuto led them further past several buildings, when suddenly, they felt a powerful shockwave rippling through the ground.

Several buildings around them were starting to crumble, when suddenly, they felt a drop in temperature as ice spikes erupted out of one building in the distance.

"Well, then. I guess we've found it." Kamihara stated, speeding towards the building, when another shockwave blasted outwards, completely shattering the ice.

"I got this!" Nishiya yelled, using his quirk to support the building, "Are they inside?"

Tensei and Kamihara ran into the building, and spotted the six teenagers, looking up at them warily.

"Didn't think I'd see you in a place like this, little brother." Tensei said, turning back to face Nishiya, "Found them."

"Get the kids out fast. This building has really weak foundations. I don't know how long it can hold up." Nishiya growled, making more wood to try and help support the building, before speaking into his earpiece, "We found him, and he's really not doing too well. Call an ambulance, quick!"

"You four, get out." Tensei ordered, "Shinsou, wait until Edgeshot gets Midoriya, then move."

Kamihara carefully picked his way over to Midoriya's limp body, as Iida, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki raced out of the building. Ryuto tried to land, but he stumbled over some debris and face planted into the ground. Uraraka carefully picked him and cradled him gently, before following the others.

The hero crouched down beside Midoriya, and Shinsou mumbled, "We couldn't find a keyhole. I know you told me to look out for those."

"I've seen keyholes like this. It's no wonder you couldn't find the keyhole. It's located on the inside of the cuff. You can't pick it from that position, and you need a special key in order to unlock it." Kamihara make his fingers thinner, and tried to reach for the cuff, only for Midoriya to flinch away from him.

"Wait, he's awake?" Kamihara blinked, as Midoriya slowly opened his eyes, revealing his dull green eyes, "I'm not going to hurt you, okay?"

Kamihara pressed his finger to the inside of the tight cuffs. He quickly found the keyhole, and promptly unlocked the first cuff, before moving on to the other one. Shinsou gently picked Reiko up and deposited her on the floor, allowing Kamihara to slip his arms under Midoriya's knees and behind his back, easily picking up the malnourished boy.

Midoriya weakly tried to pull himself away from Kamihara's grasp, but the hero had a gentle but firm grip on the severely injured boy. If it weren't for the fact that All for One told them about Midoriya's quirk, Kamihara would be wondering how the heck this boy was still alive.

"Midoriya, he's a hero, he's going to get you out of here. Just wait, okay?" Shinsou pushed himself up, and Kamihara turned to face the door. "We need to get out, now. The others should have called an ambulance."

Shinsou and Kamihara ran to the door, where the others were waiting for them, and Nishiya heaved a sigh of relief. He gently lowered the broken building to the ground, before turning around, "Let's go."

Tensei heard a crash, and looked upwards, eyeing the news helicopter that was flying towards the source of the crash, "Dammit. What's the press doing here? It's too dangerous!"

_"All Might and All for One's fight has been shifted to another location. The ambulance is arriving soon. We're going to try and help you guys with the boy." _Sakamata's voice came from the earpiece.

"We've got back up." Kamihara nodded, "Let's go."

"Follow me." Tensei called out, as he and Nishiya ran in one direction, and the students followed him. Kamihara carefully adjusted his grip on Midoriya, before he raced after Tensei, Reiko waiting for him to move, before following behind.

* * *

Kurogiri teleported back to the group, "They found him faster than you expected, Shigaraki. Shall we start now?"

"Yes." Shigaraki nodded, "Toga, you're not coming. Your quirk is vital for the next part of the plan after this. Kurogiri, bring the others."

Kurogiri immediately opened up a portal, and Hikiishi, Dabi, Iguchi, Bubaigawara and Sako stepped through it, followed by Shigaraki.

They immediately appeared at the top of a pile of rubble, and they surveyed the broken buildings all around them.

"There. The one at the back." Sako pointed, and Shigaraki turned, seeing two pro heroes running ahead with five students, and one other pro running a fair distance behind them, carrying something in his arms.

"Dabi, go."

The scarred villain sighed, before he raised his hand, mentally adjusting the power behind it so that it just _looked_ impressive, but didn't cause too much damage. He aimed at Kamihara, before blue flames erupted from his arm.

"Sorry, kid."

* * *

There was a flash of blue from the corner of his vision.

Kamihara turned, spotting the incoming blue fire, and quickly whirled around, using his body to try and shield Midoriya. The blue flames washed over them, blasting them backwards, before they finally died down, and Kamihara coughed, burns covering his body. He heard a faint "Sorry kid", but ignored it; he was really, really lucky that the fire was strong enough to burn him, but not powerful enough to hurt Midoriya. The only impact Midoriya had received was when they had been blasted backwards into some rubble, but he was already so badly injured, so that just made it worse.

Shigaraki rushed forwards, as Kamihara tried to push himself to his feet, eyeing Midoriya's body lying helplessly on the ground. He was shaking slightly, but the boy was completely drained of any energy to do anything.

Suddenly, a white blur shot past him, and Kamihara blinked as a white cat, Reiko, as one of the students called her, raced forwards towards Shigaraki. She yowled angrily, and lunged, as Shigaraki tried to kick her away, but Reiko easily dodged his foot and slashed her claws at Shigaraki's ankle, drawing some blood.

Sadly, Reiko's attempts to stop Shigaraki were in vain, as Shigaraki finally nailed her in the stomach, easily kicking her away. She gave a screech in pain as she flew through the air and crashed into the ground by Yaoyorozu's feet, the girl gently picked the cat up.

"What's the hold up - The League?!" Sakamata yelled, as he ran up to Tensei, Aizawa, Hakamata and Chatora behind him.

The villain growled, before continuing to make his way to Midoriya, his hands outstretched. Kamihara desperately pushed himself up, and readied himself to attack Shigaraki and cut off his blood circulation.

Shigaraki lunged.

And suddenly, the temperature dropped, as a murderous pressure blasted out from nowhere.


	49. Chapter 49 - I've lost your frequency

Midoriya had sensed the portal in the distance, but before he could do anything, he felt Kamihara shifting, pulling him away from the incoming heat.

They were blasted backwards into some rubble, and Midoriya couldn't even find the strength to even _whimper_ in pain. He felt Shigaraki draw closer and closer, and Midoriya carefully opened his eyes, trying to orientate himself. His heart dropped; Reiko had run past him, clawing at Shigaraki's legs desperately until the man kicked her away.

_Hurt._

_They hurt her._

_They Hurt Rei._

Midoriya growled internally, and shakily pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the burning pain that flared through his entire body.

_THEY HURT REI -_

No one hurts his cat and gets away with it.

Shigaraki was going to_ pay_ for what he did.

"Midoriya...? How...?" Kamihara blinked, completely stupefied, as Shigaraki seethed, "What... you... We broke you!"

Shigaraki rushed at Midoriya, but the green and red blur shot out, grabbing Shigaraki's wrists, completely stopping the villain in his tracks.

None of them could think properly; Midoriya's angry, bloodthirsty aura was _just that potent._

"Impossible..." Nishiya gasped, watching as Midoriya took a step, and completely flipped Shigaraki over his shoulder, throwing him into the ground. He was emitting some kind of pressure, pushing down on them, preventing them from breathing, and Nishiya was _terrified_ of the kid; quirk or no, he shouldn't be able to move in his state, let alone casually tossing villains over his shoulder.

"Help him!" Aizawa growled, as Hikiishi screeched, "What!? How on earth is he still alive!?"

"Midoriya, stop! You're going to hurt yourself even more!" Shinsou yelled, about to run into the fray, but Nishiya quickly grabbed him, and the rest of the students, just in case, "No, you guys have done enough! You're barely abiding by the law! Stay put!"

Aizawa was about to rush in to help Midoriya, when Hikiishi activated her quirk on him and Yaoyorozu, the attraction causing Aizawa to fly backwards as Yaoyorozu was stuck in Nishiya's grasp. Chatora caught him in time before he crashed into her.

Midoriya glared at Shigaraki, ignoring what was going on behind him, his emerald orbs gleaming angrily in the darkness, before he hunched over. He spat out a torrent of blood, as more blood dripped from his injuries. Shigaraki picked himself up from the ground, snarling, before he rushed at Midoriya, but the boy merely whipped a knife out of his pocket and slashed at Shigaraki, forcing him to dodge.

"Why does he have a knife!? Why didn't you disarm him!?" Shigaraki yelled.

"He was practically half dead when we brought him in! Did you actually expect him to have a weapon!?" Bubaigawara growled, "How the heck did he even survive getting his throat slit!? That's amazing!"

Tensei gulped.

_They did WHAT to him!?_

They could only watch helplessly as Midoriya danced around Shigaraki with his broken bones, before Midoriya harshly grabbed Shigaraki's hand, and in one swift movement, snapped his wrist. Shigaraki let out a howl of pain before Midoriya kicked him in the back of the knee, sending Shigaraki to his knees.

Hikiishi snapped out of her stupor, and activated her quirk on Sako and Bubaigawara. Using the repulsion between the two males, she launched Bubaigawara off in Midoriya's direction. Bubaigawara swiftly took out his tape measure, and attempted to slash at Midoriya, but the green haired boy casually sidestepped the speedy attack and kicked Bubaigawara into the ground, and the combined force from the repulsion and Midoriya's kick knocked the man out.

* * *

"Not again..." Chatora glanced at the fight, "He's pissed... at this point, he's fighting on pure adrenaline. Eraser, let's go. Keep your eyes on Magne."

Sako hissed, before he leapt at the boy, both of his hands outstretched, ready to encapsulate him, but Midoriya easily grabbed one of his hands, snapping his wrist, before clamping his jaws down on his other arm, and drove his knee into Sako's stomach, kicking the villain away.

Sako was _pretty_ sure that something was broken, as he tumbled away.

Tensei activated his quirk, and rushed at Shigaraki, but Iguchi dashed in, intercepting the Turbo Hero. Iguchi hissed, "Knock me out and get the kid out of here."

"What?" Tensei blinked, confused.

"Stupid heroes, Look, Ingenium, I'm not going to hurt you _too_ bad." Iguchi drew a knife, but Tensei grabbed his arm, "Shigaraki and the others fucked him up real bad, and honestly, I'm not sure how the fuck he's still standing. The kid's amazing, he deserves better. Just knock me out and go defeat the others, dammit."

Tensei gaped. One villain _actually_ liked and respected Midoriya enough that he was willing to go behind Shigaraki's back?

"Thank you." Tensei gave a small nod, and Iguchi gave a small smirk, "You're one hell of a guy. No wonder Void told Stain to spare you."

Tensei processed Iguchi's words as he drove his knee into Iguchi's gut, the villain making no move to defend himself. He easily knocked the lizard man out, and Tensei straightened up, as a portal opened up and instantly sucked the unconscious Iguchi in.

Tensei made no move to stop him, and silently thanked the villain once more.

* * *

Dabi blasted some fire at Hakamata, but Sakamata ran in and dispelled the fire with a hypersonic wave. The scarred villain jumped down from the pile of rubble, blasting more fire at the heroes, only for the Killer Whale Hero to dispel the flames again.

Though, oddly enough, while fire would be effective again Nishiya's Wood quirk and the five students he was currently holding back, Dabi made no move in their direction at all.

"Hey there, little fishy." Dabi smirked, coming in close, "Get the kid."

"And leave my comrades at your mercy?" Sakamata growled, "I think not."

"Look, those kids tried to save Void..." Dabi snapped, dodging an attack, "So I don't want to hurt them. Or Void. If it makes you feel better, just hit me with that stupid wave thing and take me out of the fight. Just save the damn kid."

Sakamata narrowed his eyes in disbelief; he knew that his hypersonic waves could dispel Dabi's fire, but the same went for the reverse; Dabi's fire easily disrupted the air molecules, so his hypersonic waves couldn't travel through the air properly. He still fired it off though, and much to his surprise, Dabi didn't do anything and let himself get hit by the attack, blasting him back and disorientating the villain.

Hakamata immediately restrained Dabi, and yelled, "Orca, go. Kamui, get the students out of here! I'll cover the for you. Also, get the ambulance as close as possible!"

Nishiya nodded, running towards the evacuation perimeter with the five students in his grasp.

"Let us go!" Shinsou growled, but Nishiya merely replied, "No. You're going to rush in and try to help Midoriya, but the heroes got it covered. I understand how you feel, okay? I was at that attack on your school. And trust me, you guys aren't supposed to be here. If a hero like Endeavor were to catch wind of your involvement... it wouldn't be good."

Uraraka and Shinsou stopped struggling; Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Iida had given up on escaping from Nishiya's grasp a long time ago. Nishiya sighed, "I'll put you down, but promise you'll follow me and not go running into anymore fights. We're also trying to keep you guys out of as much trouble as possible."

The two students wearily nodded, and Nishiya placed them on the ground gently, "Alright. Follow me. I'll get some medics to give you guys a check up, the bird and the cat too; you guys look horrible."

* * *

A portal opened up, sucking Bubaigawara in. Kamihara had noticed it, but the second he activated his quirk, the portal was gone. He growled, and staggered to his feet; Dabi's fire had actually done more damage than he had expected. He looked around, spotting Dabi's body being held up by Hakamata's quirk. He quickly attacked, piercing Dabi's body and cutting off his blood circulation, and Hakamata released his quirk on the man, panting.

"Shit..." Hakamata winced, his body shaking, "All for One's attacks did more than I thought..."

A portal quickly opened up and scooped Dabi up, the purple mist and the villain disappearing into thin air.

"Dammit." Kamihara growled. The League was smart, he'd give them that; by having Kurogiri creating portals from a distance, it negated the plan of having Kamihara taking out the warp gate.

Midoriya raced after Shigaraki, each of them evading the other's attacks as they tried to land their own.

"Shigaraki!" Hikiishi yelled, activating her quirk on Shigaraki and Midoriya. Shigaraki immediately held his ground as Midoriya lunged, and the repulsion sent Midoriya flying backwards, rolling to a halt at Hakamata's feet.

Midoriya shakily pushed himself to his feet, before throwing his bleeding and body at Shigaraki once again, anger and hatred burning in his eyes. Hakamata tried to restrain him, before realised that Midoriya was only wearing pants; his shirt and hoodie had been practically reduced to shreds.

He unravelled his denim jacket with his quirk, and tried to grab Midoriya, only for the boy to _actually_ slash the fibres away before he lunged at Shigaraki, harshly driving his knife into the palm of Shigaraki's unbroken hand. The villain growled, and staggered away to put some distance between the two.

Chatora rushed at the downed Sako; the man's quirk was particularly annoying, but the villain managed to push himself to his feet and dodge past Chatora, encapsulating the hero. Aizawa immediately activated his quirk, erasing Sako's quirk and releasing Chatora.

"Eraser, stay as far away from the pup as possible." Chatora hissed, immediately knocking Sako out, before turning to the Erasure Hero, "All for One... he told us that he has a quirk that... prevents him from... well... If you were to activate your quirk on him by accident -"

Aizawa got the message immediately; Midoriya would die. "Understood. I'll take Magne, her quirk is the most troublesome for Midoriya right now."

The second the two heroes took their attention off the downed Sako, another portal popped open and dragged the villain in, before disappearing.

"Shit." Aizawa cursed, as Chatora took off in Shigaraki's direction, before lunging at Hikiishi. He threw his capture weapon at her, pulling her off the pile of rubble, as she attempted to use her quirk. Aizawa hastily erased it, as Hikiishi threw a punch, forcing Aizawa to blink as he dodged. He quickly grabbed Hikiishi's arm, and threw her over his shoulder, smashing her into the ground below.

She retaliated with a punch, but Aizawa dodged and wrapped her up in his capture weapon, before hitting her right at the back of her neck, knocking her out.

Another portal opened up, and Aizawa desperately tried to erase the teleporter's quirk, but Kurogiri's real body was nowhere in sight, and Hikiishi disappeared.

Midoriya let out a strangled roar as he swept Shigaraki off his feet, digging his knee into Shigaraki's gut. He slammed Shigaraki into the ground, before grabbing his arm and threw him over his shoulder, dislocating the villain's arm in the process. Shigaraki let out a cry of pain, stumbling to his feet, but Midoriya viciously stabbed him in the shoulder, before kicking him in the face. He dug his foot into Shigaraki's side, and kicked him in the jaw, dislocating it, before slamming Shigaraki into the ground again.

Before he could attack again, Kurogiri appeared and warped Shigaraki's body away.

_They're gone...they're gone..._

Midoriya stopped, reeling his aura in as a wave of calmness rushed through him, his anger sinking below the surface, before he froze.

_Where's Rei?_

Midoriya hissed, and spat out more blood, before he turned in the direction where he saw Nishiya heading in. He tried to move in that direction, before his broken and bleeding body gave out, and he crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Midoriya!" Aizawa yelled, as he saw Midoriya's body hit the ground. Chatora was the closest to Midoriya, and he rushed over to help Midoriya up, only for the boy to shakily push himself to his feet. Chatora was staggered backwards as a punch made contact with his face, and he internally hissed in pain; Midoriya had one nasty left hook, alright.

Midoriya spat out some blood, and Chatora gently restrained the boy, trying to ignore the fact that Midoriya was weakly clawing at him with his fingernails, trying to get out of Chatora's grasp.

The boy could barely say anything; his larynx was already horribly damaged, but Chatora could tell that Midoriya was desperately trying to find something, or someone.

Aizawa and Tensei rushed over to the boy, as Midoriya choked on more of his own blood. The green haired boy slammed his foot onto Chatora's, and bit him in the arm, eliciting a wince of pain from the pro. The boy used that distracted to slip out of Chatora's grip, but he tripped over some debris and fell to the ground, before desperately trying to push himself up again. Aizawa quickly scooped him up before he could fall again.

"Rei...ko..." Midoriya weakly rasped, his voice barely a whisper. He wheezed and coughed out more blood, trying to dislodge himself from Aizawa's grasp.

Sakamata barely knew the boy, but his heart clenched; Midoriya cared more about his cat than himself. He was the one on the verge of dying but he wanted to make sure that his cat was fine. Midoriya loved his cat more than he loved himself.

"Midoriya, relax. Reiko's going to be fine. She and the others will get checked over, I promise." Aizawa gently but firmly grabbed onto Midoriya, "They're all going to be fine, okay?"

Aizawa watched as Midoriya shook; he could practically feel _relief_ emanating from the boy, before he stopped struggling altogether.

_She's okay... she's okay..._

Midoriya's vision turned dark.

"Midoriya? Hey, kid, come on, can you stay awake?" Aizawa cradled Midoriya's limp body as the boy slumped into his arms, panic starting to bubble in his stomach.

He didn't care that blood was getting everywhere, or that his clothes were practically being dyed in Midoriya's blood; he just wanted the kid to be okay. Midoriya was burning up and his pulse was faint, almost non-existent, but he couldn't do anything as blood dripped off his small frame.

"Shit." Sakamata cursed, "Ingenium, you're the fastest amongst us. Get him to the ambulance, quick. Kamui's gotten the ambulance as far as the evacuation perimeter; there's too much rubble for it to come any closer. We're going to go help All Might with All for One!"

Aizawa glared at Tensei, gently passing the bleeding boy over to the Turbo Hero, "You better take care of him. I don't care that your my friend, one wrong move and I'll gut you myself."

"Have some faith in me, Shou." Tensei replied, carefully lifting Midoriya up, before speeding off towards the evacuation perimeter.


	50. Chapter 50 - The reverie was not of me

"I'll steal away all the things that you've protected until now." All for One cackled, firing another powerful blast of air at Yagi, watching as the hero attempted to block it, "First, the self-respect that you've kept despite your injury. Show the world your pathetic form, "Symbol of Peace". Hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, what a pathetic top hero. Then again, fitting for a hero who's let a poor child suffer for so long. Don't be embarrassed, this is the real you, isn't it?"

Yagi glared back at All for One, "Even if my body rots and grows weak, even if you try to expose that form, my heart will remain that of the Symbol of Peace! It's not something that you can steal even a single piece of!"

"Forget it, I give up. I've forgotten how stubborn you were." All for One sighed patronisingly, "Then perhaps this will not hinder your heart either; Shigaraki Tomura is Nana Shimura's grandson. I kept thinking about what you would hate the most; I created chances for you to meet, before Tomura took over on seeking you out himself. You realise it, don't you, that something so... _dirty..._ like this, is something that I would do."

Yagi's cyan eyes burned with anger, as All for One mocked, "What's wrong, All Might? Where's that smile if yours? This really is fun... maybe I was able to steal a piece, no?"

_He's... a relative of my master? What... have I done... _

_Focus on All for One now... I can deal with Shigaraki later..._

_"Remember your origin. That'll bring you past your limit!"_

_I want a world where everyone can smile and live together._

"There's a lot that a hero has to protect, All for One." Yagi growled, forcing his right arm to bulk up, "That's why I won't lose!"

"That's the last of it, wasn't it, All Might? A wounded hero is the most frightening. I see the image of your face coming after me with all your guts strewn around in my dreams sometimes, even now. I should watch out for two or three swings, shouldn't I?" All for One asked, red electricity crackling around his arm.

A wave of fire was blasted at All for One out of nowhere, but the villain easily deflected it.

"What, bastard... what is that form of yours, All Might?" Enji growled, stomping forwards, "What is that pitiful back!?"

Yamada hastily braked to avoid crashing into Enji, "Looks like we made it in time!"

Tensei, Kamihara and Aizawa leapt up behind him, and the Ninja Hero sighed, "Somehow.."

"Focus on the fight, All Might!" Tensei yelled, quickly lifting some rubble off a civilian, "We'll save the others!"

"This is all we can do. If we can ease the burden even a little..." Chatora yelled, picking up the woman that was trapped under the rubble, "Please, stop that man!"

"Everyone's praying for your victory! No matter what you look like... you're still everyone's hero!" Kamihara spoke up, attempting to distract All for One.

"How annoying." All for One sneered, quickly blasting all the other heroes away, "Stop talking about emotions and start looking at reality."

_I'm not everyone's hero. _

_Young Midoriya... We never saved him from All for One's clutches... he's constantly pushed himself past the limit for the all the others... I won't ... I can't afford to fail him again!_

All for One began activating a multitude of quirks, his arm rapidly bulking up, growing more and more grotesque as more and more quirks were added to the mix, "The shockwaves used before were just to wear you down. In order to kill you, I will hit you with the ultimate combination of of quirks that I have right now. I am finally certain after exchanging blows with you, All Might, One for All no longer dwells within you. You've given it to someone, and you're left with the lingering dregs, the embers. And it's slowly going out as you use it, to the point where it doesn't even have to be blown on before it's extinguished."

All for One rushed down at Yagi, "In the end, you won't save anybody. You'll die full of regrets! Even as a teacher, a mentor, it's your loss!"

Yagi hastily used his right arm to counter the attack, but it wasn't long before his arm couldn't take the strain, and he was slowly being pushed back.

_All the students... Mirio...I may not be a good teacher... but I have to help them..._

"The weak embers that are going out without even being blown on are resisting. They're desperately trying to go on until they fulfill their duty... How unsightly."

"It's not just because I'm a symbol!" Yagi growled, pushing all the remnants of his power into his left arm, "All of them have room to grow! Until I teach... all of them... I can't die!"

He shot Aizawa a look, and the Erasure Hero immediately got the message. He glanced at All for One, activating his quirk.

All for One hissed internally, as he felt the effects of a few of his quirks slipping, spotting Yagi's left arm coming in; he had completely forgotten about the Erasure Hero's presence. Even though his quirk wasn't strong enough to fully erase the effects of his quirk, he had removed enough of its effects to the point where the villain's arm was half the size it was when he first attacked Yagi with his ultimate combination.

Yagi already had a slim chance of winning, but with Aizawa's Erasure quirk, the heroes had just secured their victory.

The Symbol of Peace put all his power into his right arm, and smashed it into All for One's face, knocking the villain out for good.

* * *

Aizawa stood in a room, along with the rest of the heroes that had participated in the Kamino Ward Incident, as well as the UA teachers, all in casual wear. Nezu was busy with the Hero Commission, and couldn't attend. As reluctant as Enji was to be present, there was a debriefing, he was required to attend it, according to Tsukauchi. The press conference at UA had ended with All for One's defeat at the hands of Yagi, though the man's true form had been revealed for the entire world to see.

All talk of Midoriya being quirkless had been abandoned in favour of talking about the true form of the Symbol of Peace, and Aizawa was relieved, and absolutely pissed off at the same time; relieved because no one knew just how badly the heroes had failed, and how Midoriya's injuries were unknown to the rest of the world, and peeved that everyone had just dismissed Midoriya's case so easily because he was quirkless.

Shinsou, Uraraka, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Iida were fine for the most part; just some minor scrapes and bruises, probably due to the falling debris from the collapsing building (Tensei had filled him in about the rescue) and Shinosu had a small electrical burn on his finger for some reason. They were all exhausted, unsurprisingly, and were resting in another room; they have yet to be interrogated.

Reiko and Ryuto were also pretty much okay. Reiko had sprained her paw, and Ryuto had pulled a few muscles in his wings from flying all over the place. Their injuries weren't too serious, though they did suffer from a mild case of malnourishment, which was something that seemed to run in Midoriya's family. They just had to rest for a few days and eat up to regain their strength. They were currently sharing the room with the five students.

Midoriya, on the other hand... wasn't doing too good. He was still in the emergency room, and while most of the heroes knew that he would survive due to his quirk, it left a very, very bad taste in their mouths that a child had suffered so much due to their failure.

The debriefing was taking place in Yagi's rather spacious hospital room. Most of the other heroes had rather mild injuries, or none at all, the only exception being Hakamata, but all he had were a few broken ribs and a busted lung, and the doctors were easily able to patch him up; compared to Midoriya's injuries, they were nothing. He was attending the debriefing while sitting in a wheelchair.

The second the debriefing ended, Enji promptly left, deeming it a waste of time, leaving the remainder of the heroes to talk amongst themselves.

"The embers inside me have gone out. The Symbol of Peace is dead. However... there is still something I must do." Yagi spoke up.

"Mirio Togata, right?" Tsukauchi nodded, "And Midoriya."

"Shigaraki Tomura. He's Shimura's grandson, that's what All for One said, right?" Tsukauchi stated, "He was telling the truth... but frankly, it's not much to go on."

"Speaking of which, Tsukauchi, your quirk doesn't work through tech. How can you tell he's lying or not?" Aizawa stared at the detected, who just sighed, "My quirk doesn't work through tech, yes. But the earpieces that all of you used, as well as mine... they were specially made so that my quirk would work. We figured that it would be more efficient if I could listen to the enemy. I may not be able to talk to them directly on the battlefield, but if I can figure out what is true and what isn't..."

"Alright. Got it." Aizawa rubbed his head, as Tsukauchi turned back to Yagi, "The two of you didn't have any interactions with this Shimura's family?"

"Nope..." Torino sighed, "Her husband was killed, so she put her child in foster care to keep him away from the hero world. She told us that she didn't want us having any contact with her child, even if the worst were to happen to her."

"So your promise to the deceased backfired... that's sad."

"The blood relationship that my master served for the sake of peace... We have to find him."

"No. What are you planning to do once you've found him? You're not looking at him like a villain anymore; you'll definitely hesitate. No matter who he's related to, he's still a criminal. A criminal that nearly killed Midoriya twice if it weren't for his quirk. Tsukauchi and I will handle the investigation of Shigaraki from here on out. You stay in UA, continue to teach the first years and Mirio. You may not be the Symbol of Peace anymore, but you're still alive."

Torino turned around and headed for the door, "I'll be taking my leave first. I'm sure that you guys have a lot to talk about." He shut the door behind him, and Tsukauchi spoke up, "About the raid -"

"A failure." Kamihara lifted his head, "We lost the Symbol of Peace, and we only managed to find Midoriya was because of a bird, and some students who had taken the initiative to save Midoriya themselves. And the only reason that Midoriya is alive is because of a quirk."

"Wait, he has a quirk?" Maijima frowned, and Aizawa internally facepalmed; he had completely forgotten that the hero hadn't been in the hospital when Shuzenji had talked about her theories.

"Yes. All for One said so, and he was telling the truth." Tsukauchi stated, "Endeavor didn't know about it; he had destroyed his earpiece when he set himself on fire, and I'm somewhat glad that he didn't come to know of this. Speaking of which... Aizawa, were you aware about the nature of his quirk?"

"Recovery Girl had her suspicions after the USJ, but they were just theories. It's very clear that Midoriya himself wasn't too sure about the nature of his own quirk. He's refused to acknowledge his quirk, though, and has always called himself quirkless." Aizawa admitted, "Midoriya's already wary of all of us. We couldn't just go up to him and ask "Hey, we think you have a quirk and we want to test it out." It wasn't the right time to pressure him about it."

"That doesn't matter." Hakamata sighed, "According to what All for One said... Midoriya's "trauma-induced quirk" keeps him alive even though... he should be dead. It's a quirk that should have never come up in the first place; he should not have gotten into any situations where his life is at stake, especially at such an age. Plus, if people caught wind of his quirk, it would only cause more trouble; greedy people wanted to take advantage of his quirk to be immortal, and playing down the severity of his suffering. People are all talking about the fall of All Might... but someone is going to remember that Midoriya was the reason for the Kamino Incident, and all the talk will shift to him. His status as quirkless shouldn't change; it would be safer for him."

"Agreed. I didn't tell the Hero Commission about this discovery... I'm only talking to all of you about this because you were either present when it was revealed, or you're his teachers in school and you need to know about it. Outside this room, Midoriya's quirk does not exist. That, and Midoriya's vigilante persona as Void." Tsukauchi stated, "As far as I understand from All for One's words... Midoriya has the capacity to develop a quirk, but this quirk he that currently has... wasn't intended to be his actual quirk. I'm going to be very direct when I say this... I think that during Midoriya's first attempt at suicide, his quirk was activated in self preservation. His quirk only protects him from dying if he wants to die... and prevented him from dying on subsequent suicide attempts. He can only live if he wants to die, and when he wants to live... that's the only time when he can die."

"There's another thing that's bothering me..." Nishiya mumbled, "All for One said that Midoriya's quirk traps him in the very mindset that makes him hurt himself? I still... don't get that part..."

"Shit..." Kamihara's eyes widened in the realisation, "I think... he means that Midoriya's quirk is actively forcing him into a self-deciprating, _making_ him want to die, because that's the only way that Midoriya won't die."

"That's just... sad." Takeyama admitted, "Then..."

"He doesn't care about himself." Chatora finished. "He cares more about other people than himself. I've seen Midoriya show emotion twice, once during the training camp, when Muscular attacked Kota... and after Shigaraki kicked his cat. Both times, he forced himself to fight even with his body in such a terrible state..."

"I think... we should station heroes to keep an eye on Midoriya, at least until he's well enough to return to UA. Magne made it clear that they wanted to kill the boy... though they didn't seem to know about Midoriya's quirk for some reason. Shigaraki wasn't too surprised; All for One would have filled him in, but why didn't he tell his subordinates?"

"That doesn't matter, but you do make a good point." Tsukauchi stated, "They may try to kidnap him again while he's vulnerable. I'll organise the shifts, and inform other heroes about the situation if we really have to."

Tsukauchi's phone rang, and he hastily picked it up. He listened for a minute, before ending the call, "Tamakawa says that Midoriya's finally out of the emergency room. I'm sure some of you are eager to go check on him."

"Yeah. Let's go." Chatora turned towards the door, opening it as the heroes filed out, closing it behind Nishiya, as he pushed Hakamata's wheelchair.

"What about the five students? We can't just leave them in the hospital. We should let them go home." Takeyama pointed out, "It's been a long day... and they did see Midoriya's state... and the villains might recognise them."

"That's true... I need to interrogate them as well..." Tsukauchi nodded, "I'll do it now. Ingenium, can you take your brother home after I'm done? And Mic, Cementoss, Ectoplasm, Snipe, do you mind escorting the others back as well?"

* * *

The heroes made their way to Midoriya's hospital room, just as a Shuzenji was exiting. Chatora had been called back in the last minute by the Pussycats to check on Shiretoko, and Maijima had to attend some meeting regarding UA's security. She gently closed the door behind her, and looked up at the incoming heroes.

"Recovery Girl, how is he?" Snipe asked.

"Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?" Recovery Girl asked, as the heroes looked between themselves, before turning back to her, "Good news."

"Good news, he's alive. He's lost a lot of blood, but we've given him a blood transfusion, so he _should_ be okay... he's currently stable... for the moment."

"That's it?" Takeyama frowned, and Shuzenji nodded.

"He's suffering from pretty severe case malnourishment, he doesn't eat enough as it is, and coupled with his kidnapping, it only got worse. All his bones, save for his spine, were broken. Snapped in half, shattered from impact, even his skull had small cracks lining them. His throat was a mess and his insides were completely mangled. Broken, pierced, torn apart, disintegrated, we even found electrical burns. We couldn't even attempt a skin grafting because he has injuries littering pretty much every inch of his body. We had all the strongest healing quirks in the country, and nurses with quirks that allow them to transfer energy, and every single one of them is exhausted from trying to heal the poor kid. We've managed to fix up the worst of the damage, and it's a miracle that he's even alive."

"Recovery Girl... they're aware of Midoriya's... _you know what_."

Shuzenji's face fell, "Then you should know that it is the only reason he's still living and breathing. Also... be careful, especially you, Aizawa. I shouldn't have to remind you, but don't ever use your quirk in there. At this point, we don't know if he's really stable, or only alive due to... _that. _In the latter case... if you do end up using your quirk on him by accident..."

She didn't have to finish her sentence, the outcome was obvious; Midoriya would die.

"You guys can go in; Tamakawa's keeping an eye on him. Also... he was kept in a dark room for a very long time... so much as I hate to do it, we're keeping his eyes covered for now, until he wakes up. If he does show signs of waking up, call a doctor immediately and tell them to remove the bandages. In all my years as a hero, I've seen very bad injuries... and Midoriya's case is the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm going to get some fresh air." Shuzenji pushed past them and headed to the elevator, and none of the heroes could really blame her; they had seen Midoriya's injuries, to some extent, not to mention the fact that Midoriya had probably wrecked his body further while fighting Shigaraki.

Sakamata carefully pushed open the door, and the heroes filed into Midoriya's hospital room. There was a constant beeping from the heart monitor next to the bed, and watched as Midoriya's chest rose and fell, every so slightly. A faint layer of mist appeared as he breathed on the inside of the oxygen mask that had been placed over Midoriya's mouth and nose. The boy's eyes were covered with bandages, as well as his arms and neck that were visible under the thick blanket. He ridiculously pale, even paler than how he usually was, and there was an IV connected to his arm through the bandages.

Midoriya lay eerily still, not even twitching as the heroes moved closer.

No one said a single word.

"Hey, Hound Dog, how was he after the USJ incident?" Nishiya asked. "Like... mentally. Were there... any changes?"

"Oh, yeah. He was involved in that too. Poor kid." Takeyama sighed, looking down at Midoriya's unmoving form, and the remaining heroes turned to look at Inui for answers.

"He was a bit jumpy when he first woke up... but after a few days... no change at all. He doesn't speak if spoken to, prefers to sign, is keeping a close eye on everything around him... he's didn't even seem to care about it at all. I have to say... I'm worried about his mental state when he wakes up. It was already messed up before he went for the training camp..." Inui shook his head.

"Wait, didn't he like... have a collar that he was really attached to?" Kayama asked, and Kan nodded, "Yeah. Gave it to Shinsou, apparently, before he was kidnapped."

"And that's the very same item that he punched a nurse in the face for." Kayama let out a dry chuckle. "He trusts Hitoshi, at the very least.

"And there is progress." Aizawa spoke up, "He's taken to talking to Hitoshi, Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki and Koda... so there's that. Only for the past two weeks... but it's still something. His classmates have noticed, but they're making a point to not react to it so they won't scare him."

"Really?" Inui's eyes lit up, "That's great to hear."

"But then... this happened. I don't know how this will affect him." Aizawa continued, and Inui's face fell.

"We'll just have to wait until he wakes up." Sakamata said, patting Inui on the back, "Don't worry, we'll help. We'll find a way to help out, somehow."

* * *

"Hey, Aizawa." Kamihara asked, picking at his rice, "You mentioned that this...Ryuto went missing from the UA dorms in the morning... any ideas how he ended up in Kamino?"

"Uh... who?" Takeyama asked, shoving her spoon into her mouth. They had stayed in Midoriya's room for as long as they could before the doctors kicked them out, and they had practically been forced by Tsukauchi to grab a bite.

"Reiko is Midoriya's cat, and Ryuto is his hawk." Kayama explained, "He's had Reiko for some time already, but just adopted Ryuto after the Sports Festival. Mic accidentally knocked out the power early in the morning... they probably used that opportunity to escape."

"And we don't even know how they managed to get out." Aizawa hissed, "They were in Midoriya's room, and the windows were all closed. If they wanted to get out of the building, they would have to open the door to Midoriya's room, and then open the front doors to the dorms."

"My question is how did they even get to Kamino in the first place. Or how they even knew to get there." Inui added.

Tsukauchi frowned, poking his dumpling, "I did remember seeing a cat and a bird on Yaoyorozu's bed when I interrogated her... I didn't think too much of it at the time. Yaoyorozu activated the receiver to ensure it was working before passing it to the police force... that's the only time I could think of where they could figure out Midoriya's location."

"That just opens up more questions. They apparently knew how to get all the way from Musutafu to Kamino. Then, the tracker led to the Nomu hideout, not Midoriya's location, so how on earth did a cat and a bird find him before we did?"

"Don't underestimate Reiko. That cat is smart." Ectoplasm pointed out, "She knows math, for some reason. She keeps smacking Kaminari's hand whenever he writes any wrong equations. It's funny... but I have absolutely no idea how Midoriya managed to teach his cat how to do maths."

"That means she also knows how to read, right? Since according to Tsukauchi... she was able to read the location off Yaoyorozu's tracker." Sakamata added, "That's one smart cat."

"That doesn't mean that they she can open a door to get out in the first place." Aizawa grumbled.


	51. Chapter 51 - Feel you all the time

"You've finished interrogating all them, haven't you, Tsukauchi?" Nishiya asked, settling down into his chair in Midoriya's room. Aizawa and the other UA teachers had been called away for a meeting, and Hakamata had gone back to his room to rest, leaving Kamihara, Sakamata, Takeyama and Nishiya in Midoriya's room.

"Yeah..." Tsukauchi nodded, "Most of them talked about the same thing. They picked Yaoyorozu up from the hospital, went to the Nomu Hideout, Ryuto sought them out, and led them to the building that Midoriya was in. There's other details... but it's not something I can talk about now. I need to discuss this with the rest of the police force and the Hero Commission... and maybe talk to the doctors and maybe a few psychologists."

Nishiya's phone vibrated, and he fished it out of his pocket, "Crap... Ryukyu is asking about the kid... She's been curious about Midoriya since that USJ incident... I can't just ignore her... that'd be rude...what do I tell her?"

"I was thinking of asking her to take a shift as well, tell her that I'll contact her sometime." Tsukuachi stated, scribbling down some notes in his notebook, "I don't think I should ask Jeanist for help... he's still injured..."

"He'll be in the hospital for a few days anyways... and he'll most likely be visiting All Might and Midoriya." Sakamata replied, "Especially after what we know about Midoriya, and that the League actually tried to kill him... we failed to save him. We're all guilty for not being able to protect him. We're lucky that the press hadn't caught wind of Midoriya's condition... that, coupled with the loss of the Symbol of Peace... hero society as we know it would crumble."

* * *

Hakamata stretched, before making himself comfortable in his wheelchair. He didn't exactly need it, his ribs were healed but the doctors had been stubborn that he put as little pressure on them as possible, at least until he was discharged. Hakamata was restless, dammit, as most heroes were when they were stuck in a hospital. He just wanted to go out, find some villains, and kick some butt.

The three members of the Pussycats just had their shifts before he popped in, and they had left once Kayama arrived to visit Shiretoko. Kayama ended up looking through some essays as she sat at the table, occasionally looking up to check on Midoriya, who still hadn't moved a single bit since he had been admitted. Shuzenji had said that with so many healing quirks, Midoriya should wake up in a few days if there weren't any serious complications, but Kayama couldn't help but be worried about the green haired boy.

They were being joined by Tensei, who was just fooling around with his phone, smiling to himself as he typed away.

"What are you doing?" Hakamata asked curiously, watching as Tensei let out a small laugh.

"Nothing. My little brother is spamming me with messages asking about Midoriya. They also have a class chat, apparently, and everyone is worried about the cute little green bean. Shouta is in it too, cause he's the homeroom teacher, and he just sent me a couple of screenshots; Bakugou's swearing so much it's hilarious. Did you know that his nickname in the chat is King Explosion Murder?"

Kayama snickered, "Did you know that he _actually_ wanted that to be his hero name?"

"I expected as much..." Hakatama shook his head, "I had him for the internships. I was hoping to change his brash attitude... but he's a stubborn one."

"Ha. He really must be something if even you couldn't change him." Tensei grinned, "I guess -"

The beeping from the heart rate monitor suddenly sped up, and all three heroes snapped their heads in Midoriya's direction.

"I think... we should get a doctor..." Tensei mumbled, pressing the button on the wall that was installed for that very purpose.

It didn't take too long until a doctor and several nurses entered, moving closer to the bed to check on Midoriya. Kayama, Hakamata and Tensei moved aside to give them space, when the green haired boy suddenly sprung to life, promptly kicking the blankets off and nailing the doctor in the chest.

The doctor fell down, startled, as Midoriya shook his head, clumsily fiddling with the oxygen mask on his face. He hastily ripped it off, his breaths coming in fast, before violently ripping the IV drip and all the other wires that connected him to the monitoring machines off.

"No, don't get close to him!" Kayama yelped, as a nurse tried to move in to calm Midoriya down, before Midoriya merely turned in her direction and lunged, clamping his teeth down onto her arm. They fell to the ground, and the green haired boy weakly staggered to his feet, looking around the room, before lunging for the door.

How he knew the door was there, even with his eyes being covered with bandages, no one knew.

"Nemi! Your quirk!" Tensei yelled, putting himself between Midoriya and the door. He grabbed onto Midoriya's arms, trying to restrain him as gently as he could, but the former vigilante whipped his leg out, kicking Tensei in the shin. Tensei winced, "Come on, Nemi! It doesn't matter if you knock me out too, just... oww! Come on, Midoriya, calm down, please?"

Midoriya had just bashed his head into Tensei's face.

"Cover your mouth!" Kayama ordered, lunging forward. She concentrated her quirk as much as possible, before releasing a potent cloud of sleeping gas that enveloped both Tensei and Midoriya. Tensei was out like a light, but Midoriya kept struggling. He weakly attempted to push himself up, but Hakamata activated his quirk, restraining Midoriya's clothes as gently as he could while pulling Tensei out of the cloud of sleeping gas.

Kayama squatted down, unsure how to calm the boy down, but despite having inhaled her sleeping gas, Midoriya stuck his neck out. He would have clamped his teeth down on Kayama's hand if she hadn't pulled away in time, and she could only watch, helpless, as Midoriya slowly succumbed to the chemicals and passed out completely.

Hakamata was trying to calm his racing heart as he deactivated his quirk.

"That was terrifying." He admitted, watching as Kayama picked Midoriya up and deposited him on the bed, before lifting the much heavier and bulkier Tensei up, "A panic attack?"

"Most probably... He also had a panic attack when he woke up from the USJ incident... but I didn't think he'd have the strength or the energy to knock people over." Kayama sighed, "Come on, let's get out and let them check on Midoriya."

"What about Ingenium?" Hakamata asked, as Kayama easily slung the knocked out Tensei over her shoulder.

Kayama weakly snorted, "This guy? I can carry him no problem. We used to live pretty close to each other until I moved to Musutafu, and I always had to bring this guy home whenever he gets wasted, which is pretty rare, to be honest, and listen to Tenya ranting about him getting drunk."

She quickly opened the door, letting Hakamata exit the room, before carefully placing Tensei on a bench that was located just outside the room.

"Tensei will be out for... maybe an hour? Two hours at most, I think. Midoriya should be out for a bit longer, since he inhaled more of it. That should give the doctors sufficient time to check on Midoriya, and maybe heal him up a bit more before my quirk wears off." Kayama sighed, taking out her phone, "I'll inform the others."

* * *

Midoriya found the beeping noise in the room... very annoying. It was better than Shigaraki constantly talking about something or another as he disintegrated the boy, but still...

_Wait... beeping..._

_I'm in a hospital._

Realisation struck Midoriya, and he heard someone, a male, getting close to him. He hastily pushed the blankets off him, he always hated those damned things, and punched the male.

_I can't see..._

_No not again please no please -_

There was something on his face, and Midoriya clawed at it. He didn't like it, he never liked anything to be covering his mouth and nose.

_I can't breathe -_

_Why can't I breathe!?_

He ripped the damned thing off, before noticing that there were other things being stuck under his skin uncomfortably. He hastily ripped them off, before noticing another presence.

Midoriya didn't care anymore; anyone in a hospital was malicious, they would hurt him, they only hurt him -

He instinctively bit down on whatever was in front of him, pushing both of them off the bed.

He wished that he were in the infirmary in UA instead. At least, he knew his way around the room, and the smell of antiseptic wasn't so strong and nauseating.

"No, don't get close to him!"

Midoriya whirled around, there was someone talking, but he was panicking too much to make out what was being said.

There was a door, he could sense the metal that made up the handle, and the first thing he thought of was _to escape._

He lunged for the door, only for someone to block his path and grabbed onto his arms.

_No no no let me out please -_

Midoriya desperately lashed out with his leg. Bashing against the bars while under the hands of the League didn't seem to work, but what other choice did he have?!

He felt another presence moving towards him, and he could smell the anesthetic in the air.

_Don't make me sleep again, I don't want to sleep -_

The smell of anesthetic suddenly grew stronger, and Midoriya panicked even more.

_Please stop, please, i__t hurts, I don't want to hurt -_

Midoriya desperately tried to escape from the cloud of sleeping gas, only to find that he couldn't move his limbs at all.

_No, please, move, I can't move, it hurts -_

_Please, not again -_

There was a person in front of him... the same person that made the sleeping gas stronger. He desperately lunged in his restrained state, missing completely. Midoriya could feel his senses slowly dulling, until he could no longer feel anything at all.

* * *

"Tsukauchi filled me in about Midoriya's... condition." Tatsuma nodded, "He woke up two hours ago, huh."

"Yeah... Apparently..." Snipe groaned, "Pulled a couple stitches as well; I heard from Midnight."

"Someone tell the hospital to get cushions for the benches, those are not comfortable." Tensei grumbled, having just woken up from Kayama's quirk.

"Has Nezu come around? I figured he'd be on of the first to demand to see his cub." Tatsuma asked, and Snipe shook her head, "Nope, he's been busy with the Hero Commission, the dorm system, and a ton of other things. And as much as he cares about Midoriya... he has no choice; he's doing everything he can to keep UA running smoothly despite all the setbacks."

"Yeah... the commission can be like that at times... but things have been hectic since All Might retired." Tatsuma gave a dry laugh, "Anything I should look out for?"

Snipe sighed, "I really don't know. Midoriya keeps to himself a lot... and while I think that he's opening up to his classmates, we teachers really don't know too much. Sorry."

"No problem... I was told Present Mic and Edgeshot will be here too."

"Yeah, Mic's running late cause of a villain... and Edgeshot's at the lift. The Hero Commission practically ordered all heroes to be more active to show that we're still strong despite the loss of All Might, though those who participated in the rescue were cut some slack for a few days. I have to patrol in around half an hour; I need to leave soon." Snipe replied, and Tensei raised his hand, "I literally spent my time passed out, I'm joining you guys."

"Ingenium, that's not your fault." Snipe sighed, but Tensei merely shrugged, "Hey, this kid talked my little bro out of trying to seek Stain out. I owe him this much, at the very least."

"Yes, and the said kid was also somehow able to keep up with Stain and aided in his takedown." Tatsuma added, "I've heard about that. He's an interesting kid, that's for sure. And Nezu adopted him."

Snipe shrugged, "Pretty much. I'll be leaving now, see you."

"Alright, see ya." Tensei yawned, and waved, before pushing the door open.

Tatsuma walked in, and looked down at the green haired boy lying limply on the bed, before sighing, "We really need to meet one day when you're _not_ injured."

Tensei gave a dry laugh, though it sounded very much forced, as they heard footsteps. The door was pushed open, revealing Kamihara, "So... he's awake."

"Well, he was. Nemi had to make him sleep again when he panicked and lashed out." Tensei mumbled, "Trust me, he still packs a serious punch in that state. He kicked me in the shin, and it still hurts."

"Honestly, he doesn't look like he can do much in that state." Tatsuma admitted, but Kamihara merely shook his head, "I'm not surprised. You weren't there when we found the kid. He can be terrifyingly determined when he's pissed off."

"If he can scare even you, then that's impressive." Tatsuma patted Kamihara on the shoulder, and though the Ninja Hero seemed a bit annoyed, he didn't do anything to stop her; Tatsuma was just like that sometimes.

It was around ten minutes until Yamada burst into the room, panting, "Sorry... late... villain... had to go to the police station... and traffic... I ran here..."

"Cool down, Zashi." Tensei quickly tossed him a bottle of mineral water, which the Voice Hero gulped down eagerly.

"Whew... thanks, Tensei. But didn't your time slot end two hours ago?" Yamada asked, wiping his mouth, and Tensei shrugged, "I literally spent my shift passed out. Does it even matter?"

"What about Tenya?" Yamada asked.

Tensei snorted, "If he knew that I had to look over Midoriya, he'd be demanding to follow me here to check on Midoriya. I still think they deserve to see Midoriya; they were the ones that found him after all."

"And he may attack them too? Did you think of that? I don't think he's full aware of what he's doing." Kamihara asked, but Yamada cut in, "They aren't in trouble, right? They didn't break the law."

"As far as I know... they're not in any legal trouble, but their parents have been informed of their actions, and I believe that they, as well as Eraser, are obligated to deal with them." Tatsuma replied, "You are right in saying that they didn't break the law, but it was still very dangerous of them to be there without anyone's knowledge."

"Tch. Shouta would probably just give them detention or make them clean the dorms or something. He acts tough, but he's a softie when it comes to kids, well, kids that have potential and that he can tolerate." Tensei cracked a smile.

The beeping suddenly sped up again, and Tensei froze, the other three heroes snapped their heads in Midoriya's direction.

"Already? I thought Nemi said that he would be out for longer!" Yamada hissed, "Call the doctor again?"

"What else can we do?" Tensei quietly snapped, "Ryukyu, block the door, he's probably going to try and escape again."

Midoriya hastily ripped the oxygen mask and the IV drip off again, and while Kamihara didn't think that he should use his quirk to temporarily cut off Midoriya's blood supply and knock him out, he didn't know how else to stop the boy from panicking and tearing himself apart.

He quickly folded his body into a thin blade, Midoriya _somehow_ dodged Kamihara's attempt to knock him out, before Tatsuma changed her arms into their dragon form and grabbed onto Midoriya, carefully pinning the boy's arms to his side, trying her best to restrain Midoriya without harming him. Midoriya snarled, viciously struggling in her grasp, before desperately attempting to sink his teeth into Tatsuma's hands, though it was ineffective against Tatsuma's tough scales.

It didn't take too long for the doctors to arrive, and they quickly injected a sedative into Midoriya's system while he was trapped in Tatsuma's grip, and waited as Midoriya movements slowed down, though it still took a few more minutes until the sedative completely knocked Midoriya out. Tatsuma gently placed Midoriya on the bed, before stepping back to let the doctors look over him.

"This isn't good. There has to be something to stop him from panicking like that." Tatsuma shook her head, as a nurse ushered them out of the room.

"This isn't a problem, in most cases." The nurse admitted, "Usually, the patient wouldn't have enough energy to act out like that. But... according to Recovery Girl and several other doctors, he still has barely recovered any energy at all, so we have no idea at the moment how he's even able to move, let alone attacking. Something traumatic must have happened in the past for him to act out like this. Do you have any ideas, or has he acted like this in the past?"

Tensei, Tatsuma and Kamihara turned to Yamada; he had the most contact with Midoriya since he was teacher in UA.

Yamada frowned, "As far as I'm aware... the same thing happened when he woke up from the USJ incident. All Might, in his skinny form, was in the room, as well as an Ectoplasm clone. They blocked the door as well... and Nezu had to coax him out when he hid under the bed. He tried to bite All Might as well, though he seemed to get agitated if someone got close. He was hospitalised once when he was nine... but we don't really have the details about that."

The nurse sighed, "The one where he fell off the school roof? His medical records did say something about that... but there's no details about it either. We'll try our best... we really haven't encountered a case like this before..."

"I guess he must really hate hospitals then." Tatsuma muttered, as the nurse walked back into Midoriya's hospital room to talk to the doctor, "Though how on earth did he know where the door was if he couldn't see? I can understand him being able to fight people blindfolded, since he fought that Shinsou kid in the Sports Festival, but a door?"

Yamada shrugged, "At this point, we've stopped questioning how he does anything, and we just accept that Midoriya is a very unique kid that needs more love, care and affection. "

"Accepted, that's valid." Tensei spoke up, before glancing at Tatsuma and Kamihara as they looked at him in confusion, "What, I don't know him well, but I like the kid too, okay? Also, Ryukyu, I didn't know you could do partial transformations."

"It never occured to me until I met Midoriya, as Void, two years ago." Tatsuma admitted, "He suggested it, and I tried it out. Pretty useful when my dragon form is too big for a room."

All the heroes that had encountered Void before, except Enji, were told of his identity; they had a feeling Enji would be really pissed off that Midoriya was a vigilante. Most of them were surprised that the analytical vigilante was a mere teenager instead of a super small adult, but none of them questioned it.

The heroes fell silent, before turning towards Midoriya's door.

* * *

"This is a huge problem." Sakamata muttered, crossing his arms, "He's woken up five times already, and each time, he panicked and attacked, and had to be restrained and sedated. This isn't healthy."

Hakamata leaned back into his wheelchair, "What else can we do? Let him out of the room hurt himself more?"

Chatora had been unlucky enough the last time Midoriya woke up, being the closest to the door. Midoriya had kicked him again, but he clearly didn't have the power that he had when he fended off the League.

Shuzenji shook her head, "It's not just that. Midoriya's shown to have some sort of awareness of his surroundings... and he either doesn't recognise us, or he doesn't trust us enough. And before you talk about Reiko and Ryuto, I asked already; they say that pets are not allowed."

Nezu glanced at Yagi through the tablet that Shuzenji had brought; he was in his office sorting through a few massive piles of paperwork.

"Nezu, he trusts you the most, can't you come?" Aizawa asked, but Nezu shook his head, "In a few days. I'm trying to finish everything as soon as possible before I visit. UA is one of the best schools in Japan, and that just means more meetings, more paperwork, and more security checks."

Yagi asked, "What about the kids? Can't they visit? They were the ones that found Midoriya, after all, I think they deserve to check on him."

"Midoriya would probably attack them too." Nishiya pointed out, but Nezu paused in his writing, before continuing.

"Actually... I think that it's less likely for Midoriya to attack them. He's started opening up to him... and he is more comfortable around his peers than he is with the teachers and other heroes that he's never really met before." Nezu stated, scribbling away at the papers, not even looking at the screen, before putting the paper in another pile.

"But all of us have met him at some point, as Void." Tatsuma pointed out, "He should know that we're not going to hurt him."

"The police are still investigating the League's actions against Midoriya, and we don't know if they did something to make Midoriya much more wary of his surroundings and more likely to lash out." Shuzenji spoke up.

"Wouldn't that mean that Midoriya is more likely to... you know... attack them as well?" Kamihara frowned.

"I didn't say he wouldn't; he might, but the chances are much lower." Nezu replied, "Aizawa, I suggest you inform them that they can visit, only because they saved him and Midoriya might be more comfortable around them. And warn them that Midoriya might panic and lash out."

Shuzenji sighed, "I also have some other news... the doctors were considering using physical restraints if this keeps up."

"I don't think that's a good idea. The kid was cuffed when we found him." Kamihara grumbled.

Aizawa internally facepalmed, and shook his head, "That makes sense, but it's definitely not going to work with Izuku. After being restrained by the League for so long, the last thing you would want to do would be to restrain him again."

Shuzenji nodded, "That's what I said too. But pretty much all the other doctors and nurses agreed that he should be restrained. Not to mention that the doctors have tried everything else, and restraining a patient to prevent harm to the patient or the caregiver is an actual proper protocol as a last resort. I tried my best to talk them out of it, but they're going forwards with the restraints."

Nezu sighed, "That is going to backfire so badly."


	52. Chapter 52 - First you gotta know

"I was thinking... isn't Nezu like... Young Midoriya's legal guardian or something? He did adopt him, after all." Yagi asked, "Young Midoriya clearly doesn't like the blindfold; he bit me once. Not to mention the restraints. Doesn't that give him the right to deny medical treatment, especially if he knows it's going to set Young Midoriya off? Unless thers's some other laws that I am unaware of."

Hakamata frowned, "That is a good point. Tsukauchi?"

"In most cases, in any other hospital, yes, Nezu would be able to deny Midoriya medical treatment with valid reasons. We placed Midoriya in the hospital specifically for heroes in order to keep him safe from any potential threats while he's recovering, and for secrecy from the press. Recovery Girl did inform Nezu of Midoriya's condition, and he did make an appeal to transfer Midoriya back to UA's infirmary, where it would be easier to Recovery Girl to take care of him. However, in here... the Hero Commission is in charge. While Nezu is knowledgeable enough about medical practises to make informed decisions, he does not have the neccesary qualifications to change Midoriya's treatment without it going through the Hero Commission first."

Tsukauchi paused to let the two injured heroes contemplate his words, before continuing, "Not only that, but in _very blunt _terms, and I quote the Hero Commission directly, Midoriya is considered an "anomaly"; a quirkless child, heck, any normal person would have died given everything he had gone through, and yet, he's miraculously survived. People don't like what's different from them, they don't like what they don't understand, and the Hero Commission is no different; they want to keep a close eye on him. They don't know about Midoriya's situation, and while I know they want the best for the people, I fear that if they find out about his quirk... they _may_ exploit him like they did to Hawks and make him do something he doesn't want to do."

"Not only that, but we all know Nezu's... _complicated_ situation. Nezu's appeals go through a lot more scrutinization than other heroes, simply because, well, he's an animal; the Hero Commision nitpicks at _everything_. While Nezu has gotten used to dealing with all the paperwork regarding the running of UA to avoid most major problems... Nezu has never done appeals regarding medical appeals and doesn't really know what the Hero Commission is looking out for. As far as I know... they pretty much dismissed his appeal."

"What about Recovery Girl?" Hakamata asked, just as Shuzenji walked into the hospital room to check on Yagi, "She's a veteran, and she's handled Midoriya before."

"I have seniority, that's it. I don't work here, I can only advise the other doctors on what to do." Shuzenji admitted, "And if they chose to discard my advice, there's nothing I can do about it. Even if I did work here, in a normal setting, I would be severely outvoted. Midoriya has a dislike for blankets, for some reason, and I told them about covering his eyes already, but they're, well... I hate to say it, they are following protocol, but they're not being flexible at all. Basically, in here, our hands are tied until Midoriya wakes up without panicking and can explain his situation... and Midoriya _never_ tells anyone when he has any problems... which is another can of worms we can't deal with _until_ he's better."

"I agree that something has to be done... but still... restraining him is a horrible idea." Hakamata muttered, "Getting tied to a bed has got to be terrible. Are there any other options?"

"Nope. Like I said, restraint is only used as an absolute last resort. They wouldn't suggest it if there were any other options." Shuzenji shook her head.

* * *

"Hey, Reiko... You doing okay there?" Shinsou sat down beside the cat. Her paw was still bandaged up, but she was walking around without much trouble.

Reiko looked up from her position on the couch, looking directly as Shinsou.

"Pops said that we can visit Midoriya..." Shinsou said, "He said that Midoriya woke up already, but he's... well... I think you know better than me..."

Reiko's eyes lit up, before Shinsou sighed, "You know you and Ryuto can't come, right? Hospital rules."

The cat's ears drooped, before she rubbed her head against Shinsou's hand.

"Yeah, I know you're worried, but he'll be fine, okay?" Shinsou scratched her behind the ears, as Ryuto hopped onto Shinsou's arm.

"Ne, Hitoshi, are you ready?" Yamada poked his head into the 1-A dorms, donning his hero costume, "We're going to leave. I'm going to pick Uraraka, Todoroki and Tenya up before heading to Nagano; the trains are down. Yaoyorozu said that she has a private car, and that she'll meet us at the hospital."

Reiko's ears twitched when she heard what Yamada had said.

_Heading to Nagano and meet at hospital?_

_Hospital is in Nagano._

She looked up as Shinsou carefully placed Ryuto on the ground, before the lavender haired boy stood up, "He'll be fine, don't worry too much, okay?"

Reiko let out a purr as Shinsou exited the dorms and shut the door behind him, before she hopped off the couch and headed for Midoriya's room.

She wasn't too sure where Nagano was... but they usually hung out in Nezu's office when there was no one in the dorms. Maybe the principal knew.

* * *

"Hey." Yaoyorozu greeted, as Shinsou, Uraraka, Todoroki and Iida stepped out of the car.

"I can't bring you guys to the room, traffic was worse than I thought, and I need to go for my shift at the radio station. Just talk to the receptionist, we told them that you'll be coming already. When you want to leave, just inform whichever hero is in the room and one of the teachers will come pick you guys up." Yamada rolled down his window.

"Alright, thank you, Mic-sensei." Todoroki nodded, before Yamada quickly rolled his window back up, and drove off.

"Now, who's ready to see Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu asked, and everyone nodded. They made their way into the hospital, and quickly found the reception desk. The receptionist quickly told them Midoriya's room number, before she leaned forward, whispering, "No one knows that he's here... and I'm sure that you've been told of his... situation. The doctors have restrained him as a last resort, but still, be careful; if he acts out, the heroes will protect you, so don't worry, okay?"

Shinsou mutely nodded, he didn't like the idea that Midoriya needed to be restrained by the nurses after being kidnapped by the League, but he didn't want to say anything, and risk losing the chance to see his friend. The receptionist pointed at the lift. It didn't take them too long until they arrived at the floor that Midoriya was on, and they waited until the lift door opened, before walking out.

They headed in the direction where Midoriya's room was, until they heard some faint yelling.

_"Calm down!"_

_"How on earth did he manage to get out of them?!"_

_"Get the door!"_

Todoroki cocked his head slightly in confusion, "What's going on?"

"No idea." Shinsou shook his head, before a door burst open. A familiar mop of green hair appeared, as Midoriya ran out of the room, attempting to turn on his heel but tripping over his foot and smashing into the wall instead.

"Midoriya?" Shinsou blinked, quickly moving over to where the smaller boy had fallen. There was nothing but pure panic and fear radiating off the boy, and Shinsou gently wrapped his arms around the green haired boy as he limply sagged against him, the sudden burst of energy that the boy previously possessed quickly fading to nothingness.

"You okay there, Midoriya?" Shinsou asked, but didn't get a reply from Midoriya. He could feel Midoriya's entire body shaking like a leaf in a typhoon, his heart pounding in his chest, as the boy grasped weakly at his shirt, breathing heavily.

* * *

Midoriya was _terrified_, to say the least.

He could move alright, but there was something wrapped tightly around his wrists, keeping his hands pressed against something cold, and he did _not_ like that one bit. He had done it when he tried to escape the League; he couldn't use his hands, but he could still do it.

_Stop, let me go -_

Midoriya quickly pressed his thumbs against what he assumed to be metal, and pain jolted up his arm and through his entire body as he forced his thumbs out of place. Leather straps were much easier to get out from than metal cuffs, and Midoriya hastily yanked his hands out of the restraints.

_Can't breathe - _

He ripped the oxygen mask off again, hearing but not processing the shouts that were ringing inside the room. He still couldn't see, but he knew there this big figure that was in front of him, maybe around two meters tall, moving closer to him, and on instinct, Midoriya jumped off the bed and slid underneath the person.

_Let me out, please - _

Midoriya quickly pushed himself up and desperately grasped for the door, before yanking it open. He knew that there was a wall around a meter and a half meters in front of him, and tried to turn, but he tripped over his own foot and crashed into the wall.

_Help, I don't want to stay here -_

He felt a presence draw closer as he desperately tried to push himself up, and he recognised the familiar presence. He could feel some sort of warmth, and it was nice, comforting. Midoriya found himself unconsciously leaning into it, all the energy from his panic attack long gone.

_Nice... warm..._

He could hear his heart pounding, and he reached out, weakly gripping at the warm presence, desperately craving the sense of security and comfort that he had been denied for so long.

_Safe... _

_Finally safe..._

* * *

"Hey, careful!" Takeyama quickly poked his head of the room, before blinking at the sight of Shinsou handling Midoriya without any problems at all.

Takeyama heaved a sigh of relief, "Whew... you guys are okay..."

Sakamata, Ectoplasm and Hakamata peeked out of the room, and Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu hastily moved forward, shielding the smaller boy from the heroes' sight.

"What happened?!" Yaoyorozu demanded, and Todoroki just glared at the heroes.

"He panicked. Can you get him back into the room? The doctors are going to come up and check on him." Sakamata replied, and Shinsou gently shook Midoriya, "Alright, we're going to bring you back into the room, okay?"

Midoriya weakly but vehemently shook his head, before coughing violently, still shaking. Shinsou turned back to look at his friends, "Give him some time, let him calm down first."

Iida frowned, catching sight of Midoriya's hospital bed, where the restraints lay undone. Todoroki promptly stomped into the room and ripped the restraints off, growling, "Who thought it was a good idea to restrain him right after getting out of a kidnapping?!"

"Todoroki, please calm down. Even if you're angry, you can't shout in a hospital." Iida half-heartedly berated.

Shinsou glared at the heroes, "He can't see, and he was blindfolded while with the League. Obviously, he would panic. Anyone would, in that situation."

Uraraka spotted the oxygen mask lying on the ground, and she grit her teeth, hissing, "And he had a muzzle covering his nose and mouth when we found him."

Takeyama raised her hands defensively; damn, these 1-A students were scary when they wanted to be, "None of them were our ideas, we swear. We didn't even know anything about the conditions you found him in. The doctors said that they had to cover his eyes and give him an oxygen mask to help him breathe. He woke up a few times and panicked, attacking each time, so the doctors decided to restrain him. We didn't have a say in anything at all."

"You do know that we weren't supposed to say anything, right?" Sakamata grumbled, but Takeyama merely huffed, glaring at the orca, "Well, if I were them, I would want to know what happened to my friend too."

No more words were exchanged as Midoriya gradually calmed down. He did have a pretty bad coughing fit, spitting out some blood in the process, but Yaoyorozu had taken out some tissues just in time. Midoriya's heart rate and breathing slowed, the tremors gradually dying down, and with permission from the smaller boy, Shinsou gently picked Midoriya up and placed him back on the bed, but not before Uraraka and Todoroki put the restraints as far away from the bed as possible and ripped the blanket off the bed.

"What? He doesn't like blankets." Todoroki curtly spoke up, as Iida took his jacket off and offered it to Midoriya to help him keep warm.

The doctor was already in the room, waiting patiently for Midoriya to calm down. The curtains were already drawn, and the lights in the room were dimmed, before he stated, "I'm going to remove the bandages around his eyes now; he's awake, and we need to check his eyes. You guys can stay in the room, he's clearly more comfortable with you around."

"Tell that to him, not me." Shinsou grumbled, "He can still hear you, and I'm not the one who can't see."

The doctor glared weakly at Shinsou, before carefully unwrapping the bandages from around Midoriya's head. The small boy continued to keep his eyes shut, even as the doctor took the bandages and passed it to the nurse.

"Midoriya, can you open your eyes?" The doctor asked, and after much coaxing from Yaoyorozu and Uraraka, Midoriya carefully pried his eyes open, revealing his bright yet empty emerald orbs. The doctor shone a light into his eyes, causing Midoriya to blink at the light, and the doctor switched off the small light and placed it on the table before scribbling onto a clipboard, "Pupils constricted... that's good, seems like there's no problems with your vision."

Midoriya took the time to observe the room, while still keeping a sharp eye on the doctor, before he glanced at the window. He noticed that the doctor had picked up the flashlight again, before taking a packet out of his pocket. The doctor ripped it open, revealing a long, thin, wooden stick.

"Can you say "ahh"?"

Midoriya reluctantly tried, but nothing more than a whisper escaped from his mouth. He blinked in confusion, before trying again, only to get the same results.

"I'm going to check your throat now. Can you open your mouth?"

He stared at the doctor blankly, before obediently complying, letting the doctor press the stick against his tongue and shine the flashlight down his throat.

Midoriya felt like he wanted to throw up, but the doctor removed the stick just in time.

"Your throat was badly damaged, but we managed to fix up the worst of the damage, so don't worry too much about not being able to talk. Your throat will be sore for a while, but just drink lots of water to keep it hydrated and practice talking, but don't strain your vocal cords." The doctor scribbled some more words down on the clipboard, before passing it to the nurse, "I'll leave the rest of the check-up to Recovery Girl; she're more familiar to you, and she'll be here soon."

It didn't take too long for Shuzenji to pop in and finish the diagnosis. Other than muscle fatigue, malnourishment and exhaustion, there didn't seem to be any more major problems that Shuzenji could find. He had pulled a few muscles and ripped some stitches from his constant panic attacks, and he had dislocated his thumbs to escape the restraints, but those were quickly fixed, and she just told Midoriya to rest and let his body heal. She did order the removal of the restraints and the oxygen mask while Midoriya was in the bathroom; it was clear that those were triggers for Midoriya's panic attacks, and Todoroki looked all too eager to set them ablaze.

The IV drip remained, though Midoriya didn't even struggle as they poked the needle into his hand.

Iida had sandwiches, for some reason, so the students didn't have to leave the room to eat lunch. The doctors didn't care too much, even though there was a rule that no outside food was allowed in the room; they were far too terrified of a panicking-stricken Midoriya rampaging to even bother. Some bland soup was given to Midoriya by the nurses, but Midoriya didn't touch it at all, opting to just curl up under Iida's jacket and listen to his classmates talking.

Shinsou and Uraraka were sitting at the edge of Midoriya's bed, and there were more than enough spare chairs in the room for the four heroes and Iida, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki.

"Hey... Midoriya, are you aware that we're going to be moving into the school dorms next week?" Yaoyorozu asked, as Midoriya looked at them, before tiredly shaking his head.

"Do we know where each person's room is?" Uraraka asked, "I didn't look at the form too closely before I left the house."

Midoriya tensed up slightly, as Shinsou shuffles closer to the greenette, "I only know that my room is on the second floor, and Midoriya is sandwiched right between Koda and my room. Not sure about the girls though."

Midoriya seemed to relax at that, and curled up even tighter.

There was a change in shift for the heroes, and all of them were pleasantly surprised that Midoriya was awake and not freaking out. They just remained quiet and talked amongst themselves as Yaoyorozu started talking about what she was going to bring to the dorms and what she was going to leave at home. She lived in a large house, they had been there for the sleepover, but Yaoyorozu had never shown them her room. But given the size of the guest rooms, there was no doubt that her room had to be pretty big as well.

Midoriya was slowly dozing off with Yaoyorozu's voice in the background, and Shinsou was resisting the urge to ruffle Midoriya's mop of green fluffy hair; he was like an adorable little puppy, tired, but trying his best to remain awake in order to listen in on the conversation.

Yaoyorozu hastily lowered her voice, as Uraraka mentioned that she didn't have many things to move. There was a knock on the door, and a nurse peeked in quietly, "Excuse me... visiting hours are over soon."

Todoroki glanced at his watch, "It's only four in the afternoon."

The nurse sighed, "We get that complain a lot, from relatives and friends that aren't heroes. To be honest, I personally would prefer you to stay, since Midoriya is clearly more comfortable around you all. But we restricted the visiting times for now while we increase security since things area little... tense."

Iida hummed, "Well... rules are rules. I guess we should go - oh... he fell asleep."

Shinsou and Uraraka stood up as slowly as they could, but Midoriya blearily opened his eyes, looking up towards his classmates in confusion. Those dim, emerald orbs in his tired, half-closed eyes were practically _begging_ them to stay. Yaoyorozu couldn't really read Midoriya, but the others could, and their hearts were practically melting. Even Iida, ever the rules enforcer, was seriously considering ignoring the visiting hours to keep Midoriya company.

"Sorry, Midoriya. We have to leave. We'll try to come again tomorrow, okay?" Shinsou squatted down to get to eye level with Midoriya, and the green haired boy gave a small weak nod.

Midoriya tried to grab the jacket and hand it back to Iida, but the blue haired boy gently stopped him, "Midoriya, it's fine. Keep it. It's not too cold outside anyways, and I have plenty of jackets at home. You can return it when you're finally move into the dorms."

Midoriya watched wearily as his classmates were ushered out of the room, and despite his mind screaming that he was useless, becoming soft and reliant on others, the green haired boy found himself craving the warmth and security that his friends offered.

_Friends?_

He wondered when that word had popped up.

_They're not your friends. They're like everyone else, pretending to be nice before they throw you away once they're done playing with your emotions._

_Shut up. They came for me when they didn't have to. That counts for something, right?_

Midoriya curled in on himself even tighter, closing his eyes; he was too tired to deal with the bullshit that his brain was currently spewing. He'd deal with it later, when he wasn't so tired.


	53. Chapter 53 - How to play the victim

"So... I guess he's doing alright, for now." Tsukauchi sighed. He had been talking to Yagi about Nana and All for One, and he had heard what had happened when Midoriya's friends came. He wanted to check up on the kid, and just happened to bump into Nishiya and Kamihara in Midoriya's room, as well as Shuzenji.

"Until we start asking questions about what the League did." Shuzenji mumbled, "I have a few speculations, none of them good."

"There were a few security feeds that our team managed to salvage from the League's Hideout." Tsukauchi stated, crossing his arms, "We haven't reviewed it yet... but hopefully... it will give us more information about the League."

They were speaking as softly as they could to avoid bother Midoriya, but they could tell that the green haired boy was not, in fact, sleeping, and was trying to listen to the conversation. He was curled up in a ball under Iida's jacket, and while none of them thought was a good position to sleep in while recovering, they didn't talk about it; whatever made Midoriya more comfortable, they'd let him do it.

There was a knock on the door, and Tensei poked his head inside the room, "Sorry I'm late... Tenya just wouldn't stop talking about Midoriya and complaining about the absurdity of hospital protocols."

Nishiya looked at his watch, "At this time? It's almost midnight."

Tensei looked at him and dryly replied, "Yes; the restraints pissed him off that much."

Midoriya shifted slightly, and Tensei froze, before relaxing, noticing the absence of several items.

"He's much calmer now. That's awesome. I was honestly afraid he'd panic again when his friends left."

"Yeah, Nezu was right about letting his friends visit." Nishiya shrugged, "He hasn't attacked anyone since, so I just think he just panicked because the conditions were... a bit too similar to that of when he was being held by the League."

They continued talking, before there were some sounds from outside.

Tensei frowned, "Was there supposed to be anyone else coming?"

"No, there's just supposed to be you, Edgeshot and Kamui Woods." Tsukauchi replied, checking his phone for the list of shifts.

"Also, no updates in the chat either. No one else should be joining us." Nishiya added.

There was something bumping on the door, before they heard a chirp and some meowing. The heroes kept their eyes glued to the door, as they heard the doorknob rattling.

"Not going to lie, that's actually kind of creepy." Nishiya admitted.

Finally the door opened, and Kamihara spotted a white and brown bird pressing down on the door handle, as a small white cat with a bandaged paw pushed the door open with its head; the door was pretty heavy, so it must have had a running start in order to gain enough momentum to open the door.

Nishiya blinked, as the cat held the door open long enough for the hawk to fly into the room, before letting the door close. It shook its head, before spotting Midoriya on the bed.

"Did I just... see a cat and a bird open a door?" Kamihara asked.

Tsukauchi was equally surprised, "Err...Yes?"

Shuzenji sighed, "After they appeared at Kamino, I am no longer surprised. Hello, Reiko, Ryuto."

Reiko turned towards Shuzenji, meowing, before she leapt onto the bed. Ryuto flew over to her, and Midoriya opened his eyes slightly, not moving as the bird gently nuzzled Midoriya's neck, before settling down.

Nishiya texted the group chat.

**_Wood Man:_**

_We got a cat and bird in the room._

**_Ryu:_**

_How did they even get there._

**_Loudspeaker:_**

_Oh, that's where they went. Hitoshi was looking for them in the dorms._

**_LetMeSleep:_**

_White cat and white/brown bird?_

**_Wood Man:_**

_Yep._

**_Let me sleep:_**

_Reiko and Ryuto then. Door or window?_

**_Wood Man:_**

_Door. Ryuto pressed down on the handle and Reiko pushed it open. Window can't even be opened._

**_Loudspeaker:_**

_Yeah, you're right. They're smart._

**_DracoLady:_**

_Isn't the door pretty heavy?_

**_WoodMan:_**

_Yeah, I think Reiko bashed her head against the door a few times before it opened._

**_Loudspeaker:_**

_Ouch._

**_Loudspeaker:_**

_Wait, how did she know where the hospital was?_

**_RatBastard:_**

_You told her it what city the hospital was in __when you were talking to Shinsou, Mic._

**_LetMeSleep:_**

_I told you not to talk about it in front of them._

**_LetMeSleep:_**

_And I'm pretty sure that you told her how to get there, didn't you, Nezu?_

**_RatBastard:_**

_No. I just told her the general direction of the city, actually. I didn't really know why she was asking, to be honest. I was busy staring at these stupid papers all day._

**_DracoLady_****_:_**

_So we have Google Cats instead of Google Maps. Great._

**_CloningMachine:_**

_Told you she was smart._

**_CrystalBall:_**

_I am here for some reason. Who added me? None of you have my number, as far as I know._

**_DracoLady_****_:_**

_Err... who are you CrystalBall?_

**_AllMight:_**

_I am so sorry, Nighteye, I added you by accident and I do not know how to remove people._

**_LetMeSleep:_**

_Good to know you're not stuck in caps lock like that other time._

**_WoodMan_****_:_**

_Why on earth did you call yourself crystal ball Nighteye__?_

**_CrystalBall:_**

_Accurate name, is it not?_

**_CrystalBall:_**

_Stop typing and go to sleep, All Might. You're still a teacher in UA, you're not completely retired yet._

**_RatBitch:_**

_Also, finishing up my paperwork. Will visit if nothing else pops up. Toshinori, get ready._

**_CrystalBall:_**

_Sounds ominous. Get ready for what?_

**_CrystalBall:_**

_Actually, I'm curious, I'll pop by tomorrow too._

"Yeah... Eraser and Shinsou were looking for them." Nishiya stated, pocketing his phone, "Came from the dorms, again. Nezu and Nighteye are coming tomorrow... for some reason. Endeavor wants to talk to All Might."

Tsukauchi shook his head, confused, "I just... really want to know how Reiko and Ryuto managed to get here. How did they even know which room Midoriya was in?"

Shuzenji sighed, "Don't think about it. We stopped asking a long time ago."

Reiko shot a glance at Tsukauchi, before looking at Nishiya and Tensei. She hopped off the bed, walking over to the heroes, before leaping up onto the chair, then the table. She stared at Tensei expectantly, before looking at his hand.

"Uh... you want a pat?" Tensei asked, reaching his hand out to her. She sniffed his hand, before nuzzling his hand, and Tensei grinned, scratching her behind the ear.

"I'm practically a tree. She won't try and climb me, right?" Nishiya asked, and Reiko glared at him like he had asked the most stupid question on earth.

"Well, she certainly is expressive." Tsukauchi smiled, letting Reiko sniff his hand, Kamihara following suit.

"Kamui, she's not going to hurt you. I think she's just deciding whether she can trust us or not." The Ninja hero stated.

Reiko nodded, and meowed, and Nishiya hesitantly reached his hand out, letting Reiko sniff his hand, before deeming him okay and rubbing her head against his hand. She hopped off the table, and made her way back to the bed, letting out a delighted purr as she licked Midoriya's cheek, before curling up beside him.

Kamihara watched at Midoriya shifted himself slightly, moving his arm so that he was wrapped around Reiko and Ryuto protectively, before finally relaxing, the tension in his shoulders finally disappearing.

* * *

"So… All Might." Sasaki greeted, standing by Yagi's bed. Midoriya was hanging out with his classmates in his room, and while Sasaki was curious about the quirkless child, he did encounter his vigilante persona before, after all, he didn't want to bother them. He had heard about the panic attacks; he figured that he should let the boy spend as much time with his friends before they were kicked out of the hospital.

Hakatama was also in Yagi's room, as well as Nishiya and Tatsuma. Chatora, Tsuchikawa, and Yamada were currently looking over Midoriya.

"No need to be so formal, Sasaki." Yagi laughed, "I can't sustain that form anymore. Call me by my real name."

"Alright then, Yagi." Sasaki replied, "So… the embers are truly gone?"

"Yeah. My power has been weakening slowly since I passed One for All to Young Mirio. Even without fighting All for One… these embers would have burned out sooner or later." Yagi nodded.

"Uh... this seems like a private conversation? Should we leave?" Nishiya asked, but Yagi shook his head, "No... that's fine. We allowed the threat of All for One to linger so long because we kept quiet about it. He is behind bars, but his supposed successor, Shigaraki, is still out there. I think... it's better if more heroes are aware of what he is capable of, so another incident like Kamino would not happen. Mirio will be able to stand as a pillar... but he can't defend the entire city alone. Speaking of Young Mirio... he's been doing a very good job with One for All."

"That is why I recommended him, Yagi." A small smile appeared on Sasaki's face, "How are you doing so far?"

"Great, actually. My arm will still be a cast for a few more days, but I'll be discharged in a day or two." Yagi smiled, before his face fell, "But Young Midoriya… he's going to have to stay for at least another week. Actually… there's… something I need to discuss with you, actually. Regarding the quirk."

Sasaki raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

Yagi raised his head, looking at Sasaki directly, "There is a possibility that Young Mirio may have other… abilities… that he would have to hone."

The hero looked at his former mentor, confused, "What do you mean by that?"

"Young Mirio is the ninth of One for All. The quirk has been passed through seven others before me. One for All was created from a power stockpiling quirk, combined with a quirk that allowed the quirk to be given to someone. Assuming that the same could apply to all the other previous users..."

"Mirio could have six other powers to deal with." Sasaki finished, still looking somewhat confused, "You never were the type to think like this. Did All for One tell you anything?"

"No, actually. Young Midoriya was the one to suggest this." Yagi admitted.

"The quirkless child that was involved in the Kamino Incident. You did mention that if you met him earlier, you might have considered him as a candidate for One for All. You told him about the quirk?"

Hakamata and Tatsume stopped talking, and looked over to the conversation between the former Number One hero and his former sidekick.

"I assigned the students to write an essay about me." Yagi started, "Young Midoriya gave me an essay... I still haven't finished marking it... But he seems to have some sort of knowledge about me that no one else does. It's in the office... once I get out I'll let you take a look."

"That won't be necessary. Just give me a brief summary."

Yagi sighed, "He mentioned that the amount of time I had spent out in public had been slowly decreasing, from around the time of my fight with Toxic Chainsaw. However, he stated that Toxic Chainsaw would not realistically be able to cripple me to the point where I can no longer spend as much time patrolling. He suspected that the Nomus that attacked the USJ... were made by someone who knew my weaknesses, as Shigaraki stated that the Nomu was made to defeat me, and that was most likely the villain who was able to crippled me all those years ago."

"Smart kid." Sasai nodded.

Nishiya blinked, "Uh... not to burst your bubble... but wasn't the kid being uh... smashed by the Nomu?"

"Shut up, Kamui." Tatsuma sighed.

"He noted that the Nomu seemed to have multiple quirks, and no will of his own. He reasoned that the villain must have a quirk that allows him to give and take quirks at well. He speculated that my quirk... cannot be taken like the other quirks, and since it's not related to super strength in any way at all, he theorised that I have two quirks that were combined into one. Since one quirk is useless on its own, he also thought that the quirk that the villain could not take was more likely given to the person with the super strength quirk, and from there, he raised the possibility that the quirk also could be given to other people, theoretically being able to collect and stockpile these quirks as well." Yagi finished.

Sasaki was impressed. Midoriya wasn't entirely correct, but given how _little_ information there was floating around, it was amazing that he could even make an analysis at all. Not to mention that it was actually pretty accurate, given that it was mostly just guesses and speculations from small bits of information that most people would brush off.

"That got me thinking... as far as I know, every other wielder of One for All had a quirk... if what Young Midoriya theorised is correct, Young Mirio could manifest other powers and abilities." Yagi finished, "I think it is a very likely possibility, and I would like to take some time to actually work with Young Mirio on this after I have sufficiently recovered."

Sasaki hummed, "Absolutely. I would also like to work with him on this... I think we should invite Midoriya, as well; he was the one that brought it up, and I would like to see his analytical skills first hand."

"Er... about that... he hates me." Yagi admitted.

There was a knock on the door, and Yamada walked into the room, alongside Aizawa and Nezu.

"Shift change. Tiger and Pixie Bob went back to check on Ragdoll. Met these two on the way here." Yamada grinned, as Yagi warily eyed the two binders in Aizawa's hands. One was _much_ thicker than the other.

Nezu grinned, his eyes glinting, before he climbed up onto a chair.

"Uh oh." Nishiya gulped.

"Hello, Yagi." Nezu grinned, "There's a lot I have to say... but all that can wait until you're discharged. Since you're resting, Aizawa figured it was a better use of your time to finished marking the essays before all the work starts piling up again."

Yagi flinched, as Aizawa handed Nezu the thinner, more familiar looking binder. The principal placed it on the hospital table, along with a red pen.

"Uh... how many essays are in there?" Tatsuma asked.

"He just has one essay he hasn't finished." Aizawa grumbled, "You're delaying the return of the rest of the class' essays."

Nezu watched as Sasaki looked at the binder with interest; no doubt that Yagi was telling his former sidekick about Midoriya's analysis on his quirk, "You can read it, Nighteye, just don't help Toshinori mark it."

"Sure." Sasaki gave a dry grin, picking the binder up and was about to flip through it when the door burst opened, revealing an enraged Enji.

"Ah, hello, Endeavor." Yagi politely greeted, and Enji growled, "You're retiring?"

The former Symbol of Peace blinked, confused, "Yes? Is there a problem?"

"I've been working my entire life to surpass you, and yet, this is how I gain the Number One position? By technicality?" Enji hissed, "I refuse to accept the position like this."

"Endeavor, please, be reasonable. The city needs a symbol, a beacon of light to guide them, to give them hope. You're the Number One hero now, even if you dislike or hate me, please, don't let that get in the way of bringing everyone peace."

Enji growled, but it was clear that he was somewhat calmer, and the new Number One hero proceeded to stomp out of the room, only for Nezu to speak up.

"There is always room for improvement, Endeavor." Nezu grinned, taking the other binder from Aizawa, "There's some analysis made of you, take a read. We already looked through it, it's all fairly accurate."

Nezu passed the super thick binder over to Enji, who reluctantly took the binder from Nezu, and flipped it open curiously.

He immediately burst into flames, and Aizawa had to erase his quirk before he burnt anything by accident.

"What on earth is this?" Enji angrily hissed, but Nezu was barely fazed by the much taller and larger man.

"Hush now, this is a hospital. By the way, there wasn't enough space in the binder for the entire report, I'll send the remaining two parts of the report to your hero office." Nezu gave Enji a shit eating grin, as the fire hero's hand lit on fire.

"Also, it's printed on fire-proof paper so you wouldn't burn it by accident." Nezu continued, glancing at Yamada as the hero stared at his phone, "Also, if you would like, we can send this to the Hero Commission and let them take a look at it. I'm sure they'll have a _lot_ to say."

Enji snarled, but didn't say a word before he stomped back out of the room.

A big smile formed on Yamada's face, and the Voice Hero burst out laughing, "Oh my god! Thank you for telling me you were going to do that! I got it all on tape... I'm going to send it to Nemi and Tensei."

"Uh... what just happened?" Nishiya muttered, confused, as Tatsuma and Hakamata looking at the laughing teacher.

"Was that the essay that Young Midoriya wrote?" Yagi asked, "He wrote about Endeavor, and you guys were laughing about it in the staff room."

"Yep." A small grin crept onto Aizawa's face, "Midoriya wrote an analysis that's around three thousand pages long, about Endeavor. He basically threw shade at Endeavor for the entire report, and he does have evidence to back it all up, in the appendix."

"And... you can somehow use that report to blackmail Endeavor?" Nishiya asked incredulously.

"Sent! In our hero group chat as well!" Yamada proudly declared, "Nemi's going to get a kick out of this!"

Hakamata blinked, and Sasaki burst into laughter.

"Okay, now, I really need to meet that kid." Sasaki grinned, "He's truly an interesting one."

* * *

Nezu carefully pushed open the door to Midoriya's dimmed room, seeing the heroes talking amongst themselves in the room. Yaoyorozu and Iida had to leave early for other matters, and Todoroki had left earlier to visit his mother with his siblings, and according to Sakamata, Uraraka and Shinsou had been forced out of the room by Shuzenji to grab a bite.

Midoriya was lying on the bed, seemingly asleep, with a jacket draped over him which Nezu assumed belonged to either Iida or Shinsou. Reiko and Ryuto were cuddling with Midoriya, lying against the small boy's neck. The principal walked over to the bed, watching as Midoriya sensed his presence and opened his eyes slightly, revealing his emerald orbs.

"Hey, Izuku." Nezu gave Midoriya a small smile, "How are you doing?"

Midoriya blinked, his eyes flickering to the IV and the lights, before looking back at Nezu.

"Yeah, you must be pretty bored in here. Don't worry about it, okay? You'll be back on your feet soon enough. Just rest up, okay? Your body needs energy to heal. Sorry I couldn't visit for so long." Nezu stuck his paw out to pat Midoriya's head. The green haired boy closed his eyes, and gently pressed his head against Nezu's paw.

Nezu ruffled Midoriya's mop of messy green hair, and Midoriya opened his eyes.

"Recovery Girl said that you'll be discharged in about a week... and the rest of your classmates will be moving into the dorms on that day as well." Nezu stated, and Midoriya blinked, frowning slightly.

Nezu rubbed the back of his head, "Don't worry about it. I've heard about Mineta; we've purposely added more rules in place to limit his behaviour. If he goes too far... then we'll deal with it."

Takeyama and Sakamata looked over to where Nezu was conversing with Midoriya, and the Killer Whale blinked, and whispered, "Midoriya's not talking or signing at all? How are they holding a conversation?"

Snipe shrugged, "Midoriya's never been one for talking. Some of the students are pretty good at reading Midoriya as well, though not to this extent... I guess it's just familiarity."

Nezu's phone vibrated, and the principal fished the device out of his pocket, and groaned, "Sorry, Izuku. The Hero Commission just scheduled _another_ meeting. I need to go."

He reached out to pat Midoriya again, before turning to the door, "Take care of yourself, okay, Izuku?"

The green haired boy gave Nezu a tired nod, watching as the principal pulled open the door and walked out in frustration.

"Poor Nezu..." Snipe shook his head, "He's still blames himself for sending Midoriya for the camp."

"And the Hero Commission is constantly on his tail on pretty much everything." Sakamata sighed.

* * *

Yagi was discharged the very next day, though his right arm was still in a cast, and Nezu had called him, as well as Aizawa and Kan, to his office.

"Thank you, All Might." Nezu started, "For a long time, you've sacrificed your body and time to save thousands. As a citizen, a hero, and a principal, I cannot thank you enough. However... there are many that do not believe that you should continue as a teacher in UA, because they feel that everything that had happened was because you came to work here. "Now that he can't fight, won't the children be caught up again?" they say. Everyone's uneasy, that's why we must make the faith in heroes stronger for the very children who were affected, and the one that you passed the torch to. The threat is still there... and we must protect our future heroes with more strength than before. The dorms have been built for children who live very far from UA... but I feel we should implement that plan that we had in mind since the USJ incident." Nezu pushed a stack of consent forms towards the teachers, "Izuku and Shinsou are already staying here, and I'm counting on you to visit the other parents."

Aizawa grabbed the stack of papers, before looking up at Nezu, "Are you going to visit Midoriya in the hospital again?"

Nezu's ears drooped, grumbling, "Yeah. Once I finish this new stack of paperwork."

"Nezu... are you okay?" Yagi asked, looking as Nezu's tail twitched.

"It was my idea for... Izuku to go on the training camp... He was only there because I told him to go! If I had just considered the possibility that there was an info leak..." Nezu sighed.

"Nezu, you had his best interests at heart. None of us knew that the League would conduct a raid on the camp." Kan argued, "It wasn't like you wanted him to be kidnapped."

"You think that it's your fault, and you don't deserve to see him," Aizawa interjected, "But out of everyone, you're the one that he trusts the most; support can't do him any harm, especially if it's from you."

"I know that..." Nezu sighed, "Just... go deal with the parents first. I need some time to myself."

* * *

"That's not very rocking. Even if it didn't turn out to be anything serious, to announce that you're starting an all-dorm system like nothing happened after my only daughter was involved!" Kyotoku growled.

"What you're saying is quite right. However, we took another look at the pride and negligence that grew without us realising it, and thought about what we could do. Will you please leave it to us?" Aizawa asked, bowing slightly, "We will definitely raise Kyoka to be a fine hero."

"Ah? Aizawa-sensei, you don't have to bow! We already decided what to do after we got the notice in the mail." Jiro closed the door, two cups of tea in her hands, "When this old man saw All Might's fight, I heard him say "I can't believe my daughter's being taught by someone so rocking!", and then he cried."

"Kyoka! Stop! I'm trying to act like a strict dad!"

"Shut up, old man!"

"Stop it, you two. We're not at a loud rock concert!"

Jiro glared at her father, before turning to Aizawa and Yagi, "But... I do have to ask... how's Midoriya? The news didn't cover anything about him at all... is he okay? I heard from the others... that he single handedly defeated Muscular... and then taken by the League..."

"Wait, you didn't tell me about that!" Kyotoku stared at Jiro, but Jiro just huffed at her father, "I didn't even know about it until someone told me. I wasn't even anywhere near the fight at the time."

"I'm not supposed to say anything due to patient confidentiality, but I can say that he's recovering." Aizawa's face fell, as he continued, "The media has completely forgotten about him, for the time being, due to his quirklessness... and we're trying to keep everything about his condition under wraps to keep him safe."

Jiro hummed in agreement, before asking, "He'll be staying the dorms too, right, once he's discharged?"

Aizawa nodded, "He's been living in the dorms ever since... that incident. The dorm system was supposed to be optional, but given that so many things are going on right now, everyone had decided that the students would stay in the dorms, with a teacher, at all times."

Jiro nodded, "Midoriya's kept risking his life to protect us all... Just once... I would like to help protect him as well."

* * *

"Oh, sure! I'm counting on you!" Mitsuki grinned, smacking Bakugou in the head.

"Don't hit me, old lady! I'll kill you!"

"Shut up! Don't yell at me!" Mitsuku growled, smacking Bakugou on the head again, "You got captured, and had to be saved by the others, and resulted in that other kid getting kidnapped!"

"You two... stop it... You're startling the teachers..." Masaru tried to break up the incoming fight, only for Bakugou to yell back, "Shut up, old man! Don't butt in!"

"Katsuki, you're the one that should stop! If you're going to talk, then speak clearly!"

"Are you... sure it's okay?" Yagi asked.

"The dorms? Yeah, we'd be grateful, actually. Katsuki's reckless, and really good at everything, and he was blessed with a good quirk. He had people fawning over him all the way from preschool to middle school and made him like this. He's been taken down a notch ever since he got beaten by that quirkless kid at the Sports Festival, and he's mellowed out a lot since coming to UA, and we're grateful for that. You may face harsh criticism, but I trust you guys and will leave him to you."

Mitsuki pushed Bakugou's head down, before bowing, "He's a hard headed hopeless guy, but please train him hard and make him a good hero."

Bakugou pushed smacked Mitsuki's hand off him, "Sensei... I have to ask... how is Midoriya?"

Aizawa sighed; every student that he had visited so far had asked the same question.

"He's recovering; that's all I can say due to patient confidentiality." Aizawa stated. "I can't say anything more; we're trying to keep him as safe as possible, away from the media."

Bakugou relaxed slightly, "That's good. That nerd better recover properly so I can beat him fair and square."

"Katsuki, be polite!" Mitsuki growled, smacking Bakguou on the head again. It didn't take too long for them to finish up at the Bakugou household, and they exited the house.

"I was honestly expecting to face more criticism." Aizawa admitted, strolling back to the car.

"To be fair... If Nezu wasn't Midoriya's guardian, we'd probably have a huge problem on our hands." Yagi sighed, closing the door of the car behind him.

Aizawa grabbed his phone and unlocked it, before sighing, "Midoriya's trying to walk."

"But..." Yagi muttered, trying to find the right words, "He still needs to rest."

"That's the problem. He's too stubborn for his own good. To be fair, it is pretty boring sitting around and not doing anything." Aizawa grumbled, "I have my shift soon, you think you'll be okay finishing up the last few houses on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Yagi nodded, "Go take care of Midoriya."

* * *

The lights in Midoriya's hospital room gradually grew brighter and brighter, to the point where Midoriya was perfectly fine with the regular brightness of the lights. His motor skills had also improved, though that was mainly because Midoriya was very stubborn and refused to stay in his own bed, leaving the nurses and heroes with no choice but to keep a constant eye on Midoriya because the kid just wouldn't keep still.

It had taken a few days for Midoriya to actually be able to walk around, though it did wear him out a lot quicker than they expected; he actually spent a lot more time sleeping. Pets weren't allowed in the hospital, but the first and last time that the nurses had tried to tell Midoriya that Reiko and Ryuto couldn't stay, Midoriya had hissed and glared at them.

Midoriya was actually a lot calmer during check-ups, the doctors realised, and Reiko and Ryuto didn't make a mess or kick up a fuss at all; the doctors just decided to ignore that rule all together when it came to Midoriya. Midoriya was also much more relaxed around the heroes; apparently, he trusted Reiko's judgement. If she thought that the heroes could be trusted, Midoriya would take her word for it.

The heroes were just happy that Reiko and Ryuto were also taking care of Midoriya. They couldn't stop Midoriya, since they were too small, but they did keep an eye on the boy, and alerting the heroes when Midoriya was about to lose his balance, since the second the heroes turned away from Midoriya, the boy would have gotten out of his bed and would be trying to walk around the room. Not to mention that Midoriya seemed to have a knack for moving around undetected; even Inui and Sakamata were trying to figure out how they never noticed Midoriya despite their enhanced senses, only noticing that Midoriya was out of his bed when he stumbled and knocked something over by accident.

He could also talk, albeit very softly, though he never spoke unless it was necessary. He did talk to Nezu, Reiko and Ryuto... but that was about it. He didn't even speak to his classmates when they visited, though Yaoyorozu, Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida and Todoroki didn't seem to mind too much.

The doctors had eventually deemed Midoriya well enough to be allowed to watch television, and the first thing that Midoriya did was to flick the device on, which happened to be playing a rerun of the Kamino fight between Yagi and All for One.

Nishiya, Aizawa, and Sakamata happened to be supervising Midoriya, and they stopped talking to watch the rerun.

Yagi practically deflated into his skinny form, and Nishiya remembered his own reaction upon watching it for himself; the complete shock and utter disbelief running through his veins as he questioned everyone.

Midoriya didn't seem too surprised, though, and continued watching as Yagi eventually overpowered All for One at the cost of his arm.

There was a knock on the door, and Tsukauchi poked his head in, "Uh... is this a good time?"

Midoriya turned to face the detective, and Sakamata asked, "Good time for what?"

"Questioning about... you know what." Tsukauchi sighed, "I don't think I should be conducting this so soon, but the Hero Commission is getting a little... pushy."

"What do you think, Midoriya? You think you can handle some questions?" Aizawa asked, and Midoriya looked away for a few seconds, before nodding.

"Can I ask you to step out for a second? It shouldn't take too long." Tsukauchi stated, stepping into the room. He grabbed a chair and pulled it over to Midoriya's bed, a notebook in hand, and Nishiya, Sakamata and Aizawa exited the room, closing the door behind them gently.

"Alright, can I ask you some simple questions?" Tsukauchi asked, and Midoriya nodded.

"What's your name?"

"Midoriya... Izuku."

Midoriya's words were soft, and he had to take some time between his words to figure out how to voice them, but he could speak. Tsukauchi was glad for that; his quirk didn't work with signing, and Midoriya was recovering.

"Age?"

"Fifteen."

"Okay... what was the last thing you remembered about the training camp?"

Midoriya frowned, "Gave collar... to Shinsou... Fighting... collapsed... Twice picked... me up... and portal."

It wasn't much, but Midoriya did have some recollection of the training camp. Now for the hard part.

"Alright... what do you remember after that?"

Midoriya's eyes glinted, and he looked up at Tsukauchi.

* * *

Tsukauchi had called a meeting between all the pro heroes who had participated in the Kamino Incident, save for Enji, all the UA teachers, the Pussycats, and a select few other heroes. While they didn't think it was necessary, they allowed Shinsou, Todoroki, and Iida to keep Midoriya company for around an hour. Yaoyorozu and Uraraka had to finish packing, since they were to move into the dorms the very next day, and couldn't come.

Aizawa tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the meeting to start. First, the questioning with Midoriya had taken a really long time; the detective had said that it wouldn't take too long, and yet, Tsukauchi had spoke to the problem child for over an hour, before leaving the room in a hurry.

"Is everyone here?" Tsukauchi asked, "Great... then we can start."

"Are you okay, Naomasa? You seem... distressed." Yagi asked.

"I'm fine, Toshinori... but Midoriya isn't." Tsukauchi replied, settling down into his chair, "You remember those security feeds that I mentioned before?"

Some of the heroes nodded, and Tsukauchi continued, "We've managed to recover those feeds with the help of Power Loader and other members of our hacking team... they were feeds of Midoriya's prison. Shigaraki Tomura had been disintegrating him, Toga Himiko had been stabbing him, and Hikiishi Kenji, or Magne, she's also taken to using her quirk to slam Midoriya against electrified bars of his prison. The others... they didn't really hurt him, they just talked, though they did spend a lot less time with the boy than Shigaraki, Toga and Magne."

Nezu immediately snapped to attention, practically seething, "And they've been keeping an eye on him from the hideout?"

"Yes... but that isn't the most troubling thing at hand."

"What could be more troubling than that?" Tatsuma snarled, "They hurt him to the point where he should have died, and yet, Midoriya's acting way to normal to seem affected by what had happened... he probably doesn't even remember what they did to him!"

"That's where you're wrong." Tsukauchi clenched his fists. "I interrogated Midoriya yesterday."

"What happened during the questioning yesterday?" Sakamata asked, "It took a really long time for you to finish interrogating him."

Tsukauchi flipped open his notebook, "Midoriya's still having trouble with long sentences, but he did give me a lot of words for me to string together. This is exactly what he told me, uh, he had trouble saying Shigaraki so we agreed to shorten his name to Shiggy for the interrogation."

The detective looked down at his notebook.

"Woke up. Metal bars, a meter and a half away. Chained. Blindfold and muzzle. Shigaraki. Masked man. Open metal door. Touch forehead, read mind. Asked about taking quirk. Masked man moved away. Shigaraki disintegrated left shoulder. Rammed into Shiggy. Shiggy hit metal bars. Disintegrated left shoulder, and left. That's what he started off with, word for word."

Even without context, it was obvious that Midoriya was describing what happened, even though his throat made it impossible for him to form full coherent sentences. Short sentences and phrases were the best he could do.

"I honestly thought that he was imagining it... my quirk registered everything as truth, but there was no way that he could remember everything in so much detail..." Tsukauchi admitted, "Then I checked it against the security feeds. It matched what he said, exactly."

Tsukauchi pressed a button, and a video played, depicting the scene that Midoriya had just described. It was obvious that the masked man was All for One, but Midoriya did not have that knowledge at the time.

"That's not all he remembered." Tsukauchi continued, "He remembered everything."

"Everything?" Yamada asked in disbelief.

"Everything." Tsukauchi confirmed, "Every single detail, from who was first person of the day to torture him, to the layout of his prison. The metal bars, the dimensions of the room he was in, to even the placement of the security cameras."

Tsukauchi played another video, and they saw Midoriya bashing his head against the bars of his cell despite getting electrocuted, to the point where one bar was slightly dislodged. Something fell from the ceiling, almost hitting Midoriya on the head, but the green haired boy moved away in time, before continuing to throw himself against the bars again. Kurogiri appeared out of nowhere, somehow managing to stop Midoriya from bashing himself against the cell bars, before he teleported away. Midoriya, still blindfolded and muzzled, tilted his head slightly, before turning to his right, in the general direction of the security camera. He brought out his uncuffed left hand and even though the security feeds were fuzzy, it was obvious that his thumb was dislocated."

"He was testing the waters." Sakamata noted, "He dislocated his thumb to escape his cuffs, and deduced the location of the camera by checking if Kurogiri noticed that he was out of the cuffs. Smart."

Midoriya snapped his thumb back into place, before kicking what looked like a block of cement towards metal bars in the direction of the camera. He walked over to the bars, careful not to electrocute himself, before looking around. His movements slowed, and he paused, staring directly at the camera. He reached out, feeling for the bars, and flinched backwards when his fingers brushed against the cell bars, electrocuting him. Midoriya moved away from the cell bars, before moving his foot backwards. In one swift movement, he kicked the block of cement, and the cement flew through the bars of the cell, directly at the camera, before the feed turned black.

"He managed to figure out the exact location of the camera?" Takeyama gaped, "And managed to kick that cement block at it through the cell? And in that state?"

"Apparently so. Midoriya did sense that something was going to go wrong on the day when the League attacked." Chatora spoke up, "He's always had pretty sharp senses."

"Also... it seems like the League had also been played by Midoriya." Tsukauchi stated, as the heroes looked at him in confusion.

"Excuse me, care to explain?" Torino frowned.

"Midoriya had been analyzing the League the entire time while they had captured him." Tsukauchi said, "We know more about the League, their members and their quirks."

"Based on our research... we knew the names of the quirks of the villains... but we didn't know the details about them." Kamihara muttered, and Tsukauchi nodded, "But Midoriya... he figured them out, not just during his captivity but also while fighting against them. All of them, save for Toga Himiko, and we already know about Shigaraki and Kurogiri. Spinner's Gecko quirk gives him his reptilian appearance, and allows him to cling to walls and other surfaces. Dabi's quirk gives him the ability to create really hot fire. Magne's quirk allows her to polarise people, and males and females are of opposite poles. That's how she used Yaoyorozu to pull Aizawa away, and repelled Twice with Compress, and that giant weapon she carried? That's a magnet, and a powerful one at that."

"He managed to take note of all of that, while fighting?" Tensei muttered in amazement and disbelief.

"Twice can make two clones of other people, but he requires specific measurements in order to do so. The clones also retain the personalities of the actual person, as well as their quirk. He also has the ability to clone himself, theoretically being able to constantly generate more and more copies of himself infinitely, but he currently is unable to do so due to past trauma. Compress' quirk allowed him to very literally compress any into a small, spherical marble, and requires physical contact in order to do so. Not just people, but also other objects, and this process also reduces their weight. He can also compress himself to escape attacks, and apparently... his quirk factor lies in his hands, much like Shigaraki."

"That's why he aimed for the arms first." Kamihara mused, "When he fought Shigaraki and Compress... one of the first things he did was to snap their wrists."

"We already know about Shigaraki and Kurogiri's quirks... the only one we don't have much on is Toga." Tsukauchi finished.

"But we still haven't figured out why they wanted to kidnap him in the first place. They specifically called him a priority target." Kan muttered.

"Midoriya figured that out as well. They wanted to him to lose trust in heroes, and use that to break our society. Midoriya is a pretty prominent figure; being the only other general education student besides Aizawa to win the UA Sports Festival, and he also suffered the brunt of the damage during the USJ attack." Tsukauchi replied, "Midoriya...he constantly fought back at first, before gradually pretending to give up. He appeared to have given in, and even managed to fool Shigaraki; according to you guys, Shigaraki was surprised when Midoriya fought back when you rescued him. He pretended to break, he played the victim while in the League's clutches, but he had been using all that time to silently analyze the villains."

"But how is he still... sane? How can he continue making such rational choices despite... all that?" Kayama asked worriedly, "Is that even the right word? We saw his injuries... they practically _killed _him. And he remembered everything they did to him... How is he still acting so normal? He doesn't even seem affected, doesn't even seem to care about the fact that _he almost died._"

"Because he was the only one that was really hurt." Aizawa growled, "Midoriya cares more about other people than he does about himself... and he thinks very logically. He disregards his personal feelings in favour of rational decision making. He probably thinks that being affected by this, that trauma wouldn't help the situation at all, and is ignoring all the pain that he feels."

"Midoriya is actually much more affected by this than he lets on. He hides all his emotions and feelings, and doesn't let anyone see his pain." Inui shook his head, "Nezu... you're the only one out of all of us that he's willing to talk to. Can you speak to him about this?"

Nezu shook his head, "I'm not going to press. Izuku may talk to me, but that doesn't mean that he's willing to talk about what happened. He'll speak when he's ready; forcing him to talk when he doesn't want to isn't going to help with his trust issues. And as much as I hate to admit it, this is something that Izuku is least likely going to talk to me about. He knows that I care about him... and all the more he isn't going to "bother" me with something that he considers trivial."

Tatsuma sighed, "He's bottling everything up. One day, he's going to break for real. He needs more emotional support."

"That's not the point." Tsukauchi growled, "The villains didn't succeed, but we still failed. Midoriya has never trusted us from the very start; the League couldn't break his trust in heroes because it never existed in the first place. And it's very clear that the only reason why he can even sleep and rest properly around us is because he trusts Reiko's judgement."

"First... we should let Midoriya recover fully." Nezu stated. "Give him time and space, let him think things through. Letting him know that he can trust us, that we will wait for him, that's the most important course of action right now. We just have to be patient, and wait."


	54. Chapter 54 - Hate to tell you so

"Alright, here are the dorms." Aizawa mumbled, waiting for his excited students to calm down. Everyone was wearing casual clothes, and no one knew that Shinsou had already moved into the dorms; he had joined his classmates at the entrance to the dorms, watching them talk about the Heights Alliance building in awe.

"For now, I'm just glad that we're able to bring all the students back together again." Aizawa sighed.

"Everyone was allowed to enter the dorms, huh? That's awesome!" Sero cheered.

"We are only allowed to be here because of the teachers. When we watched the press conference that day, I thought we'd lose them, and it made me sad." Asui commented, "And then there's Midoriya…"

"Yeah, I was surprised too." Aizawa admitted. "Well, I'm sure everyone has different circumstances. I will first briefly explain the dorms, but first, for now, we will be focused on getting the provisional licences we were planning to have you get during the training camp. This is important, listen up."

Aizawa raised his head, "Iida, Shinsou, Uraraka, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu. These five went to save Midoriya that night."

All the students flinched as Aizawa continued to scrutinize them, "The rest of you... your reactions tell me that you were all at least aware of this. If this were the case of a normal kidnapping situation, I would set aside a number of issues and say this: if it weren't for All Might's retirement, and seeing how the Kamino Incident turned out... I would have expelled everyone, except for Midoriya. Of course, the five that went, but also the fifteen that knew and didn't stop them betrayed our trust, no matter what reason. I would be grateful if you would follow proper procedures and act properly in order to regain that trust. However, this wasn't just a normal kidnapping situation."

He paused, "Seeing what had happened... The five that went, they played a part in saving Midoriya. I am not saying that this was good judgement on your part; I mean that you all got lucky, and luck always runs out. There are many instances where luck is not a factor. That's all. Now we're going inside. Let's have some energy."

Aizawa turned around to walk into Heights Alliance.

"No... wait... how are we supposed to do that now?" Kirishima mumbled.

Shinsou sighed, before walking towards the door gloomily. He had expected Aizawa to say something like that, but he hadn't expected his dad to practically threaten the entire class with expulsion, even if he wasn't going through with it. Bakugou growled, storming past Kaminari to enter the dorms. Kaminari tripped, and face planted into the ground, releasing his electricity in his panic.

Jiro and Hagakure quickly jumped aside to avoid getting hit by the electricity, and Kaminari grinned, pushing himself up with a goofy expression on his face, and stuck his thumbs up.

"Wheeee!"

Jiro burst out laughing, and everyone followed suit.

"Well... I guess sometimes it's necessary to let loose." Aizawa mumbled, before raising his voice, "Hurry up, we don't have all day."

The Erasure Hero pushed open the doors to the dorm, "Each student dorm building holds one class. First floor is the common area. Food, baths, laundry are all on this floor."

"Woah! There's even a courtyard!" Hagakure gushed, as Ashido cheered, "So spacious and clean! And a sofa!"

"It's like a mansion!" Uraraka gasped.

Aizawa glared at Mineta, "Baths are separated by gender. You better watch yourself. If Midoriya threatens you with a knife again, I will not stop him. Understand?

"Yes sir." Mineta weakly replied.

"Rooms start on the second floor, there are eight rooms on each floor, four per gender. Everyone gets their own room. They are luxurious spaces with their own air conditioners, toilets, fridges, and closets. I believe you already know where your rooms are, but just in case you've forgotten for whatever reason, here it is." Aizawa spoke up, holding up a piece of paper with the floor plan on it, "Your belongings have already been placed in your rooms, so unpack and get settled in. We'll tell you more about what will happen from now on tomorrow. That's all."

"Uh.. Aizawa-sensei... what about Midoriya, kero? When will he be coming back to stay in the dorms?" Asui asked, and Aizawa replied, "Mic will be picking him up from the hospital later, so you should expect to see him in the afternoon. I will talk to you later about that matter. Before I forget, the five of you that went, I want to speak to you, the rest of you, dismissed. Go unpack."

Aizawa waited until the rest of the students had gone to their rooms, before he sighed, "You're not in trouble, for now."

"We're... not?" Uraraka stammered.

"The Hero Commission is unaware of your involvement. Only the heroes at the scene, except Endeavor, were aware of your presence, and they're not going to rat you out." Aizawa continued, "And even if the Hero Commission knew about your actions, you never used your quirk to attack anyone, only to protect Midoriya and yourselves. You technically weren't breaking the law. Yes, I know that you used your ice to prevent the building from falling on all of you, Todoroki."

Todoroki barely looked fazed, and Aizawa continued, "If you hadn't intervened on your own, Midoriya would have been buried under all that rubble, and it would have taken us a few more hours, at the very least, to find him. We're grateful that you helped out, but next time, _don't go behind our backs, got it_? You could have gotten hurt as well, resulting in more casualties."

Yaoyorozu, Iida, Todoroki, and Uraraka mutely nodded, and Aizawa sighed, "Alright, go back to your rooms and unpack. I'm going to need one or two of you go with Mic and pick Midoriya up, so make it fast."

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei!" Iida nodded, before the four of them ran off to their rooms.

Aizawa watched as Shinsou stared at the floor, "Hitoshi... what's wrong?"

"I'm... sorry... Dad..." Shinsou mumbled. Aizawa looked around, making sure that no one could see them, before pulling Shinsou into a hug.

"I know why you guys went, Hitoshi. When I was your age, if one of my friends were kidnapped, I would have gone out to save them too. I'm not mad that you went out to save Midoriya; I'm just worried that you'll leave and never come back. Please... don't do something like this again." Aizawa mumbled, as Shinsou wrapped his arms around the Erasure Hero.

"Alright, that's enough. You're going with Zashi later to pick Midoriya up, go to your room and... do something?"

* * *

"Thank you for helping me out." Iida spoke up, as he placed several pairs of glasses on a shelf. Shinsou didn't really need to unpack; he was already living in the dorms, so he opted to spend his time helping Iida unpack.

"No problem... you already know that I don't have to unpack... Geez, so many books. We don't even need all of this for school..." Shinsou mumbled, stuffing some books onto Iida's bookshelf.

"It's better to be prepared." Iida resolutely nodded, "We may need all this information some day!"

"True." Shinsou muttered, before there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Iida called out, and the door opened, revealing Aizawa.

"Oh... there you are, Hitoshi." Aizawa looked into the room, "Tenya, are you done unpacking?"

"More or less." Iida shrugged, "Just a couple more boxes of books. Do you need me for anything?"

"Yes, actually." Aizawa stated, "Hizashi's going to be picking Midoriya up, and we figured it'd be best if some people closer to him went as well, it would make Midoriya more comfortable. Nezu was going to go, but he suddenly got called out for another meeting with the Hero Commission. You think you're up for it?"

"Ah, yes." Iida nodded, "Let me put this batch of items away first... I don't want anyone tripping over them when I get back."

"Oh... that reminds me..." Shinsou muttered, "I need to grab something."

Aizawa shrugged, "Do whatever, just meet me in the common room in five minutes. Oh, yeah, Hitoshi, can you go to Midoriya's room and grab some clothes for him? I doubt he's going to want to leave in a hospital gown."

* * *

"Jeez... what on earth is going on?" Yamada grumbled, seeing a bunch of reporters crowding around the main entrance to the hospital. Nishiya, Sakamata and Tatsuma were trying their best to hold the media at bay, and the Voice Hero scrolled down the window to get a better look.

"Do you have any news on Midoriya Izuku?" A reporter asked, sticking a microphone in Sakamata's face.

"We cannot disclose any information regarding Midoriya." Sakamata tried to appease the crowd of reporters, only for another reporter to shove his microphone at Sakamata, "We heard that he will be discharged today. Is that true or false?"

"We can neither confirm nor deny this claim." Tatsuma growled, "Please, leave the premises."

"Fuck." Yamada grumbled, "How on earth did that information get out?"

"Hizashi-san! Language!" Iida berated, as Shinsou sighed, "Is there a back entrance or something? I doubt Midoriya will want to deal with the press."

"We can try the car park in the basement... the signal there is pretty weak, so it's unlikely that the press would go there..." Yamada looked around, trying to find the entrance to the carpark. He managed to find the entrance, and drove down into the car park, and sure enough, it was completely devoid of any signs of the press.

"Alright, let's go see the green bean." Yamada grinned, quickly finding a parking lot. They made their way to the life lobby, punching in the level that they wanted to go to, before patiently waiting for the lift doors to open. They quickly walked over to Midoriya's room, gently knocking before pushing the door open.

Midoriya looked towards the door from his position on the bed, Reiko and Ryuto curled up on his lap, with Tensei and Kamihara watching over him.

"Here to pick him up?" Tensei asked, watching as Yamada nodded, before continuing, "Okay, cool. Recovery Girl said that she wanted to give Midoriya a quick check up before he's discharged; she should be here in a minute or two."

It didn't take too long for Shuzenji to check Midoriya over, before she spoke up, "You're not completely healed yet, so no training, no fighting, don't get into any stressful situations for the next week at minimum. Please eat your meals regularly; you need the nutrition to recover. I understand that hospital food doesn't taste that good, but I'll inform Lunch Rush of your situation. I would tell you to just rest in the dorms, but you're stubborn and you'll try to attend classes some way or another, so I'm not even going to bother. But if you're tired, just take a nap, or go back to your room to rest. Also, try not to use your hands too much; don't write anything at all. Notes, homework, don't do them for the time being; your teachers are informed of your situation, so don't stress too much about them. When you're eating, also be careful; the muscles and ligaments in your hands still need to recover, and we don't want another situation like last time to happen. Also, please visit the infirmary every other day; I need to check whether everything is healing right. Other than that, you're free to go."

Midoriya blinked, processing Shuzenji's words, as Iida held up a small bag, "Aizawa-sensei told me to grab some clothes from your room. Do you... uh... want to change?"

The green haired boy turned, and nodded. He carefully picked the sleeping animals off his lap, before standing up, supporting himself with the bedside table, and walked to the bathroom. He had wanted to take the bag from Iida, but the blue haired boy just followed him, and asked, "Do you need any help? Or will you be alright changing on your own?"

Midoriya didn't respond, just reaching out for the bag. Shinsou silently handed it over, before Midoriya closed the door behind him, careful not to let it close completely; Midoriya couldn't turn door handles without worsening the condition of his hands.

It had taken an agonizingly long time for the green haired boy to wriggle out of his hospital gown without using his hands. He managed to put on his boxers and a pair of shorts, but with all the bandages covering his chest and arms, he was having a horrible time trying to wear his shirt. Thankfully, the short-sleeved hoodie that Shinsou had chosen was looser than his regular clothes, making it easier to put it on, but it still took Midoriya a couple of tries to slip his arms through the sleeves without resulting in a sharp pain flaring through his entire body.

Midoriya eventually exited the bathroom, holding the hospital gown in his hands, and Shuzenji just told him to leave it on the bed.

"Hey... not sure if you want to wear it now but... here." Shinsou stuck his hand in his hoodie pocket, fishing out a familiar-looking collar. Midoriya's eyes lit up, and he gently took it from Shinsou's grasp. He tried to put the collar around his neck, fumbling with the buckle for a long time, his arms continuously shaking, before eventually giving up.

Shinsou hesitantly reached out his hands, "Here... let me...?"

Midoriya eyed him warily, before tiling his head upwards, silently giving Shinsou permission to buckle the collar around his neck. Shinsou gently slipped the strap through the buckle, glancing at Midoriya to check if it was too loose or too tight. Midoriya gave him a slight nod, and Shinsou carefully secured the buckle, before taking a step back to let Midoriya adjust to the familiar pressure around his neck.

Kamihara and Tensei stared at the collar in mute confusion, as Iida scooped the now awake Reiko and Ryuto up into his arms.

"Alright, ready to go, listener?" Yamada asked, and Midoriya nodded slightly, "We're good to go! Any other things we need to do, Recovery Girl?"

"Nope. There's some paperwork, but I'll finish that up. Just bring him back and let him rest." Shuzenji instructed, and Yamada nodded, pulling the door open for Iida, Shinsou and Midoriya to exit. The Voice Hero closed the door gently behind him, and Tensei blinked, before turning to Shuzenji, "A collar? Didn't think Midoriya would be one to let someone else put a collar on him, even if it's his friend."

Shuzenji rolled her eyes, "The collar has some significance to Midoriya, and he's had it before he even officially met Shinsou in UA. Please don't get any weird ideas."

* * *

Midoriya was really relieved to finally be out of that stuffy room, and took a deep breath. The musty air of the car park wasn't that great, but it was much better than the smell of antiseptic that just lingered throughout the hospital. He found the smell to be completely nauseating; how on earth did other patients survive in those rooms for so long?

Yamada opened the car door, letting Midoriya and Shinsou enter the backseat. Iida was about to follow suit, but Yamada spoke up, "Tenya, take the front seat; give Midoriya some leg room."

Iida deposited Reiko and Ryuto in the backseat, before opening the door to the front seat. He settled down, before noticing that Midoriya was looking at him and Yamada in mute confusion.

"Ah, my older brother is friends with Hizashi-san." Iida explained, "They've known me since I was a kid... and they even babysat me a couple of times."

Midoriya processed Iida's words, giving him a small nod before leaning back into his seat. Yamada started the engine, and drove out of the car park, being careful to avoid the road that led past the main entrance of the hospital, and started driving back to UA. The green haired boy seemed much more relaxed than he had been in the hospital room, though that wasn't a surprise; Midoriya was more jumpy in foreign places.

"Hey, it's going to take some time to get back to school, so if you want to, you can rest up, listener." Yamada said, turning back to look at Midoriya while he waited for the traffic light to turn green. Midoriya's eyes were half open, and he blinked. Reiko was sitting quietly on his lap, while Ryuto was nestled in the crook of his arm.

The traffic light turned green, and Yamada pressed down on the accelerator. Midoriya sank into his chair, his eyes drooping.e was pretty tired. Reiko trusted the heroes, but Midoriya still wasn't too sure about them; come to think of it, Kayama had drugged him a couple of times with her quirk, Hakamata had restrained him in his clothes with his Fibre Master quirk, and the others had physically prevented him from escaping the room. And in his weakened state, Midoriya stood no chance against them.

_He couldn't trust those heroes._

But while he didn't trust Yamada, the Voice Hero couldn't hurt him, not while Iida and Shinsou were around. Midoriya closed his eyes fully; it was safe, and a small nap wouldn't hurt anyone, would it?

Shinsou blinked as he felt a weight on his arm, and he turned, only to see that Midoriya was leaning against him, fast asleep. The shorter boy was using his shoulder as a pillow, but Shinsou didn't really mind that much; the green haired boy was just absolutely adorable, shifting slightly to get into a more comfortable position, before settling down again, asleep.

The lavender haired boy let out a small smile, and leaned back into his seat, patiently waiting for them to get back to UA.


	55. Chapter 55 - But you repeat the symptoms

"Alright." Aizawa started, "Present Mic has gone to pick Midoriya up, and they should be back in around two hours, just giving you guys a heads up."

"Uh... Aizawa-sensei... are you sure that we should start? Iida and Shinsou aren't here." Kirishima asked.

"They went with Mic to pick Midoriya up. We figured it'd be better if there were people that Midoriya is more familiar with." Aizawa replied, "So, normal rules apply, don't jump out at him or scare him. At the moment, he still needs to rest, but the walls are soundproof, so you guys should be able to blast music at a reasonable volume and not disturb anyone else, so I don't think you'd be bothering him too much. Don't overwhelm him for the moment, and just treat him how you usually would. Also, start thinking about meals. UA's buying dinner for the students today, and while lunch will be cooked by Lunch Rush as per normal, you guys would have to figure out dinner yourselves, as well as lunch on weekends. That's it, go back and finish unpacking. School starts tomorrow, so you guys should sleep early too."

"I have a question." Ashido curiously pointed to a corridor which led to a door, "We saw some link bridges outside, and then there's this door... where does it lead to?"

Aizawa sighed, "The 1-B dorms are over there. The staff thought that it'd be better if the hero course students interacted with each other more outside of joint training exercises, seeing as you'll all be working together in the future. Everyone is unpacking at the moment, so don't go and bother them just yet."

There was a chorus of replies, before the rest of the 1-A students went back to their rooms to finish unpacking.

* * *

"Ahh.. I'm so tired..." Kirishima groaned, sinking down into the sofa.

"Is everyone done unpacking?" Yaoyorozu asked, and Kaminari replied, "I just finished."

"I still have a box of stuff that I haven't unpacked, but they just contain stuff I don't usually need." Kaminari shrugged, "It's not urgent. Plus, Midoriya's coming back soon, that's more important."

There was a knock on the door in the corridor, and Yaoyorozu walked over, opening it, revealing several members of 1-B.

"Oh, hi, Kendo." Yaoyorozu greeted, and the orange haired girl grinned, "Hello. Vlad King-sensei told us that Midoriya was coming back soon, so we figured that we'd pop over and welcome him back."

Yaoyorozu stepped aside, letting the 1-B members into the 1-A dorms, and Monoma looked around, "Hmm... not bad... but the 1-B common rooms still look -"

Kendo smacked him on the back of his head, and Awase and Komori snickered.

"Quit it already, Monoma..." Kendo groaned, "You do know that 1-A didn't furnish the common room, right?"

"I guess he... really... hates us?" Sato sweatdropped, and Tsuburaba laughed, "Nah. He's just eager to prove himself, aren't we all?"

"But putting others down isn't manly at all, Monoma." Tetsutetsu sighed, before spotting Kirishima, "Bro!"

Kirishima grinned, walking over to fist bump Tetsutetsu, "Bro! Sup! You finished unpacking?"

"Yep! You?"

"Of course! If I don't unpack today, then I'd have to put it off until later, and that's not manly at all!"

"I know, right?"

Bakugou stood up and yelled, "Shut up, Shitty Hair and Metal Shitty Clone!"

"Dude, chill." Ashido laughed, pushing Bakugou back into the sofa and ruffling his hair.

Bakugou shoved her hand off, growling, "Don't touch my hair, Pinky!"

Shishida looked around the room, "I'm quite surprised that all of us can fit in the common room. I thought it'd be too cramped."

Shoji nodded, before Jiro perked up, "I hear a car. It must be them."

"Should we open the door? Or uh... let them come in on their own?" Ojiro asked, as Kodai shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe isn't not them?"

They could hear the sounds of a car door opening, and there was knock on the door.

* * *

"Alright, we're here." Yamada grinned, switching off the engine. He quickly turned around, spotting Shinsou staring at his phone with Midoriya leaning on his shoulder. He snickered, before taking out his phone and snapping a picture while Shinsou was distracted.

"Hizashi-san! That's not polite!" Iida berated, catching Shinsou's attention but Yamada merely snickered, "It's cute, though."

Shinsou caught sight of the phone, and sighed, "We're here?"

"Yep." Yamada nodded, and Shinsou lightly nudged Midoriya, waking the boy up, "Midoriya, we're back at UA."

Midoriya opened his eyes, blinking, before realising that he had been leaning on Shinsou and promptly straightened up.

"...sorry..." He mumbled, and Shinsou let out a small chuckle, "It's fine. Don't worry about it too much."

Shinsou exited the car, as Reiko purred, and jumped out of the car before proceeding to stretch. Ryuto had flown out to peck at the ground, and Midoriya got out of the car and closed the door behind him.

"I need to go for a last minute shift change, you guys will be okay on your own?" Yamada asked, and Iida nodded, "Of course!"

The Voice Hero shot them a grin, before revving up the engine again and driving off. Shinsou and Midoriya followed Iida as the blue haired boy marched up to the door, knocking a couple of times before pushing it open.

Kirishima leaned back from where he was standing, watching as Iida held the door for Shinsou and Midoriya to enter, before grinning, "Midoriya! You're back!"

Midoriya blinked at him in confusion, as Hagakure heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness you're okay. When I heard that you were kidnapped after fighting Muscular, I nearly had a heart attack."

"Wait, he fought who?!" Awase nearly screeched, as Midoriya gazed at his classmatea tiredly as they welcomed him back.

"How things ended up this way weren't great, but it's kind of exciting to live together, isn't it?" Kaminari grinned, "You've been living here for quite some time, haven't you, Midoriya? You must be pretty lonely sometimes, living on your own."

Reiko stalked over to him, and lightly scratched at his leg, looking unamused, as Ryuto landed on Kaminari's shoulder and pecked at his cheek, and Kaminari laughed, "Sorry, sorry, I forgot that you also live with two awesome animals!"

Midoriya shrunk back behind Shinsou, unused to all the attention, and Iida glanced at him, before speaking up, "Living together is also training to help us learn cooperation and discipline!"

Kirishima grinned, "That's super manly, ain't it!?"

"Hey, hey, Iida, Shinsou, are you guys all done with your rooms?" Ashido asked, waiting for the two boys to nod, before grinning, "Well.. the girls were talking just now, uh, except Tsu... she said she was tired, and we have an idea!"

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Hagakure chimed in, "Want to have a room presentation contest?"

"Huh?" Shinsou blinked, "I have no problems with it... are we just going to be doing just 1-A or is 1-B included as well?"

"Well... I don't mind people looking at my room..." Tokage mumbled, before perking up, "I think a room presentation contest is a great idea! Look at mine first!"

Shinsou turned around to look at Midoriya as the students stood up, chattering excitedly as they headed to the 1-B dorms, "Do you want to join, or do you want to go back and rest?"

* * *

Midoriya stifled a yawn as he trudged back to the 1-A dorms behind his classmates.

They had already finished the tour of the 1-B dorms; Tokage had a pet iguana, and many stuffed dinosaur plushies, and Shishida had several spare glasses on a shelf. Kodai owned many matryoshka dolls, while Kamakiri's room had many framed bugs and insects, eliciting a scream from Koda. Bondo had many small, delicate plastic models lining his shelves, and Kuroiro's room was dark, the only light being from the plastic candles littered around the room that emitted an eerie green glow.

Midoriya blinked in confusion. The room was so dark, it wasn't practical at all to do work. Or maybe Kuroiro could see well in the dark; his quirk did require him to travel through shadows and black items, after all.

Komori's room had many plant pots, each with different varieties of mushrooms growing within them, and Rin's room had many dragon figurines, as well as posters with chinese proverbs, though no one knew how to read chinese and just took his word for it. Awase's room was pretty simple, though his desk was filled with screwdrivers, wrenches and other tools, and Kaibara's room had many beautiful photographs framed and hung up on his wall.

Shoda apparently owned a pair of boxing gloves, though he admitted that he had never used before. Kendo's room was filled with motorcycle figurines, and Tetsutetsu's room was covered in manly posters, and there was a punching bag in the middle of his room.

"It looks like it will rank around the second for a room you don't want your boyfriend to have." Hagakure commented.

"Hey! Really manly room, bro!" Kirishima yelled, and he fist bumped Tetsutetsu. The steel boy grinned, and returned the fist bump.

"Who wants to bet that Kiri's room looks exactly like this?" Ashido asked.

"Shut up Pinky. No one asked for your opinion." Bakugou growled, and Todoroki responded, "Well, no one asked for yours either."

Fukidashi and Monoma's rooms were pretty similar; they both owned a ton of mangas and comics, and several notebooks for onomatopoeias and quirk usages respectively. Shiozaki's room was filled with several religious artifacts, and Jiro had to stab Kaminari in the ear with an earphone jack when he asked why there was a figure of a man nailed to a cross. Tsunotori's room was filled with anime posters, and compared to all the other rooms, Tsuburabu, Yagani and Honenuki's rooms paled in comparison, looking pretty normal.

The students had decided to start with the fifth floor first, and slowly made their way down.

"Well…. I might have miscalculated." Yaoyorozu sheepishly laughed, "While yours are all filled with originality, mine became a little... cramped."

"Well... a little cramped is quite an understatement…." Kuroiro blinked, looking at the humongous poster bed that took up most of the space in the room.

"What happened!?" Kaminari gawked, "I know you're rich and you own a huge house but... "

"Well… it's the furniture that I was using normally at home… but I didn't think that my room would be this small…" She muttered, "My closet is around the size of the room."

1-A, minus Mineta, had already visited Yaoyorozu's house, but the 1-B students were stunned at her statement. Asui's room was also on the same floor, but no one bothered her since she had mentioned earlier that she was tired.

Shoji's room was pretty empty, containing just a small table and a mattress.

"There's nothing interesting here." Shoji commented.

"Nothing interesting!?" Mineta asked incredulously, before poking around under his mattress, but the much taller boy picked him up and threw him out of the room, "Stop touching my stuff."

"Well… I didn't know you were a minimalist." Todoroki said.

"Well… I never really liked having a lot of things." Shoji shrugged, "I knock them over way to easily."

Sato's room had an oven in it, as well as a shelf full of cooking utensils, and a fridge full of fresh ingredients.

"I have a cake that's baking now. It should be done by the time we're done with this room presentation thing." Sato commented, sweat dropping as Hagakure and Ashido literally pushed Tokoyami out of the way of his room door, flinging the room door open.

"So black! Scary!"

Tokoyami's room was dark, save for some eerie purple torches, and his dresser was covered in skulls.

"Oh! I bought this keychain in middle school!" Kirishima exclaimed, looking at a sword leaning against the wall, and Tetsutetsu grinned, "Really? Me too!"

"Get out!" Tokoyami growled, as Shinsou and Kaminari laughed.

Kaminari's room was... random. There was a box tucked under his bed, and his desk was covered in hats and video games. Yanagi carefully used her quirk to move the basketball lying carelessly on the ground to a corner. Sero's room had a hammock in it, and Hagakure squealed, "Asian! Lovely!"

"Wow! I've always wanted to try one!" Tokage grinned, flinging herself onto the hammock, "Not bad!"

"I didn't know you were into stuff like this." Jiro commented, admiring the room, as Sero smiled, "Yup! That's me! Always expect the unexpected!"

Kirishima's room was exactly like Tetsutetsu's; the resemblance really was unsettling, to be honest, though Tetsutetsu and Kirishima looked so happy that no one brought it up. Bakugou's room was filled with All Might posters, as well as several revision guides, some cookbooks, and there was a ball of yarn and knitting needles on his table.

"What?! The old hag makes me knit! Are you extras done? Done." He slammed his door shut.

Ashido's room was pink, and everything she owned was in some shade of pink or purple. Hagakure's room was pink as well, like Ashido's, but in a much lighter shade of baby pink. Aoyoma's room had a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, and he even owned a suit of armour, for some reason.

"It's Todoroki's room next, right?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Hurry up and get this over with. I want to sleep." Todoroki sighed, pushing his door open.

"Woah!" Tokage gaped, gawking at the tatami on the ground.

"Eh!?" Tsuburaba exclaimed, "A japanese style room!? Why is it so different from ours!? Was yours built differently?"

"We have tatami at some, so I can't relax on flooring." Todoroki responded blankly.

"Who cares about why! How did you remodel it in a day?" Sero yelped.

"I worked hard." Todoroki replied, as everyone unanimously agreed to skip Mineta's room without even saying a word. Ojiro's room was pretty plain, and Kendo asked, "Does your tail get in the way of you sleeping?"

"Not really." Ojiro shrugged, "I'm used to sleeping face down or on my side."

"Next is Jiro's room!" Hagakure cheered, and pushed her room door open, staring at the instruments all over Jiro's room, "Woah! There's so many instruments!"

"Can you play all of this!?" Awase asked.

"Well… I do know the basics…" Jiro replied, "My parents both have music themed professions... and I just... got into it as well."

"It's not girly at all, but I approve! So manly!" Tetsutetsu stuck his thumb up in approval.

Uraraka's room was next, and she said sheepishly, "Well… My room isn't very interesting…" Her room was very plain, with just the bare necessities like a bed, a table, a small television and a fan. Iida's room was next, and he owned almost three times the number of glasses, and books, that Shishida owned.

"There is nothing strange here!" Iida eagerly spoke up.

"So many glasses!" Uraraka picked up one of Iida's spares, putting them on and looking at her own reflection in a mirror, before bursting out in laughter.

"What's wrong with that?! I expect them to be broken during our intense training!" Iida retorted, as Uraraka took it off and grinned at Midoriya, "Here! You try!"

Uraraka gently placed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and Midoriya blinked, trying to adjust to the new, unfamiliar weight on his nose, but not liking how fuzzy it made his vision.

"Aww! You look so cute!" Ashido gushed, but Uraraka promptly took the glasses of his face, seeing Midoriya's discomfort.

Koda's room had a small pen, and Hagakure crouched down to stroke his pet rabbit, "It's adorable!"

"It's not fair to have a pet." Kaminari grumbled, as they moved on to Shinsou's room, deciding to leave Midoriya's room for last to give him time to think, "You're doing this on purpose!"

Shinsou had a couple of cat plushies sitting on his shelf, and his laptop and headphones were on his bed.

"Hey... Midoriya, your room is the last, do you mind letting us see?" Monoma asked, and Midoriya blankly stared at the floor, before nodding slowly.

"Awesome!" Ashido grinned, turning the knob, and flinging open the door.

Midoriya's bed didn't have a blanket on it, and his multiple hard drivers were sitting piled neatly under his desk, looking like they could fall apart at any moment. His laptop on the ground, it's screen and keyboard pried off, and pile of junk sitting in the corner of his room, along with a couple other broken laptops.

The most notable thing in Midoriya's room was a metallic mask, and something that looked like a small shield sitting on his desk. Shinsou had noticed them, but he didn't want to touch Midoriya's stuff. There were also a couple of screws and bolts lying all over his table, and soldering irons that looked like it came from a junkyard.

"What's that?" Tokage muttered, picking up the mask, and putting it on, "Hello?"

"What's those knobs for?" Sero asked curiously, turning the larger knob, and Tokage spoke again, her voice much deeper this time, "Can you hear me - Woah! My voice changed!"

"And there's no electricity input!" Awase's eyes lit up, "Awesome! Where'd you get it from?"

Monoma spotted a few pieces of paper strewn on his table, and his picked them up, admiring the neat and clean lines on the blueprint. The mask was apparently a voice changer that contained several plates that changed how soundwaves resonated, effectively allowing anyone to change how they sound, and the shield looking device wasn't a shield at all; it was a device that shot out metallic disks that attracted electricity, allowing someone to discharge electricity in a straight line thanks to the scope attached on top.

Tetsutetsu and Kirishima leaned over to take a look, and Monoma spotted a small "Version 14" written in the corner, and he picked up a few more pieces of paper, realising that all of them had some sort of version number written in the corners, and eraser marks were visible on some of the earlier versions of the blueprint.

It finally dawned on him.

Monoma whirled around, facing Midoriya, who was standing at the doorway with Todoroki, Iida, and Shinsou, "Midoriya, did you design this yourself? And you also managed to build them?"

Everyone turned to Midoriya, who shrank back slightly, though it wasn't noticeable to anyone who didn't know him well. He nodded nervously, and Yaoyorozu looked at Midoriya in awe, "That's amazing, Midoriya! But where'd you get all the materials for these?"

Reiko meowed, and Kaibara translated Koda's signing, "You recycled them from Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, disinfected them, and used them to make these? Nice."

"Uh... no offence, this is really manly, but you don't talk a lot, nor can you shoot out electricity... so why did you make these?" Tetsutetsu asked, as Sero and Tokage continued to fool around with the voice changer.

Reiko jumped onto the bed, before leaping up onto Midoriya's shelf. She sniffed around, before pulling out a notebook. She gracefully jumped back onto the bed, and flipped it open, careful not to rip any pages with her claws, before stopping at a page. She meowed, gaining Uraraka's attention, before pawing at a section which contained a rough sketch of the mask, and the brown haired girl, picked it up, reading aloud.

_"Shinsou's quirk allows him to control anyone who responds his statements. It may be easier for him to control other people if he sounds similar to someone that the target is familiar with. Unknown if his quirk works through electronics like microphones or loudspeakers, but this makes them weak to EMPs and electric quirks, and also runs the risk of running out of power, and is not eco-friendly. Altering resonance with plates should achieve a voice changing effect, but can't change volume yet without the device becoming too bulky and obvious. Need to think more."_

Shinsou blinked; damn, Midoriya thought the entire thing through. He knew Midoriya was good at quirk analysis, but also good enough to make support items? They were just prototypes, yes, but still, that was amazing.

Uraraka flipped a couple more pages, finding the sketch that looked like the other electricity pointing device.

_"Kaminari cannot control the direction of the electricity energy he releases, running the risk of injuring allies. Shooting metal projectiles to attract and concentrate his electricity theoretically should allow him to shock only those between Kaminari and the projectile. Allowing him to direct his electricity properly not only makes it safer for his allies, but also decreases the amount of electricity released, resulting in less wasted electricity and a lower chance of Kaminari short circuiting himself. Not sure about insulated materials, maybe sharp projectiles?"_

Kaminari was literally squealing, and would have leapt at Midoriya to give him a hug, "Midoriya, you're so awesome! Thank you so much!"

Midoriya visibly flinched back as Kaminari got close, and Shinsou moved in front of Midoriya as Jiro grabbed onto Kaminari and pulled him away, "Dammit, you idiot, calm down! He just got out of the hospital!"

"Hey... it's pretty late... and we still have lessons tomorrow." Yaoyorozu stated, subtly telling everyone to get out of Midoriya's room and to give him some peace and quiet, "Sato already left to go get his cake, and it's a shame that you can't eat it at the moment. We can always ask him to bake another one when you've recovered sufficiently. We're going to be doing the voting now, would you like to join us?"

Midoriya wearily shook his head, and Yaoyorozu gave him a small smile, "Alright, then. Have a nice rest, Midoriya."

Iida pat him on the back, "I need to make sure they don't break anything. If you need help with anything, just tell us, alright?"

The green haired boy waited until his classmates left, before making his way to the bathroom. He slowly picked up his cup and filled it with water, before hesitantly reaching for his toothbrush, ignoring the pain that jolted through his arm, gently squeezing the toothpaste out by pressing the toothpaste tube against the sink counter with his palm.

Now for the hard part; actually brushing his damned teeth.

Midoriya carefully brought the cup to his mouth, spitting the water out after a few seconds, before he tightened his grip around his toothbrush, and raised it to his mouth. He slowly brushed his teeth, ignoring the searing pain that flared through his body; the damned painkillers were probably wearing off. Midoriya quickly rinsed his mouth and washed his face before he threw himself onto the bed, his entire body aching with every movement.

But he was safe, finally.

Back in UA, back in the dorms, back in his room. No more villains, no more heroes, no more hospitals; he'd just deal with all that bullshit tomorrow.

Reiko and Ryuto hopped up onto his bed to join him, and Midoriya curled up around them.

He had never fallen asleep so quickly.

* * *

Shinsou yawned, trudging back to his room. The girls had taken quite some time to sort out the voting; there was a best girl's room, best boy's room, a best 1-A room, a best 1-B room, and all sorts of other category. Not to mention that they had to sort through thirty nine votes for each category. The best part of it was Sato's cake, though; it was really tasty. There wasn't enough to go around, but Sato mentioned that he would bake more often when he had time, so there was that.

"Good night." Uraraka said, she and Jiro turning to the girls side of the dorms, and Iida, Shinsou and Koda walked back to their rooms as the 1-B students returned to their dorms and the other 1-A students made their way upstairs.

Midoriya's door was still open, and his lights were still left on, oddly enough.

Iida, Shinsou and Koda quietly walked over to his room and peeked in, finding Midoriya fast asleep on his bed, curled up around Reiko and Ryuto. Reiko shifted slightly, before settling down again.

Koda quietly walked in, switching off the bathroom lights and closing the bathroom door, before flipping the lights off in Midoriya's room, throwing the room into darkness. He closed the door behind him, and Shinsou sighed, "He's tired. No surprise there. Let's go sleep. We still need to go to lessons tomorrow."


	56. Chapter 56 - Like an aftershock

Iida yawned, and made his way downstairs. It was around five in the morning, and he was getting ready for his daily morning exercise routine. He would come back indoors at five thirty, take a quick shower and prepare his breakfast until six, pack his bag and check to make sure all his worksheets and books were in place until six thirty, before going around the dorms and waking everyone else up. Two hours were more than enough time to prepare breakfast, eat it, change into their school uniform, pack their school bags and get ready for school; lessons started at eight thirty in the morning, and everyone should aspire to be in the classroom by eight as a buffer, just in case of any accidents occurs before classes started.

He left a note on the table in case Aizawa was wondering where he was, before he headed out, making sure to close the door behind him gently to avoid waking anyone up by accident, though he was sure it was pretty unlikely since no one was sleeping on the first floor.

He jogged around the campus a couple of times, before heading back to the dorms. He popped some toast into the oven, and set the timer, before going back to his room to shower. He threw on a t-shirt, and walked back to the kitchen, spreading some jam on his toast before consuming it. He grabbed an apple from the fridge, and ate it, throwing the core into the trash bin, before going back to his room again. He quickly sieved through all his notes, relatively sure that there wasn't any homework given due to the training camp, but he just checked just in case there were any outstanding homework assignments that he had never finished.

Much to his delight, there was none, and he neatly placed his textbooks and notes into his bag, changing into his school uniform. He checked his watch; it was only six fifteen, so he could wait for fifteen more minutes before going to wake everyone up.

He heard some noises from the corridor, and he looked out of his room, expecting to see that either Shinsou or Koda had gotten up. Much to his surprise, he found that Midoriya's door was open, and the green haired boy was trudging out of his room. Reiko was grooming herself, but Ryuto was just lying on the ground, looking like he was asleep.

"Well, good morning, Midoriya." Iida grinned, waiting for Midoriya to respond. The green haired boy turned around, looking at him in confusion. He was pretty sure he hadn't switched off the lights before he went to sleep, and he was pretty guilty about that he didn't do so since he would be wasting electricity, but he was pretty relieved that someone had switched it off for him. His curtains weren't drawn, and there was more than enough light flooding into the room so that he wouldn't freak out.

"Did you have a nice rest?"

Midoriya shrugged, lifting his hands to sign, before realising that, one, his fingers and hands were hurting too much to sign, and two, Iida wasn't good at sign language, before he sighed, "... woke up... school... get ready..."

He coughed, and Iida led the boy down to the kitchen, quickly pouring him a cup of water. Midoriya carefully poured the liquid down his throat, his hand shaking as he placed the cup back on the table. There was a knock on the door, and Iida and Midoriya looked at the door in confusion.

The door was pushed open, and Nezu walked into the 1-A dorms, looking at Midoriya in surprised, "Oh... I wasn't expecting you to be awake, Izuku. I assumed that you would have slept in."

"...habit... wake up early... later than usual..." Midoriya replied, as Nezu walked towards the table, a small bag in his hand.

Iida looked at Nezu and Midoriya in confusion, "Uh... first name basis?"

Nezu glanced at Iida, and grinned cheekily, "Ah. Iida. I adopted Izuku a few months ago, but don't tell anyone else, alright?"

Iida mutely nodded, as Nezu climbed up onto the chair next to him, emptying the bag out to reveal a few packets of medication.

"Now... uh... there's some medication that Recovery Girl would like you to take. Mostly antibiotics, since you did get an infection while you were... _there_... You should take it after breakfast and after dinner. Other than that, just rest, okay, Izuku?"

Midoriya gave a small nod, looking at the medicine in confusion, before Iida cleared his throat, "Uh... Midoriya... is there anything that you would like for breakfast?"

"Don't worry about that." Nezu spoke up, "Lunch Rush is aware of Izuku's situation, he would be popping with some soup by around... seven in the morning, until Recovery Girl deems him ready for proper solid food. Also, please try to avoid coffee for the time being, it will mess up your sleep schedule, and you need all the rest you can get."

"Alright." Iida nodded, checking his watch, "It's six thirty five!? I better wake everyone else up."

Midoriya inwardly gawked at Iida as he speed walked towards the staircase, as Nezu let out a chuckle, "Still as uptight as usual. Sometimes it's a wonder how he's related to Ingenium, aside from their appearances, those two are polar opposites."

Nezu turned to face Midoriya, "That reminds me, Izuku... you weren't in the hero course while everyone was making their hero names. Do you have any idea what you want to be called?"

Midoriya blinked, stunned by the question, before shaking his head. Never once in his life did he ever consider needing a hero name; he always assumed that he would have killed himself before then, or that he would have never even made it to the hero course in the first place.

Nezu gently patted Midoriya's hand, "Don't worry about it too much, okay? The provisional licence exam in around a month and a half, you have plenty of time to think about it, so don't rush."

The animal principal stood up on his chair, and much to Midoriya's surprise, he leaned over, wrapping his stubby little arms around Midoriya's neck, trying his best to give him a hug.

"I'm sorry that I told you to go for the training camp. I should have seen it coming, I'm sorry."

Midoriya froze up, unsure of how to react, before he relaxed, pressing his head down against Nezu's shoulder lightly, "Not your fault... it's mine... not strong enough... too weak..."

Nezu reached up, gently ruffling Midoriya's hair, "It's not your fault. It was never your fault to begin with. They shouldn't have known where the camp was, they shouldn't have been able to kidnap anyone in the first place. Don't blame yourself, Izuku, okay? Please stop thinking that everything that went wrong was your fault, okay? We were the ones that failed, not you."

Midoriya wasn't really sure how to respond, but there was a sudden incoherent shout from upstairs.

_"DAMMIT GLASSES! THERE'S STILL TWO MORE HOURS UNTIL SCHOOL STARTS, YOU UPTIGHT FUCKER! I DON'T NEED THAT MUCH TIME TO GET READY! FUCK OFF!"_

Nezu reluctantly pulled back, looking towards the elevator, "I need to address the students later. If you don't want to attend lessons, then feel free to just rest in your room; your studies are going well, and missing a couple of lessons isn't going to do you any harm. Your health is the most important thing at the moment, alright? I don't want your condition becoming worse because you feel the need to push yourself, okay?"

Midoriya gave a small nod, and Nezu gave him another quick hug, before hopping off the chair and walking out of the room, just as Shinsou and Todoroki ambled down the stairs.

"Morning..." Shinsou muttered, tiredly squinting at the buttons on the coffee machine, trying to figure out how to activate the machine. Midoriya looked over, having forgotten that the machine was there, but Todoroki shook his head as he grabbed a small carton of yoghurt, "No coffee, Midoriya. Iida told us about it already."

Midoriya internally glowered at them, as Uraraka trudged into the kitchen, grabbing the milk from the fridge to make herself some cereal.

"Hi, Midoriya? You feeling better?" She asked, putting a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth, and Midoriya shrugged. He was slightly hungry, and he could only hope that Lunch Rush's soup was better than the food in the hospital.

* * *

"Everyone went back to sleep." Iida whined. Koda, Jiro, Yaoyorozu and Sato were the only ones that had left their rooms, the rest opting to sleep for another hour, "They need ample time to get ready!"

"Don't worry about it too much..." Shinsou yawned, taking a sip of his coffee, "It is seven in the morning, and we all unpacked yesterday. Not to mention that the room contest thingy went on longer than we thought..."

"Speaking of which... Lunch Rush should be here any minute now..." Iida muttered, just as there was another knock on the door.

"Why is Lunch Rush coming here?" Jiro asked, as Midoriya made his way to the door, ignoring Shinsou and Uraraka's protests for him to sit down and let someone else take the door. He yanked it open, and Lunch Rush handed over a small plastic container with cling film over it. He shot Midoriya a thumbs up, and the green haired boy looked at him, confused, as the cook went on his way.

"Soup," Iida replied, Midoriya walking back to the table. He placed the bowl down, and tried to peel the cling film off the bowl.

_He couldn't._

Jiro extended her earphone jacks, easily slicing through the cling film, and Midoriya looked at her, nodding slightly, before bringing the bowl to his mouth; just using his palms to hold the bowl wasn't as painful as having to use a spoon.

He stopped after two or three mouthfuls. He had to admit, Lunch Rush's cooking was better than the food he was supposed to eat, but usually ignored, in the hospital, but he just didn't feel like eating any more. He felt like he would throw up if he tried to drink any more, but it was also such a waste to just... leave the rest of the soup there.

He placed the bowl down, trying to decide what to do, before deciding to just suck it up and finish the soup; if he threw up, then so be it. Reiko growled at him, pushing his hand away from the bowl, and just stared at him, as if challenging him to even _try_ and finish his soup.

Sato spoke up, "If you're not up to finish it, then just leave it. Eating more than your body can handle would also do you more harm than good."

Midoriya looked up, blinking at Sato in confusion as the larger boy pulled out more cling film from the drawer, before grabbing his bowl, "If you don't want to waste it... I can always heat it up for you later. It probably won't taste as good as it does now, but you can choose later."

The green haired boy blankly nodded, still not very sure what was going on as Sato placed the unfinished bowl of soup in the fridge.

_He had a choice? Since when?_

He was too tired to think, and he blearily reached for his medicine on the table. Ryuto carefully pushed his unfinished cup of water towards him, as a floating set of pajamas made their way down to the kitchen.

"Morning..." Hagakure yawned, "What's for breakfast?"

"Toast... or cereal..." Todoroki muttered, as Hagakure rummaged through the cabinets for the bread. She grabbed a slice, before plopping herself down by the table, "Iida woke us up, and I wanted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't."

"You should wake up early!" Iida protested, as Midoriya poured the medicine out the small plastic bags gently, making sure he was taking the correct amount, before popping them into his mouth, and bit down on them. A bitter taste was spread all over his tongue, and there was some kind of powdery feeling, but Midoriya ignored it, continuing to chew on the medicine, before swallowing.

He reached out to grab his water, only to realise that everyone was staring at him; he couldn't see Hagakure, but it was obvious from the way that she had frozen up that she was staring as well.

"Uh... did you just... _chew up your medicine?_" Jiro asked incredulously, and Midoriya blinked, and nodded, confused. _Was he not supposed to do that? He had always chewed up the painkillers whenever he took them. _He had gotten sick before, but whenever his _real_ parents brought him to the clinic and he received medicine, it was always in liquid form.

"Isn't it... bitter?" Hagakure piped up, pointing to his medicine, "How do you keep such a straight face while eating that anyways?"

Midoriya wasn't too sure how to respond, and merely poured the glass of water down his throat.

"Next time, pop them in your mouth, and don't chew them. Just drink some water and swallow the water and medication together." Yaoyorozu suggested, "It's easier."

The green haired boy blearily nodded, trying his best to figure out where he should shove that information, as Iida rushed back up to wake the rest of the students up again.

* * *

Midoriya sat down, listening as Yamada droned on and on. He was tired, but it was probably very rude to sleep during lessons, so Midoriya just did his best to keep awake. Plus, he wasn't too sure if he could trust Yamada to not do anything while he was asleep; the hero had restrained physically restrained him twice while he was in the hospital. He needed to keep an eye on him, make sure that he wouldn't hurt him.

Yamada was finally finished with his lesson, and released them for lunch. Shinsou collected his lunch, along with Midoriya's soup since he didn't think that it was good for Midoriya to strain himself. Midoriya wasn't really hungry, but he still tried his best to drink as much as he could; Shuzenji would probably nag otherwise, and he didn't want to worry Nezu.

Reiko was with Koda, as he had a counselling session with Inui, while Ryuto was hanging out with Dark Shadow at Tokoyami, Sato and Shoji's table, within his line of vision, so he wasn't too worried; he knew Koda enough to know that he was generally incapable of any violence, especially towards animals, and none of his other classmates would be able to hurt Ryuto without Dark Shadow interfering.

He spent the entirety of lunch slowly drinking his soup, as Uraraka and Shinsou chatted aimlessly about television shows; Iida was called out by Kayama halfway through lunch. Midoriya was barely able to finish up half of his soup, and he was going to clear it when Uraraka casually scooped up his bowl, not even giving him a chance to protest that he could do it on his own, before bringing everything to the tray racks.

"Don't worry about it, Midoriya." Uraraka smiled, "You just focus on resting. You can return bowls all you want once you've recovered."

Midoriya wasn't too sure if Uraraka was being playful, or she was being serious, but he just quietly thanked her before they made their way back to their classroom.

Some of the support course students were filing into the cafeteria, given that they had different lunch times; the lunch times were staggered since all the support course students were covered in grease and dirt, and often got the seats dirty by accident; it was just easier on the cleaning staff. Plus, they were really messy eaters, sometimes just opting to just shovel everything into their mouths as fast as possible before going back to the labs; it didn't happen all the time, but it just wasn't pleasant for anyone whenever that happened.

"MIDORIYA!"

Midoriya blinked and tensed up as his name was called, and Shinsou and Uraraka turned around in confusion, only to see a pinkette barreling down the hallway at breakneck speed. They were barely even able to react as Hatsume leapt at Midoriya, and the poor green haired boy didn't even have time to turn around before Hatsume crashed into him, sending him to the ground.

A white hot flash of pain ripped through his body, and Midoriya desperately tried to push himself up, only to realise that he could feel something, or rather, someone, pressing down on him, pinning him down and preventing him from moving. He could feel some liquid rushing up his throat, as his entire body throbbed with pain.

_He swore he felt something crack._

"Midoriya! I wanted to talk to you about your support items after you transferred in the the hero course but I was so busy with all my other prototypes and inventions and it completely slipped my mind! I looked at the ideas you gave me, and I have so many ideas on how to improve them and I think we should talk about it 'cause I think it will make them much better! You're here now so this is a great time to -"

Hatsume was talking so quickly that Midoriya could barely register that she was speaking in Japanese, and combined with his nausea and how much his head was spinning from the impact of harshly being slammed into the ground by the pink haired girl, Midoriya had absolutely no idea what the hell Hatsume was talking about.

"Get off him!" Uraraka yelped, harshly yanking Hatsume off Midoriya as the pinkette continued rambling, and Shinsou rushed over to Midoriya's side, patting him on the back, "Midoriya, are you okay?"

Midoriya weakly pushed himself to his knees, as a cough convulsed through his body. His body instinctively jerked forwards, and Midoriya opened his mouth, blood spilling out of his mouth. His coughing fit continued, as he hacked up more and more blood, his arms shaking as he struggled to support his own weight.

A crowd started forming around them, as concerned gazes fell on the quirkless boy, and Hatsume seemed to just finally realise that something was wrong, and she peered down at Midoriya, "Hey, Midoriya? Are you okay?"

Uraraka tugged her aside as Iida pushed his way through the crowd, before taking in the scene in front of him. He quickly faced the crowd, and waved his arms about, "Please, do not crowd around him and give him some space!"

Midoriya's coughing fit finally died down, and he slumped to the side, completely out of energy. He would have crashed into the ground if Shinsou hadn't gently grabbed onto him, carefully supporting him as the green haired boy panting and desperately trying to suck some air into his lungs and ignoring pain that flared through every fibre of his being, blood dripping out of his mouth like a leaky faucet.

"What's going on here?" A voice rang out, and Shinsou looked up, seeing the crowd parting like a wave as Kayama walked down the hallway. She spotted Hatsume being restrained by Uraraka, before seeing Midoriya heaving, and she rushed up to Shinsou, crouching down beside them, "Midoriya? Can you hear me? Are you alright?"

Midoriya gave a quiet, strangled sounding yelp, flinching at Kayama's presence and pushing himself away from Kayama, pressing himself against Shinsou in the process.

Kayama bit her lip, and looked around. She glanced at Hatsume, "Hatsume, Go have your lunch now. Uraraka, let Hatsume go. Shinsou, you bring Midoriya to the infirmary when he's ready. The rest of you, back to class. I'll get someone to clean this up."

Shinsou tried to calm the shaking Midoriya down as the crowd slowly dispersed, before taking a tissue out of the packet that Iida had left for him and wiping the blood off Midoriya's chin. He carefully slipped his arms under Midoriya's knees, and behind his back, easily picking up the smaller boy, before making his way towards the infirmary.

* * *

"Is he okay?" Nezu asked. He had heard about what had happened, and popped by the infirmary to check up on Midoriya. Shinsou told him everything that had happened, before Nezu had persuaded the boy to go for his lessons.

"Luckily, nothing major is broken, but his body is still healing." Shuzenji stated, "Not every bone has fully healed, but they're healed enough that Midoriya can move around. When Hatsume pounced on him... the impact probably reopened some internal wounds that hadn't fully healed."

Midoriya was laying limply on the infirmary bed, completely drained, fast asleep. Shuzenji didn't like to drain him of so much energy, especially when he needed all the energy that he could get, but she needed to make sure that the injuries that had reopened wouldn't open up again.

Inui had dropped off both Reiko and Ryuto when he heard about the event from Kayama, and they were currently snuggled against Midoriya's neck, Ryuto occasionally tugging at Midoriya's earlobe.

Nezu sighed, "I did tell Power Loader to keep Hatsume away from Izuku as much as possible. Hatsume's an excellent students, both studies and technology wise, but her personality doesn't mesh well with Izuku's trust issues."

"It is amazing that they hadn't encountered each other since the Sports Festival. It's just unfortunate that the time they crossed paths as when Midoriya was in no shape to defend himself." Shuzenji murmured, before she looked up, "Should we wait for him to wake up before telling him to go back to the dorms? Or get a teacher to bring him back directly?"

"He's reacted badly at the hospital when he woke up... I think we should get a teacher to bring Izuku back to the dorms first. I'll keep an eye on him; I can bring my paperwork to the dorms." Nezu replied.


	57. Chapter 57 - I only want to make it stop

Aizawa was the only one that was free at the moment to bring Midoriya back to the dorms, and even though Nezu was sitting on his shoulder, ready to calm Midoriya down should he wake up, each step he took in the direction of the dorms was a nerve-racking one. Inui would bring over Nezu's work in a few minutes; he was having a meeting with a couple of external counselors, and he wanted to discuss with Nezu what would be appropriate for helping Midoriya.

Aizawa was honestly afraid that Midoriya would wake up before they got to the dorms; sleeping medicine is clearly less effective on him, and Midoriya, while he wouldn't attack normally, was actually dangerous when he was panicking. He carefully pushed the door to the dorms open and placed Midoriya down on the couch. He placed a cushion under Midoriya's head, and Nezu settled down by the edge of the sofa, making himself comfortable.

Midoriya barely even stirred, and Aizawa excused himself to finish sorting out all his paperwork.

Nezu turned around, reaching out to gently ruffle Midoriya's hair, before taking out his phone to check up on the security systems. Reiko and Ryuto just settled down by the crook of Midoriya's arm.

It didn't take too long for Inui to pop into the 1-A dorms, placing Nezu's paperwork down on the table, before settling down on one of the other chairs.

"Nezu... I think you're going to have to talk to him, one way or another." Inui shook his head, "He may not show any signs of mental trauma... but it's definitely there. He's just hiding it, refusing to believe that it's a problem, and if we just wait until he asks for help... it's going to be too late. He's barely holding himself together now, even before his kidnapping... even if he believes that this isn't a problem, even if he doesn't show any signs of trauma, it's all there, lying beneath the surface. I know that we can't push him... not with all his other issues, but we need to find a balance between all this somehow."

"I know that, Hound Dog..." Nezu sighed, "I'm not going to push Izuku to talk. Give him time, let him decide what he wants to do for now. Right now, letting him feel that he's safe is the most important, and pushing him to talk isn't going to help his situation at all. I don't know how he'll be when he wakes up; Hatsume probably didn't do him any favours. I'll talk to him about what happened in the past, but only when the time is right."

"Understood. Midoriya has a lot of issues... and he's had them for a long time. Just calling it PTSD is simplifying it. We'll have to sort through everything slowly... but right now... it's better that he trusts you, and some of his classmates." Inui nodded.

* * *

Unlike the rest of 1-A, Iida wasn't too surprised to see Nezu sitting with Midoriya on the couch, working through some documents. Aizawa had already informed them that Midoriya was resting in the dorms after Hatsume had practically pounced on him, but they really hadn't been expecting the principal to be the one keeping an eye on Midoriya.

Then again, they had heard about how Midoriya was often pulled out of lessons to speak to Nezu while he had been in the General Education course, and how Nezu had specifically sought Midoriya out that one time in the cafeteria before the Sports Festival, and that other time after the attack on UA, where Nezu had been accompanying Midoriya in the infirmary. It made sense, in a way, that Nezu had taken some sort of liking to Midoriya.

Being the only one aware of Nezu's relationship to Midoriya, Iida spoke up, "Um... Nezu-sensei... how is Midoriya?"

"Ah... he's fine now. Recovery Girl healed him up. He just needs some rest to regain the energy she drained, before taking it easy to let the rest of his body recover. At the moment, there shouldn't be any outstanding problems." Nezu looked up, replying, before looking back at his paperwork.

"Alright, we were given English and Mathematics homework, so we should all get that done by tonight." Iida whirled around and ordered almost immediately, taking care to not raise his voice, "Who's in charge of dinner tonight?"

"Aoyama, Shoji and I." Sato spoke up, "I forgot to ask, does anyone have any allergies?"

No one had any major allergies, and Iida chopped his arms, "Great! Dinner will be at six at night. I expect that everyone should have finished their homework by then. If you have any trouble, feel free to ask us for help!"

Most of the students had already left the common room before Iida had finished talking, and Nezu let out a small chuckle as Iida groaned frustratedly. The only ones left besides Iida were Shinsou, Uraraka, Koda and Todoroki. Uraraka and Shinsou walked over to the couch, taking a quick look at Midoriya.

Todoroki looked up, "We tried to collect Midoriya's homework... but Mic-sensei said that Midoriya's english was fine and he could skip his homework, and Ectoplasm-sensei said that Midoriya doesn't have to do the current worksheet we're working on since it wasn't applicable to him anyways."

"I mean... he is the top in the class for almost every single subject." Uraraka grumbled, "Skipping some homework is fine, and it wasn't even his fault! It was those stupid villains that injured him so badly."

"Izuku... at the moment, he can't write, so he can't do homework anyways. His hands were damaged that badly." Nezu admitted, "Izuku's a stubborn child, and physical therapy isn't going to be a problem. But Izuku does have a tendency to hide his pain, and put up a facade that everything's fine."

Nezu looked up at the students, "Izuku trusts you. I can't be around all the time to keep an eye on him... and once he's outside UA's walls, I can't protect him. Please, I ask this of you, take care of him when I can't."

The students froze. Now it made sense why Nezu was around Midoriya all the time.

Nezu had practically adopted the green bean.

"We're all his friends. We'll do our best." Shinsou nodded, and Nezu gave them a small smile.

* * *

Midoriya shifted slightly, pushing his face into a cushion, before blinking in confusion.

_Hadn't he just been in the infirmary?_

He sat up groggily, recognising the room as the common room in the 1-A dorms, before turning to look at the principal that he was currently sharing the couch with.

"Hello, Izuku. Feeling better?" Nezu asked, and Midoriya nodded, still trying to figure out what was going on. He knew that Hatsume had jumped on him, Shinsou had brought him to the infirmary, where Shuzenji had most likely drained his energy and made him pass out. Nezu had probably gotten a teacher to bring him back to the dorms, and that, oddly enough, bothered him.

_A lot._

Midoriya never really liked his teachers. Every single teacher in elementary and middle school pretty much hated him and called him a troublemaker all the time. It had gotten better when he entered UA, but he still wasn't too sure about all his teachers.

Yamada was way too loud for his liking. Ectoplasm and Snipe had, on several occasions, impeded his escape from the infirmary and the hospital room. Aizawa could have pretty much kill him at any time with his Erasure quirk, and Yagi was an idiot that _w__ould_ have killed him and his friends on several occasions; when the League had attacked UA, and by fighting with All for One and almost making the building fall on them several times. Not to mention that Yagi is retired, and it was only because he had been kidnapped. Ishiyama was nice enough, and hadn't stopped him from escaping from the hospital room, the guy was literally made of concrete; Midoriya had to admit, it wasn't really Ishiyama's fault, but he really was starting to dislike anything that had almost fallen on him.

Kayama was by far the worst, though. Midoriya had tolerated her; she was pretty loud in class, and while her quirk was useful against heroes, Midoriya just generally hated anything that induced sleep. Anesthesia, sleep medicine, anything. Shuzenji's quirk drained someone's energy to heal them, and that was understandable, but Midoriya would much rather be smacked on the head with a sledgehammer and be knocked out that way than to slowly lose the ability to move.

Nezu smiled at him, "That's great. I'm glad. Nothing's broken, luckily; Recovery Girl said that you should just rest."

Reiko leapt up to Midoriya's shoulder, and licked Midoroya's cheek, and Nezu continued, "We've already warned Hatsume to be careful around you... is there anything else that you think we should do?"

Midoriya blinked, and shook his head. It was his own fault that Hatsume had leapt on him; he knew that Hatsume was enthusiastic, and had sensed her presence, but was too slow to get out of the way. If he had reacted fast enough, this wouldn't have happened. He hated being so weak and useless.

He needed to start training again.

"Not her fault. I didn't react... fast enough." Midoriya muttered, and Nezu shook his head, "You're still recovering, Izuku. You need to rest. Everything that goes wrong isn't your fault, you know. We didn't tell the other classes about your condition for safety reasons... but either way, she should not have pounced on you like that."

Midoriya just looked at him in mild confusion, before he was distracted by Ryuto nuzzling his cheek.

Nezu could only look at Midoriya helplessly, thinking.

_How else he could get him to understand that it was not his fault at all?_

* * *

Midoriya sluggishly trudged back to his room, trying and failing to stifle a yawn. He slowly walked up the stairs, too lazy to wait for the elevator to come all the way down from the top floor, and pushed open the door to his room. He flung himself on the bed, not even bothering to change, before he flipped himself over.

_He was weak._

He wasn't allowed to participate in training, he either wasn't given homework or wasn't allowed to do his homework, and he could barely even finish a tiny bowl of soup. His entire body was refusing to cooperate with him; his ribs and chest were still sore, his legs were aching horribly, his hands shook even while he was trying to eat, his fingers were stiff, and he could barely even hold a pen or a spoon properly without anything hurting at all.

Midoriya stared at the ceiling, as Reiko curled up by his neck, meowing. Ryuto snuggled up next to her, poking Midoriya's nose, and the green haired boy groaned. He turned to face his cat, sighing, "Why am I so useless?"

Reiko growled, lightly smacking Midoriya on the cheek, before nuzzling the boy, purring.

"Don't try to tell me otherwise, Rei. I literally can't do anything in this state. No one cares if someone needs to recover... there's too many things going on for everyone to be bothered about one person." Midoriya muttered, trying to will away the nausea that was starting to bubble up from nowhere.

"I need to get stronger. I can't stay like this."

* * *

Koda and Midoriya walked to the pet rescue center, and while he was sure that Shinsou and Uraraka weren't working there, the duo were somehow accompanying them. Nezu and Koda had already informed the pet rescue center of Midoriya's situation, and they had managed to rearrage the time slots so that Midoriya and Koda could have their shifts together. Midoriya was definitely bored, cooped up in the dorms, not being able to train, or do pretty much anything at all, but Nezu was okay with him going out as long as he wasn't doing anything stressful, and was with a couple of friends to protect him.

Not like he needed to be protected. If he got hurt, that was his fault. Then again, Nezu probably didn't want another kidnapping incident, like what had happened at the training camp.

Koda turned towards the lavender haired boy, signing quickly, before Shinsou gave a small laugh.

"Oh, my dad said that I could get a cat when I moved into the dorms... and I figured it was better to adopt one than to just buy one from a breeder. They're expensive, and there are a lot of cats that need new homes."

Uraraka frowned, "Does Aizawa-sensei know about this?"

Shinsou nodded, "Yep. Got permission from him. I mean... Koda has a rabbit, Midoriya has a bird and a cat, and even Tokage has a pet iguana. He said that as long as the cat doesn't make a mess and doesn't bother anyone too much, he couldn't really care less. Are you looking for anything, Uraraka?"

Uraraka laughed, "Nah. Just curious. Having a pet must be nice, though... I don't think I would want to own one until I have a job, though. Maybe a couple fish; they won't get lonely if I'm out heroing all the time. By the way, where are Reiko and Ryuto? I figured they'd be with Midoriya... but they're not."

"Oh. Sato's with them, as well as Yuwai and Haku. I think he wanted to see if they have any preferences, and if there's any foods he should avoid given how they join us at the dining table sometimes." Shinsou replied.

Yuwai was Koda's rabbit, and Haku was Tokage's iguana, and while Midoriya did feel slightly uneasy without Reiko and Ryuto, he pushed it away. He could deal with that on his own; making sure that they didn't get sick was more important.

It didn't take them too long to get to the pet rescue center, and Koda and Midoriya led Shinsou directly to the cats section. Shinsoy crouched down, and looked at the felines, as Koda and Midoriya sifted through the drawers for the files with the information on all the cats.

Most of the cats just outrightly ignored Shinsou, though there was white and cream coloured cat, a flame point ragdoll, to be precise, who had seemingly taken an interest to the lavender haired boy. It was shy, though, opting to remain in the shadows, observing Shinsou with its cyan eyes.

Shinsou looked at the cat curiously, and the ragdoll cat just stared back at him. Shinsou took a look at Koda, and the quiet boy gently opened its cage. The ragdoll cat carefully walked out, sniffing the ground, and Shinsou reached out his hand slowly. The cat flinched slightly, and Shinsou paused, letting the cat choose whether to proceed or turn back.

The ragdoll stared at Shinsou, then at his hand, before slowly, taking a step closer, then another step. It took a few more steps closer, sniffing the lavender haired boy's hand, before rubbing itself against his leg.

"Awnn!" Uraraka grinned, as Shinsou carefully picked the cat up, bringing it to eye level. The ragdoll cat let out a small meow, and Shinsou stood up, cradelling it, before he turned to Koda and Midoriya.

"Who's this? I think I'm choosing... him? Her? I can't tell." Shinsou asked, and Koda quickly identified the cat and flipped to its page, before passing the folder over to Shinsou, as Midoriya easily broke apart a fight that had been started between two of the other cats that were sharing a cage.

Uraraka peeked over his shoulder out of curiosity, as Shinsou easily carried the cat with one arm.

"Huh, a stray? Was found on the center's doorstep, gender, male, five years old. And he's a flame point ragdoll. Cool. Says here that he doesn't get along with the other cats... but he seems okay with me." Shinsou grinned, "You think I can keep him?"

Koda nodded, quickly grabbing the necessary papers for Shinsou to fill out, as Midoriya peered at Shinsou's new cat. It didn't take too long for Shinsou to finish filling out the papers, and he quickly picked out some cat food. Reiko didn't really eat all the canned food, and Shinsou wasn't too sure what his new cat would like, so he decided to go for something generic, before trying new stuff out. If he had any questions on how to take care of any pets, he could just ask Midoriya, Koda, or even Tokage; plus, he's already experienced in taking care of cats; Aizawa owned two cats, and they did move to the dorms with him, but they were lazy and preferred to just hang around in his room instead of roaming around.

Midoriya stepped away from Shinsou, going up to the cashier to ring up his products, before he turned around, and asked quietly, "Name?"

Shinsou gave a small frown, and looked at his cat, and laughed sheepishly, "I... didn't think of one yet?"

He lifted the cat into the air, staring at him, before he hummed, "I'll call you Shirou, then. You like it?"

The cat gave a small purr, before licking Shinsou's hand, and the lavender haired boy laughed, "I think he doesn't mind too much. Shirou it is, then."

Midoriya just wondered if Reiko would like the new addition to the dorms. She hadn't minded too much to the addition of Ryuto, and she seemed to like Haku and Yuwai, though she definitely did not get along too well with other cats.


	58. Chapter 58 - I'm just a broken clown

Midoriya wasn't too sure what to do. Reiko had been in the common room when they had gotten back, sitting on the sofa with the others and watching the news. Midoriya honestly wanted to go take a quick nap before dinner, but the second that Shinsou placed Shirou on the ground, all hell broke loose.

The larger cat's eyes were immediately trained on Ryuto, who was playing tic tac toe with Kaminari and Ashido on the floor, using rocks and sticks. Admittedly, Kaminari and Ashido won the first couple of times while trying and failing to teach Ryuto the rules, until Tokage found them and explained everything for Ryuto. It took a couple of tries for the hawk to really understand how to play, but he did have several wins against the two students.

Shirou nearly pounced on the bird while he was distracted, and Reiko growled from her perch on the armrest, but the larger cat merely ignored her, opting to take in the new surroundings. Ryuto warbled in delight as he won another round, and Shirou pounced.

He would have torn Ryuto apart if Reiko hadn't leapt off the armrest, tackling Shirou and knocking him off course. Ryuto gave a panicked squawk, fluttering upwards to perch on Shoji's shoulder, out of reach, as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The two cats tumbled to the ground, and Reiko snarled, baring her teeth, and Shirou took this as a challenge. Shiro swiped at Reiko, but the smaller cat instantly evaded and pounced, tackling Shirou in the side. Reiko rolled over, quickly regaining her footing, and pounced on the downed Shirou, letting out the most terrifying growl anyone had heard from the normally gentle cat.

Shirou glanced at Reiko, before closing his eyes and turning his head to the side, sign of defeat, and Reiko let out of victorious huff. She hopped to the ground, and quickly glanced upwards, at Ryuto who was still perched on Shoji's shoulder, before looking at Midoriya. She chirped, and walked over to him, rubbing herself against his leg.

"Well, that's one way to introduce yourself." Shinsou blinked, as Midoriya reached down to pick his cat up. Midoriya gave Shinsou a quick look, making a slight nod in the direction of the hallway that led to the rooms, before he gave a sharp whistle. Ryuto hopped off Shoji's shoulder, before perching on the green haired boy's head, and Midoriya made his way up to his room.

Shinsou bent down, and scooped Shirou up.

"New cat, Shinsou?" Ashido asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Yeah. Called him Shirou. Aizawa-sensei said that I could bring him, even if he's new. And honestly... I didn't think he'd end up fighting with Reiko."

Shirou gave a small hiss, and looked away, and Shinsou stood up, "I'm going to get Shirou comfortable. I'll see you guys at dinner."

Shinsou walked up the stairs to his room, and Kaminari blinked.

"I'm going to be honest. Reiko can be terrifying." Sero spoke up, "I didn't think she'd be able to take Shirou down, given the size difference."

"Well, Reiko is overprotective of Ryuto, and Shirou did try to attack him." Tokage pointed out.

"True." Sero admitted, and Kirishima grinned, "That's cause Reiko is super manly!"

* * *

Midoriya sat down on his bed, and picked Reiko up. He slightly nudged Ryuto, and the hawk hopped over to his hand, looking back to Midoriya, "Reiko, Ryuto, that was Shirou. Shinsou's new cat."

Reiko gave a small mew, and Midoriya looked at her directly in the eye, "No fighting, okay?"

Reiko whined, and Midoriya sighed, "I know you're just protecting Ryu. But Shirou's new. You don't have to like him, just tolerate him."

She gave a small, irritated sounded growl from the back of her throat, and Midoriya leaned back into his bed, placing her on his chest and wrapping his arms around her. He leaned forward, nuzzled Reiko and Ryuto, before pressing himself against the soft mattress.

"Also, if Shirou tries that again, feel free to kick his butt again."

Reiko licked Midoriya's cheek, and purred.

Oh, whoever tried to pick on her baby was going to get their asses handed to them all right.

* * *

Midoriya stood outside the principal's office, a bag in his hand, and knocked.

"Come in."

Midoriya slowly pushed open the door, and tried his best to close the door slowly. He turned around, spotting Nezu sitting at his desk, finishing up some work, before the principal looked up, smiling at Midoriya.

"Hello Izuku. Feeling better?"

Midoriya nodded, and Nezu's smile softened, "That's great. Well... do you need something?"

The green haired boy slowly made his way to the table, and placed the bag on the table, letting Nezu take a look. Ryuto was still nestled on Midoriya's head, while Reiko was perched on Midoriya's shoulder.

"A mask... and a...?" Nezu pulled out a couple of pieces of paper out of the bag in curiosity, "Ah, a voice changer and a shooter with pointers."

"For Shinsou and Kaminari. Can you... uh... help me talk to the support department?" Midoriya looked away uneasily, "I... uh... can do it myself... just...uh..."

"That's fine. You're probably still wary of Hatsume, right?" Nezu patted Midoriya's hand, "Don't worry about it. She's not in trouble. We all know she's really enthusiastic, and it was our fault for not disclosing the true extent of your injuries; plus, she feels bad for hurting you. We've already told her how she should act around you. But still, I can talk to Power Loader regarding these."

Midoriya nodded, "Thank you."

"No problem. If you have any other issues... feel free to talk to me, okay?" Nezu said, making a quick note in his to-do list.

"That reminds me... Recovery Girl and I talked it over... if you feel up to it... you can visit her everyday after lessons and she can try to speed up the healing process slowly." Nezu stated, "But you're going to have to eat regular meals in order to have enough energy, okay?"

Midoriya nodded, and Nezu smiled, "I know you're trying your best, and I'm really proud of you, Izuku."

_Proud of him?_

_Proud of someone as useless and worthless as him!?_

The green haired boy nearly froze, and left the principal's office. He hated to admit it, but there was this really... warm feeling in his chest.

_What on earth was that?!_

* * *

"We need to find new members to join the League. We've got pros all over hunting for us, and the only thing we can do now while being inconspicuous is to find new members. Remember, our next target is going to be one of the pros." Shigaraki spoke up, "This is our new hideout. Disperse. It will make it easier for us to hide for the time being."

The rest of the League nodded, as Shigaraki continued, "I'll expect you to be keeping everyone else updated. That's it. Kurogiri will be teleporting all of you to various locations. Be careful."

Hikiishi, Toga, Bubaigawara, and Sako walked through a portal that Kurogiri had set up. Dabi and Iguchi were about to follow suit, when Shigaraki looked up, his blood red eyes glinting maliciously behind the hand sitting on his face.

"Did you think that your little scheme went unnoticed? Freeing Void, letting him believe that villains were better than heroes... it would only be beneficial to us. That's the only reason you're still alive now. Cross me again... and I will not let you leave alive. Understood?"

Dabi and Iguchi flinched. They didn't respond, and they walked through the portal, unharmed.

_He knew?_

_And he didn't do anything to stop them?_

* * *

Midoriya stood, staring at the punching bag right in front of him.

Shuzenji had been slowly using her quirk on him for the past few days, doing her best to speed up the healing process while leaving him with enough energy to function. His hands seemed alright for the time being; he could write for short periods of time, and use his cutlery normally. Shuzenji was also getting him to start eating soft solid foods like potatoes and carrots in his soup.

She has just deemed him well enough to start training, and Aizawa was only letting him participate in the training with the rest of the class because he knew that Midoriya was starting to get restless, sitting around and watching but not being able to do anything.

Ryuto was working with Dark Shadow and Tokoyami, while Shinsou and Kaminari were trying out their voice changer and sharpshooting gear respectively; the Support Department had just approved and finished them, and had added them to their hero costumes.

Meanwhile, Midoriya just stared at the menacing punching bag that towered over him. He knew it was irrational to be terrified of a _punching bag_, of all things... but he hadn't trained at all ever since he had gotten out of the hospital. Reiko was sitting by the stand, keeping an eye on Midoriya.

_"Go be… the hero… that we all believed that you could be…"_

It didn't help that Yagi was walking around, in his skinny, deflated form, watching his classmates train while he gave out pointers.

_It's YOUR fault. _

_You killed the Symbol of Peace._

Midoriya cautiously pulled his arm back, and tried to punch the punching bag. The punching bag barely moved, and he tried again.

_"Useless waste of space."_

And again.

_"Worthless child."_

And again.

_You're just better off dead._

And each time, the punching bag didn't even seem to move at all.

_Pathetic. __You can't even hit a punching bag right. _

_No wonder you let them DIE, you weak, pathetic, useless child!_

The green haired boy gritted his teeth in frustration, and growled, baring his teeth, putting all his body weight behind his fist as he punched the punching bag with all his might. The chains holding the punching bag up squeaked as the punching bag swung upwards, and Midoriya promptly lost his balance. He blinked, trying his best to regain his balance, before it hit him, literally.

The punching bag swung back to its original position, smacking Midoriya right in the face.

Midoriya tumbled backwards, disorientated from the impact, and he lay on the ground, stunned. He blinked, coughing, and tried to push himself back up, but in that moment, all his strength left him, and he slumped back to the ground again, panting, trying to suck the air back into his lungs.

_Weak. __Useless. Pathetic. _

"Midoriya? Midoriya, are you okay?" Aizawa asked, quickly walking over to Midoriya and crouching down. Midoriya glared at him, and Reiko hastily yelped, running over to where Aizawa was and tugging on his pants leg, trying to get him to stop. Aizawa looked down at the cat in confusion, before turning back to Midoriya, watching as the boy looked at him with an expression he couldn't really place.

Reiko, seeing that Aizawa had stopped, let go of his pants leg, before padding over to Midoriya carefully. She licked his cheek carefully, and Midoriya took his attention off Aizawa, turning to the cat. Reiko nuzzled him gently, and Midoriya tried to push himself up again, only for his arms to give way, causing him to slump against the ground again, shaking.

_You deserve to die. This is all your fault. _

"Midoriya, calm down. You've barely recovered, I think a punching bag is too much for you right now." Aizawa inched closer, watching Reiko for a signal that he was getting too close. Reiko let out a small hiss, and Aizawa promptly stopped.

"You should rest for now. I'll get Recovery Girl here to check on you."

He stood up, and looked around. Iida was the closest, and he immediately called out, "Iida, can you come here for a second?"

Ever the alert class representative, Iida promptly stopped whatever he was doing, and marched over to Aizawa, "Yes sir? What would you – Midoriya? Are you okay?"

"Can you bring him to the side? I think he's overexerted himself for the first training session after not training for so long." Aizawa stated, and Iida promptly bent down, Reiko hopping away to give Iida space, and the blue haired boy easily picked Midoriya up.

"You should be more careful, alright?" Iida lightly berated, carrying Midoriya to the side, but his words did nothing to quell the intensifying guilt that Midoriya was feeling.

_See, you useless being. Now you have to disturb those "friends" of yours, all because you couldn't get up. Pathetic._ _Shigaraki was right; you really are a useless child._

* * *

Nezu looked at his phone in confusion, as his phone rang. He didn't have any meetings scheduled, so who on earth was calling him?

The contact name was Tsukauchi, and Nezu promptly picked it up, "Yes?"

_"Nezu, I just had a conversation with the Hero Commission… I've got some news for you. You're not going to like it. It's regarding Midoriya's position in the hero course. I think… it's better if I tell you about it in person. Are you free anytime soon?"_


	59. Chapter 59 - Make believing

"Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule." Tsukauchi stated, sitting down on the couch in Nezu's office, "How's Midoriya? Recovering well?"

"Well… he's been doing fine. Recovery Girl just let him go back to training yesterday… but he overexerted himself. She's letting him continue training, but she wants to keep an eye on him while he does so." Nezu replied, "So… what's the bad news?"

"Due to the Kamino incident and all the coverage it's gotten, not to mention the loss of the Symbol of Peace, Endeavor as the new Number One hero, and the Nomus… the Hero Commission has pushed the date of the Provisional License Exam back by a month." Tsukauchi started, "And now that people are starting to talk about Midoriya as being quirkless… things have gotten complicated."

"How so?" Nezu frowned.

"As you know… Midoriya being quirkless, yet still winning the Sports Festival, and becoming the target of a villain whose quirk is _taking_ quirks from other people; all of this makes him an anomaly in the eyes of the hero commission. An anomaly, that they cannot be controlled by any… _normal _conventions." Tsukauchi continued, "Midoriya's quirklessness has also sparked heated discussions all over about how strong the heroes currently are. The public is under the assumption that the heroes have somehow become weaker, by the fact that Midoriya had easily beaten students like Bakugou and Todoroki, and this fear was only amplified by the fall of All Might. The Hero Commission understands your decision to allow Midoriya to enter the Hero Course; the defeat of the League had painted a target on his back, but back then, his quirkless status was unknown."

"I know this already. Get to the point." Nezu growled. He knew he was being unfair to Tsukauchi; it wasn't the poor man's fault that he was being the messenger in this scenario. But this was going in a direction that Nezu was despising.

"The Hero Commission wants to pull Midoriya out of the Hero Course." Tsukauchi dryly stated.

The room was so silent that one could hear a pin drop.

"Excuse me, what?" Nezu hissed, "They can't just do that!"

Tsukauchi nodded solemnly, "In normal cases, yes. But Midoriya's case is no normal case. The fact is that Midoriya, being quirkless, is making heroes, as a whole, look weak. The Hero Commission is aware of that. I'm sure you know that this year, after the preliminary round of the Provisional License Exam, those who fail the second found can still go through another round of remedial, and they'll have another chance to get their licenses in the same year. Midoriya… unfortunately… won't get another chance."

"What do you mean?" Nezu snarled. He _definitely_ wasn't liking where this was going.

"Midoriya's got only once chance to prove that he can be a hero." Tsukauchi finished, "He has to pass both rounds, or the Hero Commission will be removing him from the Heroics Course permanently. He can't take anymore lessons, he can't go for the exams. That's it. They wanted to pull him out immediately, but I've managed to convince them to give him a chance based on his actions during the Kamino Incident... not to mention that Gang Orca, Ryukyu and Jeanist weren't too happy when they heard about it."

* * *

Midoriya watched.

And analyzed.

He kept his eyes glued onto the fight, watching as Todoroki froze Sero, watching as Uraraka tried to evade Shoji's attempts to grab onto her, watching as Shinsou tangled Iida up in his capture weapon.

_Analyze everything. That's the only reason why they want you here, why those heroes wanted to save you in the first place; information._

Scenarios and quirk usages and quirk laws flashed through Midoriya's mind, the boy trying his best to compartmentalize everything to the best of his ability as he scrawled messily in a spare notebook.

"Midoriya… and Bakugou." Aizawa stated, and Midoriya snapped out his analyzing stupor, before making his way into the box, where Bakugou was already waiting and ready to fight.

_Bakugou usually starts off with a right hook, and he knows that I know that, so he could go as per normal and use a right hook, or start off with something else, or use a right hook as a feint to –_

He didn't even hear Aizawa call the fight, and barely reacted as Bakugou's right fist nearly made contact with his face.

_He started off with a right hook, he could blast himself forwards with an explosion, or follow up with a kick –_

Information started clouding Midoriya's mind, as he desperately tried to defend himself against Bakugou's relentless assault.

_He's going to use his explosion on his right hand to propel him forward –_

_"You worthless Deku."_

His train of thought was constantly getting disrupted as Bakugou lashed out, barely giving him enough time to react to block or dodge.

_Left hook, then right knee, then –_

In a moment of instinct, Midoriya jumped up as Bakugou's leg swept under him, and Midoriya kicked Bakugou in the chin. Bakugou grinned, explosions dancing on his palms, before he shot forward.

_Right hook –_

_"U__seless freak of nature."_

Midoriya hastily evaded a kick to the gut.

_Left knee, he's going to kick –_

_"He's weak and worthless!"_

The green haired boy barely managed to dodge a punch to the face.

_He's going to use an explosion, or maybe he could punch, or –_

_"Go and die like the rest of your useless, worthless kind!"_

Midoriya's thoughts were disrupted yet again by an explosion to the face, and it didn't take more than a few more seconds for Bakugou to smack Midoriya into the ground, pinning him down, and Aizawa called the match.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!? Your movements are slow!" Bakugou spat, standing up, "This isn't a win. I refuse to count this as a win. You get back to full power, and then we'll fight again, got it!?"

"Bakugou, that is enough." Aizawa stated, and Bakugou growled, stomping out of the box, "Midoriya, are you alright?"

Midoriya nodded, as his thoughts swirled around in his mind, forcing Midoriya to try his best to organise his thoughts as Shinsou helped him up.

"...riya? Midoriya?"

Midoriya snapped to attention, realising that Shinsou was calling his name.

"You okay? You seem a bit... out of it."

Midoriya nodded, and settled down on a bench, not even keeping an eye on the next ongoing fight between Tokage and Shoda.

* * *

Aizaw looked at Midoriya worriedly. He had paired Bakugou and Midoriya up because while the blonde was vicious, he knew how to hold back, and wouldn't go overboard and hurt Midoriya like some of the others might would.

He recognised the expression in Midoriya's eyes whenever he was busy analysing people, and didn't think that of all the problems that Midoriya would have while trying to fight, it would be his skill in analysis that would be hindering him.

His instincts seemed to be on point, but he was thinking too much, and it was slowing him down in battle.

Granted, Shuzenji had only just declared that Midoriya was ready to go back to training for a couple of days, and the Provisional Licence exam had been pushed back, barely giving Midoriya enough time to get back in shape and ready to fight.

Aizawa kept an eye on the boy as he called the match between Hagakure and Ojiro.

_He's just recovered. Give him some time. _

* * *

"Hey, Midoriya!" Uraraka grinned, "Aizawa's given us permission to use the gym for quirk training after school! All Might's going to be supervising us, cause there's a meeting or something that he doesn't have to attend. Want to come?"

_Useless._

Midoriya didn't want to train, if he was being honest with himself. There was_ just no point in doing so._

Train, don't train, the outcome was still the same; he would still be utterly useless.

_Worthless._

He could never change the past.

_And Yagi was going to be there?_

The endless pit of guilt continued bubbling in Midoriya's stomach.

_You didn't like him, you never liked him. Now, look, you KILLED the Symbol of Peace. __Your __preferences __don't matter._

_Maybe if you weren't so weak to have gotten kidnapped, All Might would still be able to do his job. Shinsou, Yaoyorozu, Uraraka, Iida and Todoroki wouldn't have to risk their lives for you. __Pathetic._

"It's going to be today and tomorrow after school. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to, but if you want to just sit around, that's fine too. And – "

_Breathe in._

_"You useless child!"_

_Breathe out._

_"Useless, quirkless scum!"_

_Leave me alone, please. _

"Uh… he's not here anymore." Todoroki blankly stated, and Uraraka blinked, realizing that indeed, Midoriya had disappeared into thin air.

"Where did he go?" Iida asked, looking around, also just realizing that Midoriya had left.

Todoroki narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "That's exactly what he did when I talked to him after the Sports Festival."

He reached out, patting the walls, "He doesn't have a quirk… There must be a secret passageway somewhere…"

Shinsou shook his head, "Todoroki, why would there be a secret passageway embedded into the walls of a school that is clearly too small for even a cat to fit in?"

Todoroki glanced at him, "How else can Midoriya just disappear like that? He was right in front of us."

"Uh… Midoriya's gone?" Yaoyorozu asked, peering outside the classroom, "I swore that he was just here a minute ago…"

"He legitimately just turned around and just walked away." Dark Shadow offered, "Not sure why you guys didn't see him."

"Ok… first things first. How on earth did we _not_ see him walk away?!" Uraraka nearly screeched.

* * *

It was harder and harder to stay calm during lessons.

_Stupid emotions._

Midoriya tried to make himself as small as possible whenever Aizawa was around during homeroom lessons, and subtly shied away from his gaze whenever the Erasure Hero activated his quirk to shut the class up.

_"He's quirkless. He doesn't deserve to live."_

Midoriya could feel himself shaking whenever Yamada was in his classroom, talking loudly about synonyms and antonyms, the air literally reverberating around them as he spoke, even without the usage of his quirk.

_"He doesn't deserve anything! He's just a useless waste of space!"_

He froze up when Ectoplasm walked around the classroom, giving out their homework and assignments.

_"Let me go, please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, I'll be good, please, just let me out!" _

He couldn't help himself from staring at Ishiyama murderously, averting his gaze whenever the Cement Hero looked in his direction.

_He remembered his classmates yelling as the building they were in shook, debris of all shapes and sizes raining down on them as Todoroki hastily used his ice in an attempt to slow the collapse of the building._

Guilt and anger continued pooling in his stomach as Yagi rambled on and on about past heroes, or something or another.

_You killed the Symbol of Peace, you pathetic child. _

_He could have killed Todoroki, Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida and Yaoyorozu if that stupid building collapsed on us! He nearly killed them as well!_

And as much as he hated to admit it, Kayama was the one that scared him the most.

He absolutely _detested_ anesthetics.

_Hurts. Hurts so much._

_His head was aching, it felt like it was going to split apart. _

_He could feel people around him talking, he could feel something cutting into his skin, but he couldn't see, he couldn't move at all. _

_All he could do was listen, and wait, as pain flared through his body._

_"…skull… spine… broken… chest…" _

_I can't move, please, let me go!_

_He could feel something cool hovering mere millimeters from his skin._

_"… rib fractures… a bit to the left…"_

_His veins felt like they were on fire as the cool metal dug into his flesh. _

_He wanted to scream, to cry for help, to just do something to get away._

_But he couldn't move a single muscle, couldn't make a single sound._

_Let me go, please._


	60. Chapter 60 - In the dead of night

Aizawa frowned, and watched as Midoriya tiptoed around Shoji carefully. Shoji lunged, and Midoriya was a second too low in sidestepping, which resulted in him being caught. The green haired boy didn't even struggle as Shoji easily restrained him, walking to the side of the box and carefully depositing him out of bounds.

Midoriya had easily beaten Shoji before, and he currently had access to all of the same equipment, which were his regular hero costume, and the white strips of cloth that were wrapped around the bandages on his arms; he had apparently taken Kaminari's suggestion into consideration. Aizawa wasn't even sure that Midoriya had heard him that time; he had assumed that the boy was preoccupied with his arms after straining them too much.

Then again, it wasn't too surprising; Midoriya had always been a perceptive person, if the five pages of notes he had made on every student said anything. Plus, if Midoriya was able to discern the details about the League's quirks while they were _torturing_ him, or just talking to him, then surely he would be able to capture Kaminari's comment about him using the bandages as a makeshift capture weapon. He did _not_ want to question how on earth Midoriya knew how to use it as a capture weapon either; Aizawa already had way too many questions, and if there was one thing he knew about Midoriya, it was that one question would become two, then four, then eight, until eventually there were just too many questions to even count. It would just be easier to accept that Midoriya just... knew things. Then again, he was a vigilante; he had to learn fast. and know all sorts of things in order to survive.

Aizawa was worried at how dazed and lost Midoriya looked. No matter what happened, Midoriya never gave up, not against the League, or against Stain, or against the Nomus, or even against Muscular. It was uncharacteristic of Midoriya to just... stop trying. Midoriya was one for action, not words, but now, he spent a lot of time thinking, the period of time when he dismisses the students to practise their super moves on their own to him actually moving and making a move getting longer and longer as the days went by. His expression hadn't changed the slightest, always emotionless, stoic, calm, but it seemed like Midoriya had just... _given up_. He knew that trauma from his kidnapping and being at the mercy of the League would linger, and while Midoriya didn't seem to suffer from any normal symptoms of emotional and psychological trauma, Midoriya did have a tendency to hide all of his pain. Just because he wasn't showing it... didn't mean that he didn't feel it.

And that was scary, seeing a strong willed, determined, stubborn child like Midoriya just falling apart from all his pain, all his inner turmoil.

Being quirkless and bullied for most of his life was bad enough, losing his parents and subsequently being forced into the foster system did absolutely no favours him. Midoriya was already closed off, and it had taken Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki and Koda months of slowly easing their way into Midoriya's life to understand him and learn where the boundaries were. Months of knocking gently on the solid metal vault to Midoriya's heart, slowly getting him to open up.

And now, it seemed like Midoriya had just welded the door firmly shut.

And Aizawa wasn't sure how to help him. Midoriya was pushing all the teachers out; he noticed the subtle glares that the green haired boy shot at him out of the corner of his eye, Midoriya trying to do his best to stay out of his line of sight, being quiet and mild as usual, trying to not draw any attention to himself at all. He knew he couldn't help Midoriya at all; he could only hope that Nezu, Reiko, Ryuto, and his classmates would somehow get through to him.

* * *

Midoriya stuffed his english worksheet into his bag, before flopping down on his bed.

He was tired, but there were so many thoughts running through his head that it was just impossible for him to fall asleep.

_Nobody cares about you, you worthless child._

_"I can't breathe... let me out... please..."_

He was doing his best to block everything out, but the more he tried to shove his thoughts away, the more they rushed back, stronger than before.

_They don't really care about you, you know, _the voice in his head whispered, _They're just like everyone else. Playing with you, manipulating you._

_Shut up, _he tried to shove the voice away, _L__eave me alone. _

_You feel safe around them? You feel comfortable around them? __You're falling into their trap. T__hey just want to rip you apart, just like all those "friends" you had in elementary school. How many times do you want your heart to be broken?_

_Shut up. They're not like them._

_How do you know? They were nice as well. Until she told you to "take a swan dive off a roof and hope to gain a quirk in your next life". And you actually did that._

_I did not jump off a building that time._

_Poor little Izuku. You really believe that you "fell off" by accident? You may not have consciously thought about jumping off a roof, but the thought was still there, lingering. She was right, they're all right; __No one cares if you live or die, everyone is better off without you._

Midoriya pressed his pillow against his ears in a fruitless attempt to block out the voice in his head. Ryuto shuddered, and ruffled his feathers, before pressing himself against Midoriya, nibbling his ear comfortingly, as Reiko purred, licking Midoriya's cheek.

The green haired boy let out a faint whine, and closed his eyes. His entire body, from head to toe, every single ligament and tendon, just seemed to ache for absolutely no reason at all. They didn't even have any training sessions today; Yagi had just given them some kind of old report about heroics, and was _trying_ to teach something about quirk laws. He talked for around ten minutes, and Midoriya was sure he wasn't the only one who had absolutely no idea what was going on until Aizawa had shoved the thin, frail looking man away and pretty much took over the entire lesson.

And even then, he couldn't stop the guilt from pooling in his stomach as he watched Yagi out of the corner of his eye, the thin form of the former Number One hero flipping through a book titled "Teaching for Dummies".

_You worthless, useless child._

_It's your fault he's in that state. If only you weren't so pathetic and useless..._

_Shut up... please... leave me alone..._

* * *

Midoriya stood, looking around blankly as his classmates continued working on their super moves. He felt oddly... empty... inside, and it _wasn't_ because he hadn't eaten anything at all the entire day.

He stared at the punching bag, irritation bubbling in his gut. He still hadn't forgiven the damned thing for smacking him in the face a week ago, even though he knew that it wasn't the punching bag's fault that it followed the laws of physics.

Midoriya clenched his fist. The Provisional Licence exams were coming up soon, he knew that at the very least, but as his classmates continuously got stronger, all he was doing was getting weaker, more pathetic.

He glared at the punching bag, some part of him wanted to give the damned thing a good hit, just to vent out his frustrations, but another part of him was stopping him. He could feel an icy feeling against his neck, threatening to strangle him, and Midoriya closed his eyes, pondering, as a chill ran down his spine.

_Pathetic. You can't even hit a punching bag? How are you supposed to protect anyone now?_

_Can you even protect anyone now, you useless quitter?_

_Leave me alone._

He didn't know how to fight, he didn't want to fight.

_That's all you are, right?_

How could he fight an invisible enemy, an enemy that wasn't even corporeal?

_ A quitter, just a quitter. A pathetic quitter who can't do anything right, who can never do anything._

An enemy that wasn't himself, and yet, was simultaneously himself?

_You should have died that day, don't you agree? Would make things much, much easier now. You're searching for something that can't be found, something that no one would ever give you, something that you don't deserve. _The voice spat, _Why do you even bother trying? No one cares about you, no one would ever care about you._

Midoriya bit his lip, and sighed, before he turned away, walking away from the punching bag. Walking off the tower of cement that Ishiyama had made for them to train on. Walking away from his classmates, who were all training to better themselves and their quirks.

_You're right._

_I should have died that day._

* * *

Shinsou noted that Midoriya was eating less and less. He wasn't the type to eat a lot in the first place; Shinsou had honestly never seen Midoriya eat anything more than soup, but lately, he was barely able to eat one or two mouthfuls, sometimes looking sick by just _looking_ at his soup before he pushed his bowl away, not able to drink it. Yamada was worried that Midoriya wasn't eating enough, stealing a couple of Aizawa's jelly packs and shoving them under Midoriya's desk, but Midoriya just looked at them and gave them back to Aizawa, much to the Erasure Heroes confusion.

Midoriya was also seeming to get irritated much more easily. He had never been one to tolerate Mineta, especially when he was verbally harassing his female classmates, but unless Mineta was actually doing something, Midoriya would usually not do a thing until he had gotten to the point of being insufferable. Mineta had only said once sentence before Midoriya stared at him with what must be a _much_ more potent version of his death glare, because Mineta had promptly hid behind Sato, and refused to even _glance_ in the direction of a female for the rest of the day when he was in the same room as the green haired boy. It was amusing the first time it happened, but it was just uncharacteristic of the normally mild Midoriya to be so hostile.

Shinsou, Uraraka, Iida, Koda, and Todoroki had been around Midoriya enough to know when they were pushing Midoriya's boundaries, but the others in 1-A and 1-B didn't. He seemed to get irritated by Kirishima, Kaminari and Ashido. Granted, those three were energetic, and trying to befriend Midoriya, and the greenette usually tolerated them for thirty minutes before silently excusing himself. Ashido had tried to invite Midoriya out for one of their usual cafe outings, but Midoriya had just outrightly avoided them, or just subtly glared at them until one of them pulled the trio away. But he even seemed to get irritated by Yaoyorozu and Jiro, who just constantly asked him if he was okay, or if he slept well.

He could tell that Reiko and Ryuto were doing their best to try and cheer Midoriya up, to try and snap him out of his slump, but nothing they did seemed to work.

He wasn't even sure that Midoriya was sleeping right. Midoriya had always been pale, but now, he looked even paler than usual. His eye bags were worse than usual, standing out much more prominently than before, and he often looked like he was about to fall asleep or doze off in lessons. He did rest his head on the table before lessons started, in between lessons before the next teacher arrived, and during lunch, and he did seem a bit more sluggish in training sessions, if he even participated in them at all.

Midoriya was pushing them all away, and Shinsou didn't know how to help Midoriya.

Or rather, if Midoriya wanted to be helped at all.


	61. Chapter 61 - You went dark on me

"Have any of you seen Midoriya?" Jiro asked, looking around, before turning to Iida, "I haven't seen him since classes ended."

"He's probably in his room." Uraraka sighed, "He's been down for the past week.. He hasn't even eaten for the past few days... I was thinking of asking if he wants to attend the movie night... but knowing him, he'd probably say no."

"I'll go ask! Mina, set up the movie!" Hagakure grinned and ran up the stairs. She knocked on Midoriya's door, and waited for a response, but got none. She pushed open the door anyways, finding Midoriya staring at the worksheet Aizawa had given out.

"Hey, Midoriya, we're going to watch movies all the way until midnight, cause there's no school tomorrow!" Hagakure spoke up, "Want to join us? Kirishima and Bakuogu are making popcorn; there's cheese, salty, and caramel! And -"

Midoriya looked up at Hagakure, before he shook his head, going back to his worksheet. She glanced at Reiko, who was sitting on Midoriya's desk, looking at her almost apologetically, and then at Ryuto, who was perched on Midoriya's shoulder and nuzzling him, before she turned her attention back to Midoriya.

"Come on, please?" The invisible girl whined, almost begging, "Just try it once, you'll enjoy it, I promise!"

Midoriya resolutely shook his head again, before he shifted his posture slightly away from Hagakure, a clear indication that he didn't want to talk, and he wasn't going to at all.

Hagakure turned away from his door dejectedly, "Alright then, Midoriya. Good night. But if you change you mind and decide to join us halfway through, we'll welcome you anytime."

She closed the door gently, missing how Midoriya turned around, looking at her in confusion.

* * *

_"You know, Deku? Falling off the roof of a building? What a farce. I know the truth."_

_"Did you really think that taking a swan dive off the roof would make you get a quirk?"_

_"Never! Forget it! Izuku's my son and I'll protect him with my life! I don't care what you say! He's not useless and he'll never be! He's just a child! Leave him alone!"_

_"It's too late … I'm sorry… please… get out of here, hurry…Remember… it's not your fault… you're not worthless… and you'll never be. Go be… the hero… that we all believed that you could be…"_

_"Do you think the heroes care about you? __Do you think they really want to do it? Do they really want to save a useless, quirkless child?"_

Midoriya jolted up, startling Reiko and Ryuto who were nuzzled up against him. It was the same thing, the same nightmare, the same memories, playing over and over incessantly, melding together in endless cacophony of discordant images and sounds, the violent, grating waveforms constantly repeating in his head. The noise… it wouldn't stop. He remembered all the squeaking, the screeching, the screaming, the concrete and metal falling around him, and the hushed voices of people talking, but he couldn't understand a word they were saying.

He remembered the fire, all the pain, all the blood. He remembered his skull cracking, his spine splintering, being thrown and smashed into the ground again and again. He remembered the sharp metallic edge of Toga's knife tearing through his skin and into his gut, his skin peeling off, disintegrating bit by bit, decaying into nothing.

He remembered _everything_.

_What is the meaning, the purpose, to all of this?_

The room began to crinkle, crumpling around him, closing in on him, the air around him dissipating before it reaches even reaches his lungs. He blinked, trying to calm his racing heart, breathing heavily as he slowly curled up into a ball, trembling.

There must be a way out. There has to be a way out, there is always a way out. Midoriya looked around, scanning his room, trying to find a way to escape. He harshly bit his lip, and clenched his fists tightly, his fingernails digging into his palm, the pain giving him a short respite from the voice that echoed within his mind. He staggered to his feet, swiping his UA identity card off the table, and grabbed the handle of his door.

Reiko purred worriedly, curling up around Ryuto, but Midoriya turned around, his dull emerald eyes glinting in the moonlight, like the shards of the broken glass that littered the ground when the green haired boy picked up Rikaru's cold, dying body.

"Stay. Take care of Ryuto. Don't come after me."

* * *

Midoriya swiped his student ID card, gaining access to one of the gyms quite a fair distance away from the student dorms. It was already past curfew, and he was supposed to be in Heights Alliance, but at this point, he was past caring.

_You make me sick. What on earth are you trying to prove? That you're useful? That you're still worth something?_

Midoriya didn't even bother responding.

_Remember, they died because of you, you worthless child._

The gym was cleared of any equipment, but he knew that the punching bags were kept in the storage closet. It was locked, but that didn't do much to hinder Midoriya; the green haired boy just pulled out two paper clips out of his pocket, and started fiddling with the lock on the door.

_You're quirkless and useless. How on earth you even managed to get into UA's General Education course, I don't even know._

It didn't take too much effort for him to unlock the door, and Midoriya pushed it open. He immediately dragged the punching bag out to the center of the gym, before he stared at it.

_There was fire. The familiar screams of pain. The horrible scent of burning human flesh and gasoline._

There was silence. No sounds at all, just the pounding of his heart against his ribcage.

_You'll never amount to anything, you weak, worthless, pathetic Deku._

And Midoriya growled under his breath, and lashed out, his fist meeting the leather surface of the punching bag.

The punching bag barely moved.

* * *

"I think trying to force Midoriya to participate in the Provisional Licence Exam now... it's not a good idea." Aizawa stated, as he tried to type on his laptop, "He hasn't been himself, I think it's too early for him."

_"I'm not saying we should force Izuku to participate. It's up to him whether he wants to participate or not." _Nezu replied, _"And you already know what the Hero Commission plans to do..."_

"Are you going to tell him?" Aizawa quietly asked, and there was silence on the other end, until Nezu spoke up again.

_"No. It would just put unnecessary stress on him at this point in time." _

"But in the state he's in right now... I don't think he'll be able to perform well in the exams. I'm just worried... he just seems lost and dazed and he's not acting like himself. He'll -"

_"Hey! Eraserhead! Your student is at Gym Zeta! Go scold them!" _

Aizawa frowned, muttering, "Seriously? At this time? What in the world... who is it?"

_"That's weird. I thought everyone would be asleep by now."_ Nezu muttered over the phone, _"Hold on... let me check the facility's security doors? Wait... it's Izuku's card?"_

"What is he doing there? At this time?" Aizawa muttered, "How did he even get out and all the way across the campus? How did he even know about Gym Zeta? We have never been there before. I'll go get him back, you just stay in your office."

_"No, Aizawa. You already told me that he seems uncomfortable around the teachers... I don't think you going after him will help him." _Nezu replied grimly,_ "I'll go after him, don't worry too much."_

"He is breaking the rules. Are you going to punish him?" Aizawa asked, and he heard Nezu sigh from the other side of the phone call.

_"Depending on the reason. But I think it's more serious than we think. Remember, Izuku isn't the type to do something like this without a good reason. Something must be bothering him for him to blatantly break the rules like this."_

"Alright then. You know him the best. I trust your judgement." Aizawa nodded, "Make sure he's okay, alright?"

* * *

The lights of the gym were on, and Nezu's ears perked up when he heard the metallic clink of metal on metal, the familiar sound of the punching bag squeaking as it swung from its metal chain. He quickened his footsteps, careful not to make any sounds at all, and peeked into the gym.

He saw Midoriya let out a desperate, gut wrenching shriek, before practically throwing himself against the punching bag, losing his balance once again, before the punching bag swung back, smacking him in the face and sending him sprawling.

Midoriya winced, and tried to push himself up, before his arms gave way and Midoriya crashed into the ground.

Nezu rushed inside, taking note of the blood staining Midoriya's knuckles, and the punching bag, and worriedly knelt down in front of the downed boy.

"Izuku... what's wrong?" Nezu asked, as Midoriya shakily tried to get up again, managing to push himself to his knees, his face in shadows cast by his fluffy green hair.

Midoriya was _shaking_.

"Izuku?" Nezu reached out hesitantly, not really sure what to do to help Midoriya calm down, "Izuku, are you okay?"

"...Why am I so weak?"

Midoriya's voice was so quiet, Nezu nearly missed what he had said.

Nezu blinked, trying to process the words that just came out of Midoriya's mouth.

"Everyone else is getting stronger and stronger, but I'm still stuck here. Why am I so weak, so helpless, so pathetic? Why am I being bothered by things that happened years ago?" Midoriya stammered, his voice wavering, "Why was I the one that ended All Might? If I had been stronger... the heroes wouldn't have to come and save me...then that wouldn't have happened... then my classmates wouldn't have to come and try to save me... they wouldn't have to risk their lives for someone as useless as me..."

Nezu leaned forward, cradelling Midoriya's bruised and bloody knuckles gently, as the green haired boy shook.

"Eraserhead got hurt... almost died...because I wasn't good enough to figure out where and when the League's second attempt on UA would be... The students almost got hurt... then there was the school camp... if I hadn't been kidnapped by villains, the heroes wouldn't have to waste time trying to find and save me... I know they just saved me because of public knowledge of the attack and it would look bad on the Hero Commission if they didn't save me, and for information about the League... but why did the others come?! Why did my classmates come?! They could have gotten hurt... they almost died when the building came crashing down on us... why did they risk their lives to come for me!? Why would they even want to save someone like me?"

Nezu gently pulled the green haired boy in for a hug, letting Midoriya lean against his chest.

_He thought that the heroes just saved him for information?_

"Everyone close to me gets hurt. My parents, Rikaru, all my classmates, Reiko... Even pros like Eraserhead and All Might!" Midoriya faintly wailed, his breaths coming in fast as he tried to breathe, "Even if I try not to think about it, it comes to mind unexpectedly! Mama and Papa died because of me, Rikaru died because of me, and the Symbol of Peace died because of me! Eraserhead... the other pros like Kamui Woods, Edgeshot, Ingenium, Gang Orca, Best Jeanist, all the civilians caught up in the attack... Shinsou, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki and Uraraka... they all got hurt because of me! They could have all died because of me!"

He was trembling like a leaf in a tornado, and Nezu placed his head on Midoriya's shoulder, trying to do his best to calm his pup. He didn't know who on earth Rikaru was, but they must be pretty important to Midoriya to be affecting him like this.

"Japan is a mess, more villains are popping out left and right, because of the fall of All Might. All Might tried to keep his other form a secret, but now, everyone knows about his condition, and the villains are taking advantage of it. Because of me. Because I'm weak." Midoriya hoarsely stammered out, "I'm useless, I'm worthless! I killed the Symbol of Peace! I did this!_" _

_He's been carrying this with him the whole time... he's been worrying about it... thinking about it..._

Nezu tightened his grip around Midoriya, slowly running his paw through Midoriya's green fluffy hair, his heart clenching.

"I don't know what to do. I can't help anyone. I can't save anyone. I can't understand anyone. I can't talk to my classmates, I can't even look my teachers in the eye. And now, I can't even fight. That was the only thing I was good at, and I can't even do it anymore. I can't do anything right at all, all I do is just cause more trouble and pain for everyone else."

His voice was empty, hollow, like he had given up.

"I'm tired... of trying to fight. I can't be a hero."

Nezu gently nuzzled Midoriya, "You were more heroic than everyone else, Izuku. No matter what, you kept on fighting, to protect your classmates, to protect Kota, to protect Reiko and Ryuto. Everything you did, it was for someone else, never for yourself. All Might would have to retire sooner or later; it was better than he went out with a bang, taking down one of Japan's most notorious and powerful villains. None of this was your fault, Izuku. You're digging and scraping, desperately trying to do something that you think that is expected of you, to prove yourself."

The principal noted as Midoriya clenched his fists, shaking even more violently, and continued, "But you've already proven yourself, time and time again. You're taking on a burden that's much too heavy for anyone your age to take, alone; a burden that even most heroes now won't be able to carry. You've sacrificed so much for everyone else, everything, in fact, asking for nothing in return. Everyone, even heroes, fall down sometimes. But that doesn't mean that they are weak or useless. They get up, and try again. That's what makes them strong, that's what truly makes them true heroes."

Nezu leaned back, gently placing his paw on Midoriya's cheek, looking at the boy in the eye. His gaze was dim, but in that vacant void, Nezu could see all the guilt, the sorrow, the sadness, his pain, his broken sense of self worth, everything that Midoriya was hiding behind a mask, a facade that was slowly breaking apart.

"No matter what has happened, no matter how many times villains have hurt you, no matter how you peers have mocked and bullied you, no matter how much people put you down, I've only seen you get back up. It's okay to be scared; it's only natural, after everything you've been through. But you're not weak, not useless, and you'll never be worthless. You did your best to help everyone around you. You're already a hero, Izuku."

But his burned eyes could no longer see any color, as Nezu coaxed the green haired boy to his feet and to the bathroom in the gym, washing off the blood on his hands before wrapping them up in bandages from the first aid kit. He followed blindly, wordlessly, as Nezu led him back to UA's main building, back to the principal's office.

His body collapsed weakly on the couch in the principal's office, and all he heard was the echo inside his head.

_There is no meaning, t__here is no purpose__._

_There is no escape._

_You can't run away from yourself, Deku._


	62. Chapter 62 - There's no hate, no love

Nezu carefully draped the large fluffy jacket over Midoriya's limp body, and slipped a pillow under his head. The boy's body was curled up slightly, his back pressing against the backrest of the couch. He was pale, his eye bags worse than usual, and his body was unnervingly still. Nezu would have thought he was dead if he didn't hear Midoriya's weak breathing.

After checking once again that Midoriya was fast asleep, Nezu quietly slipped out of his office, into the corridor, and fished out his phone. He quickly dialed Aizawa's number, and it didn't take more than a few rings for the Erasure Hero to respond.

_"Nezu? Have you found Midoriya?"_

"Yeah... He was trying to train in Gym Zeta." Nezu replied, "He's sleeping in my office right now, if anyone asks, tell them he's with me."

_"That's great. Is he okay?"_

"He bruised and injured his knuckles, but physically, he's fine. Mentally... he's more affected by the kidnapping and the events of Kamino than we thought. I'll organize a meeting with the other heroes who were involved in the Kamino event, but for now, we should give Midoriya some space to think things through."

_"Alright. I'll tell Vlad King and the students tomorrow, in the morning."_

Aizawa hung up, and Nezu stuffed his phone back in his pocket. He carefully opened the door to his office, and closed the door behind him gently. He sat down on the couch, and gently ruffled Midoriya's hair, before curling up on the sofa and closing his eyes.

* * *

Kirishima idly flicked through the channels on the television, as he leaned back into the sofa. He wasn't even sure what was on television; his mind was preoccupied with other things. It was pretty late in the morning, almost ten in the morning, and everyone had mostly woken up from the movie night that had taken place the previous night. Some were eating breakfast, some were doing homework, and some were just fooling around, but he had seen pretty much everyone.

Everyone except Midoriya.

He wasn't in the common room, or in the bathrooms, or anywhere in the dorms. Shinsou and Todoroki had just checked his room, only to find Reiko and Ryuto sitting on his bed, and the green haired boy was nowhere in sight.

"Midoriya is usually up by now... I shall ask Aizawa-sensei. Perhaps Midoriya went out." Iida mumbled, just as the black haired teacher walked into the 1-A dorms.

"Ah, Aizawa-sensei, do you know -" Iida was cut off as Uraraka bounded up to Aizawa, "Sensei! Do you know where Midoriya is? He isn't in the dorms at all!"

Aizawa sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, "He's fine. He's with Nezu right now, so don't worry too much."

Kaminari heaved a huge sigh of relief, "That's great."

"I don't know when he'll come back to the dorms, or if he'll even come back tonight, but as far as I know... if he does, try not to jump him." Aizawa continued, "I think they're trying to work through a couple of problems. And especially after Kamino..."

Aizawa didn't have to continue. It made sense, to the five students who had gone to save Midoriya; obviously the green haired boy wouldn't have gotten over his kidnapping and subsequent torture at the hands of League so soon.

"Ah... Understood." Iida mutely replied, "Well, have a good day, Aizawa-sensei. I'll keep everyone in check."

"Yeah." Aizawa mutely mumbled, "Also, grocery shopping, I'm supposed to bring a couple of students out to grab... whatever you want. So, five students, who are coming with me?"

* * *

Midoriya wearily opened his eyes, and stared at the low coffee table in front of him. His eyelids were heavy, his limbs felt like lead, and his entire body was aching for absolutely no reason. He didn't feel like moving at all, and just rested his gaze on the reflection of ceiling light that could be seen in the coffee table's glassy surface.

He could hear the sound of papers being shuffled, and he slowly moved his gaze upwards, watching emotionlessly as Nezu neatly stacked some papers together, before stapling them. Nezu's ears perked up, and the principal looked up, noticing that Midoriya had woken up, and his face immediately lit up.

Nezu hopped off his chair, and quickly made his way to Midoriya's side, the green haired boy's eyes watching as Nezu got closer and closer. The principal gently ran his paw through Midoriya's hair, "Morning, Izuku. How are you feeling?"

Midoriya looked away for a quick second, trying to figure out how to answer Nezu's question, when the animal principal continued, "If you don't feel like answering, that's fine."

There was a knock on the door, and Nezu trained his attention on the door. He opened the door, revealing Lunch Rush, who was holding a small bowl of soup. The Cook Hero walked in gently, placing the bowl on the coffee table, as well as a spoon. He shot Midoriya a thumbs up, before he left Nezu's office, and the animal principal asked, "Hungry?"

Midoriya weakly shook his head, and Nezu pushed the bowl away from the edge of the table so that he wouldn't knock it off by accident, "Alright then. But if you feel like eating, you can just grab a bite anytime. You don't have to ask for permission, okay?"

The green haired boy didn't feel like eating at all; as much as Lunch Rush's food was nice, he felt like if he were to eat anything at all, he would just end up throwing everything back up. But he still nodded, just to placate Nezu.

"Also... that reminds me... Reiko and Ryuto are still in your room, and they refuse to leave. Do you want them here with you?" Nezu asked, waiting for a reply, a nod, a shake, anything to signify an answer, but he got nothing from Midoriya; the green haired boy had just frozen up, unmoving.

Nezu looked at the green haired boy worriedly, before grabbing some paperwork off his desk and settling down beside Midoriya, "You don't have to answer if you don't have too. Just... rest up, okay Izuku?"

He didn't get a reply.

* * *

Nezu looked up as Midoriya blankly walked out of his office, worry written all over his furry face.

Midoriya had just remained in Nezu's office for the rest of the day, before retiring to his room. He didn't say a word, he didn't even sign to Nezu that he wanted to go back to his room. He just shot a blank, almost apologetic gaze at Nezu, before walking out of his office, his footsteps so quiet that Nezu wouldn't have heard him, even with his enhanced senses; if Midoriya hadn't subtly notified him that he was taking his leave, Nezu probably wouldn't even have noticed that Midoriya had left.

Since he had woken up, Midoriya hadn't said a single word. He had barely even moved, and Nezu found himself constantly glancing at Midoriya to check if he had gone back to sleep; the green haired boy just lay there, completely motionless, not reacting to anything at all. His eyes were barely open, but his gaze was empty, his emerald eyes now dark.

Nezu honestly wasn't sure what to do. The green haired boy was usually withdrawn, but there was improvement, and Nezu would see that Midoriya was trying to open up. And after his breakdown the previous night, the animal principal had thought that Midoriya would be alright. Tired, maybe a bit emotionally unstable, but alright.

He didn't expect Midoriya to just... shut off.

Nezu glanced down at the bowl of soup that sat on the coffee table, the cling film still covering the top of the bowl, and the spoon sitting on the saucer, completely untouched. He did know that Midoriya had been slowly losing his appetite, having heard the reports from Aizawa, which the Erasure hero had gotten from Iida and Shinsou, but he did know that Midoriya was upset and probably wasn't hungry.

And if Nezu had all those pent up emotions bubbling inside of him, he probably wouldn't want to eat either.

He could only hope that Midoriya would feel better soon.

* * *

"Hey! Midoriya!" Ashido waved from her position on the couch, watching as Sero waved a red controller around. Kaminari had brought his Switch to the dorms, and while they did need Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Awase's help in connecting the switch to the common room television, they had fixed it up in record time. They were currently playing Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu in the Two-Player Co-Op mode.

Sero was still making fun of him due to his resemblance to the Pikachu, just to spite him, Kaminari had named the Pikachu "Denki".

She didn't get a reply, and Sero turned around, holding his controller out to Midoriya, "Welcome back. Want to try?"

"Oi, Sero, help me catch his Tauros!" Kaminari yelped, waving his blue controller around and throwing the pokeball at the bull monster on the screen.

Midoriya didn't even react to their attempts to talk to him. Midoriya just walked past the common room like they weren't there at all, before sluggishly trudging back up to room on the second floor. Ashido turned around, watching as Midoriya disappeared up the stairs, and scratched her head, "That's weird... I know Midoriya doesn't really like talking... but he'd usually acknowledge us with a nod or something."

"True..." Sero mumbled, before glancing at the screen briefly. Kaminari had paused the game to take a drink, before speaking up, "I hope he's okay..."

Shinsou glanced down the hallway worriedly. He was reading his textbook while keeping an eye on the three members of the Bakusquad, with Shirou sitting in his lap, "Maybe he's just tired. He was out the entire day, after all. I'll go check on him."

He placed the book down, and carefully picked Shirou up and placed him on Ashido's lap. The cat gave a small whine in protest, but still curled up on the pinkette's lap, before walking up the stairs. Shinsou walked up to Midoriya's room, his door slightly open.

He knocked gently on the door.

"Midoriya? You doing alright?" Shinsou asked.

No response from Midoriya; he could hear Reiko meowing and Ryuto chirping from inside.

Shinsou blinked in confusion, before he continued, "I'm going to come in, alright?"

Still no response. Shinsou gulped slightly, before pushing open the door slowly. He found Midoriya lying limply on his bed, so still that he would have thought Midoriya was sleeping if not for the fact that his eyes were half open, blinking every now and then.

Shinsou walked over to him, and sat down at the edge of the bed, looking down at Midoriya.

"Hey, you doing okay there?" Shinsou asked, lowering his voice so that he wouldn't startle Midoriya, but the green haired boy didn't react at all. He just lay there, unmoving, staring into space. Reiko gave a sad purr, gently pushing her paw against Midoriya's cheek, but Midoriya didn't react to that either.

_"DINNER IS IN FIVE MINUTES, YOU FUCKS! IF YOUR LATE AND THERE'S NO FOOD FOR YOU, THAT'S YOUR FUCKING FAULT!"_ Bakugou screamed from the kitchen, and Shinsou could barely heard Iida berating him, _"Bakugo! Please, stop swearing! That is not what an __explementary hero-in-training should be doing!"_

Shinsou looked up towards the door, before turning his attention back to Midoriya, "We're going to have dinner soon. You hungry?"

Still no reply. Shinsou sighed slightly, "I'll leave you to rest for now. I'll bring something up for you later. Take care of yourself, okay, Midoriya?"

The small cat purred again, before looking up at Shinsou sadly, letting out a desperate whine. Ryuto warbled, before settling down in front of Midoriya, gently poking his nose with his beak, but Midoriya still didn't move at all, still staring blankly at seemingly nothing with an empty, hollow gaze.

Shinsou gazed at Midoriya helplessly, before he stood up. He made his way to the door, before he glanced at Reiko, "Take care of him, okay? Anything happens, just come out and tell us, alright?"

* * *

Iida yawned and stretched out. He scratched his head, before walking out of his room to check on Midoriya. The green haired boy was off the entire time he was back in the dorms, and it would be an understatement to say that Iida was worried about his friend. Shinsou had left a plate of rice and potatoes outside Midoriya's room the previous, not wanting to bother the tired boy.

Hopefully, Midoriya had eaten it. He needed the energy to get through lessons and hero course training, if he were to consider participating during lessons.

Iida opened the door to his room, and something caught his eye. A plate of rice and potatoes, sitting outside Midoriya's room, completely untouched.

The blue haired boy sighed, and picked up the plate, before proceeding to the kitchen. The food was starting to go bad, and as much as he wanted Midoriya to eat, eating spoilt food would do no one any favours. Iida didn't like wasting food, but he still dumped the rice and potatoes into the trash can, before washing the dirty plate.

Iida went out for his daily jog, before returning to the dorms and popping a slice of bread into the toaster, and sat around, waiting for his breakfast to be ready. Maybe he should ask Lunch Rush or Shuzenji what kinds of food wouldn't spoil so easily, but still be appropriate for Midoriya to eat.

He had quickly finished up his breakfast, before going to wake everyone else up at seven. He was still met with disgruntled groans and complaints, but everyone was up and ready to leave for class at eight, though some were still chatting as they ate their breakfast.

"Kaminari, that's my cornflakes!" Ashido groaned, and Sato reached into the high cupboard and pulled out another box of cornflakes, and held it out to her, "Here. We got an extra box."

Ashido squealed in glee, and Kirishima looked at the students, doing a mental headcount, before asking, "Where's Midoriya? He's usually up at this time."

"Still in bed. I just checked on him." Shinosu replied, "I don't know... maybe he's sick."

Just as he said that, there was the sound of footsteps, and everyone quietened down, watching as a mop of messy green hair entered the common room. Midoriya was pale, gazing forward blankly as he moved towards the chair in the corner of the room, before sitting down. His hair was a lot messier than usual, and his eye bags stood out prominently against his paler than usual complexion. His uniform was ruffled and crumpled, his tie was haphazardly tied loosely around his neck, and he just sat there, as still as a corpse.

"Morning, Mido! Feeling better?" Ashido called out, "Want some cereal? Corn flakes taste awesome!"

Midoriya just stared into space blankly, barely even twitching at Ashido's voice.

Bakugou stomped over to him, and shoved his hand in Midoriya's face, "Hey! Respond, dammit!" His hands were sparking in Bakugou's frustration, but despite the threat of an explosion literally looming over him, Midoriya didn't react. He didn't even jump at Bakugou's sudden movement. His eyes were dim, staring into the void, almost like he didn't even notice that Bakugou was standing over him.

"Bakugou! Don't treat Midoriya like that!" Iida protested, as Kirishima stood up and pulled the frustrated blonde away from the greenette. Iida gazed at Midoriya worriedly, as Ryuto perched on Midoriya's shoulder, pecking at his earlobe, as Reiko whined while she pawed at the boy's foot, trying to get some sort of response from Midoriya.

* * *

Over the week, Midoriya had progressively gotten worse. Midoriya just sat in lessons, staring at the board blankly, and the teachers weren't even sure that he was listening in class. All of them had heard about Midoriya's breakdown that night in Gym Zeta, though they didn't really know the details of it, but they weren't too sure how to treat Midoriya; his empty, doll-like gaze was unsettling, to say the least.

As the days went by, he looked like a ghost; he was awfully pale, and looked like he hadn't eaten in days. Which was entirely accurate; Midoriya didn't even leave with the others to go to the cafeteria. He just sat in his seat, unmoving, staring forward unnervingly, not reacting as his classmates asked time and time again to eat.

He didn't even jump anymore. Midoriya had always been a fidgety kid, looking at his classmates like they were going to hurt him, looking for any chance to escape if he had to. While it wasn't noticeable to the rest of the students, Snipe had noticed the wariness and unease Midoriya seemed to emanate. Midoriya had gotten less fidgety since he was transferred to 1-A, but he was still jumpy whenever anyone got too close to him, or a student was too loud in lessons. He had gotten even more jumpy than usual after the Kamino Incident, but after what he had gone through, that was understandable.

But nothing seemed to scare him anymore. Not the time when Todoroki sneezed, and fire and ice flared out from their respective sides. Not the time when Yaoyorozu accidentally forgot to mute her phone, and it rang in the middle of classes, blaring some pop song out loudly. Not even the time when a mosquito had flown into the classroom and sent Yamada and Koda into a frenzy until Asui ate it.

Midoriya did do his homework and essays, but his writing lacked the usual punch and passive-aggressiveness behind it, almost like it was a robot writing his work.

When Aizawa or Yagi told the students to assemble in Gym Gamma, Midoriya did change into his hero costume, but didn't participate in training sessions at all. He just sat at the sidelines, staring into space. He didn't even move as Shoji accidentally broke off a block of cement and sent it careening in Midoriya's direction. Aizawa had lashed the block of cement away in time, and Shoji had gone to apologize to Midoriya, but he didn't get a response from the green haired boy.

Midoriya was just not fully there, shut off from reality. He was there physically, but wasn't present mentally. He just seemed lost, dazed, his mind somewhere else. His eyes no longer shone with the determination to improve, with the frustration of being injured, with the suspicion of his classmates trying to get closer to him.

He was just... gone.

He didn't eat, despite Iida, Shinsou, and even Nezu's best efforts to try and get him to eat something, anything. He didn't sleep, if his pale complexion and eye bags were any indication, and didn't react to anything at all. Midoriya just went to lessons, and holed himself up in his room in the dorms after lessons. They weren't even sure that Midoriya was drinking any water.

Shinsou wasn't even sure how Midoriya was even functioning on pretty much nothing. He, Koda and Todoroki also had to take care of Reiko and Ryuto for Midoriya, since the boy was just unreactive. Reiko was pretty intolerant of Shirou, and always placed herself between the other cat and the hawk, but lately, she just curled up in a corner with Ryuto, and just sat there until someone called them. They were easy to take care of, but it was just upsetting to see them so dejected.

They could only hope it wasn't too late to save Midoriya from himself.


	63. Chapter 63 - I have half a life, rewrite

Nezu sank into his chair. He was going to call for a meeting with the rest of the pro heroes, but Tsukauchi apparently had something to talk about, and had already called up a meeting. They were discussing the Kamino Incident, and the after effects of the attack, but it didn't seem to take them too long to settle the problem at hand.

Tsukauchi sighed, and spoke up, "Nezu? I know you wanted to say something about Midoriya?"

Nezu frowned, and looked at the heroes gathered in the room, "Have... any of you talked to Izuku? During the rescue, while he was in the hospital, whenever?"

Tatsuma frowned, "As far as I know... not really."

Nezu looked at them, "Did you even say anything that might give him the impression that... you didn't want to save him?"

"What do you mean by that?" Nishiya asked, confused, "Why wouldn't we want to save him?"

"I mean... we did talk more amongst ourselves than with the pup." Sakamata mumbled, "Maybe he got the wrong impression or something. Did something happen?"

Nezu sighed, "No. It's nothing."

Tsukauchi glanced at Nezu worriedly, before he dismissed the rest of the heroes. His quirk had quickly detected Nezu's statement as a lie, and it was clearly bothering Nezu, whatever had happened.

He wasn't going to ask about it. Nezu probably also wanted to respect Midoriya's boundaries and not tell other people something that's private. Maybe after it got better, Nezu would spill. But for now, he wasn't going to pry on what was obviously a sensitive and private matter.

* * *

Nezu slumped into his chair.

Midoriya was still doing his work, as per usual, and there weren't any major things that he had to keep track of. He just had to deal with the paperwork from the Hero Commission that just seemed to keep on piling up despite his best efforts to finish them as fast as possible.

The phone on Nezu's table rang, and Nezu frowned, before picking it up.

"Hello? Who is this?"

_"Excuse me... this is UA, right?"_ A voice on the other end in broken Japanese replied, _"My name is Basilisk, uh... I'm a pro hero in Italy. __Venice, to be exact.__"_

Nezu blinked in confusion, before he switched to Venetian, "Hello? Is this better for you?"

_"No, no... Japanese is fine. I am Japanese, __I'm just really rusty.. haven't spoken it much lately.. uh... quick question, Midoriya Izuku... I believe that's his name... he attends your school right? Green fluffy hair, freckles... was involved in that Kamino incident -"_

"Yes, what is your business with Midoriya Izuku?" Nezu bit back a growl, as he pressed the phone closer to his ear suspiciously. The man's pronunciation was odd, but he did pronounce "Midoriya" correctly.

_What on earth did this pro hero want with his pup? And from Venice?_

_"I would like to talk to the boy. With __permission, of course. __I __know things are a bit difficult over there with the recent Kamino Incident and the fall of your Symbol of Peace."_

Nezu sighed, "What do you want to talk to him about? Sorry I'm being a bit pushy, but I need to know you aren't going to endanger him in any way."

_"Understood. I worked with Midoriya Hisashi, his father, and due to... reasons... Midoriya Izuku never saw much of his father. __I... I think he deserves an apology. __I'll be free next week, I think, if nothing pops up, so hopefully I could arrange a time to talk to Izuku.__ Al__so... his father left a gift for him. I would like to personally give it to the child.__"_

Nezu bit his lip. He knew that it was selfish of him to not want this hero to meet Midoriya, given the state his poor kid was in, and all the security issues that Japan, and especially UA, were facing, but Midoriya did deserve to know more about his father.

Nezu had found out through newspaper archives that Midoriya had lost his parents when he was seven, and was never really given the chance to think and process what had happened before he had been haphazardly tossed into the foster system and promptly dumped into an abusive family. The poor kid had lost his parents in a fire, had been bullied by everyone, from his foster siblings and mother, to his classmates in elementary and middle school, and even his teachers, to the point where he had attempted suicide several times. And the only reason he wasn't dead was because he had manifested a quirk that messed with his head and prevented him from dying, a quirk that he somehow got from his parents.

Midoriya Hisashi had a pretty powerful fire breathing quirk, and had gone to Shiketsu, so it did make sense that he would be a pro hero. His records did also say that he was working in Venice, so that checked out with this... _Basilisk's _story as well. Hisashi didn't have a good family, in fact, he had a less than satisfactory home life. It took a _bit_ more digging to that usual, but unlike most others, whose quirks usually manifested before the age of four, his quirk had manifested when he was seven. There was something about him having a minor throat infection in the records, but really, other than the fact that the location of his quirk factor was the same as the location of the infection, there didn't really seem to be any correlation between the two events at all. It could just be a coincidence.

Midoriya Inko, on the other hand, was a nurse, having gone to medical school. She had what was considered a "weak" telekinesis quirk, but there were some older rumours that she had held up a burning building with her quirk, buying enough time for the firefighters and heroes to evacuate the building, before a hero with a fire-based quirk saved her. Much like Hisashi, her quirk also manifested late, at the age of nine, though there weren't any details about it that he could find.

Midoriya deserved to know more about his father, _deserved_ some closure from his past; Nezu couldn't take that away from him.

"I... Alright. I'll allow it. When are you planning on coming?"

* * *

Aizawa glanced worriedly at the boy who was sitting at the sidelines, staring at the ground, barely moving. Midoriya did react, like if Ectoplasm asked him to answer a question in a desperate attempt to involve Midoriya in lessons, but unless it was necessary, he just seemed to be completely shut off, an empty, hollow shell, a ghost of his former self. He didn't talk, didn't eat, didn't sleep, no one was sure if he even drank water. Aizawa could tell that it was starting to affect the other students. Hagakure, Ashido and Kaminari were quieter than usual, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu and Sato were eating less, heck, even Dark Shadow seemed reluctant to fight anyone.

It wasn't just the 1-A students who were affected; 1-B seemed equally upset at Midoriya's deteriorating condition. They weren't in the same class, but they did hang out together. Tetsutetsu, Awase and Tokage sometimes hung out with the Bakusquad, while Kodai, Shishida and Kaibara usually had study sessions with Iida and Todoroki, while Shinsou and Monoma sometimes joined in.

Aizawa glanced at the clock on the wall, before he turned his attention back to the students. Nezu had mentioned that someone wanted to talk to Midoriya, but Aizawa didn't think it was a good idea. Midoriya was already wary and untrusting of strangers, and in his current condition, he wasn't even reacting to anything. But Nezu knew Midoriya the best, and if he thought it was good for the boy, then Aizawa would allow it.

Plus, if this supposed pro hero did anything to hurt Midoriya, Aizawa would have his head.

Not to mention that Ishiyama and Yagi were also in the room. No one was going to hurt Midoriya any more than he was already hurt.

Aizawa heard the sound of the door being opened, and he, along with Ishiyama and Yagi, turned around to see what it was. There was a man with gleaming green and blue hair, piercing amber eyes, and sharp claws. He was wearing a casual shirt and jeans, and had a long, blue and green tail flicking around behind him. He had a bag in his hand, and Nezu trailed into Gym Gamma behind him.

Shinsou and Uraraka had been sparing against each other, and was taking a water break, and they also stopped to stare at the stranger.

"This is Basilisk?" Aizawa asked, and the stranger nodded, raising the bag, and replied, "Yes, that would be me. Can I... give this to Midoriya?"

Aizawa kept a suspicious eye on Basilisk, as the man walked towards Midoriya, who was still sitting by the side, his empty, hollow gaze glued to the ground, not even reacting as Basilisk got closer to him.

Basilisk stopped in front of Midoriya, waiting for a reaction from the green haired boy, but Midoriya didn't move at all.

"Hey, Midoriya?"

No reaction.

Basilisk cocked his head in confusion, before he asking again, "Uh, Midoriya? Hello?"

Still no reaction. Basilisk frowned, and pinched his nose, "Gods, calling you _Midoriya_ is awkward, no offence."

Basilisk stood there, thinking for a few seconds, before reaching into his bag, and Aizawa was pretty sure he wasn't the only one watching the supposed pro hero's actions warily. Shinsou and Uraraka were definately wary of this new person, but Aizawa was sure that there were more than six pairs of eyes glued on the man.

The pro hero pulled out a box wrapped in light blue paper, with what looked like to be a small card on it, and crouched down slowly, before holding the box out to Midoriya, right in his line of sight, "Come on, kid. If you're not going to say anything... at least... take this?"

Much to Aizawa's surprise, Midoriya's eyes suddenly widened, and he blinked, leaning away from Basilisk slightly, almost like he was taken aback. He looked at Basilisk, before glancing at the gift, before blinking and looking at Basilisk again.

"I'm sorry."

Midoriya blinked in what looked like mute confusion. Aizawa was sure that the only people who weren't surprised were Nezu and Basilisk himself; of course Nezu would want to know what Basilisk's intentions were before even allowing him to step through UA's gates.

"I worked with your father. He originally wanted to return when you were three, and visit every month or so, but we had put him on a stealth mission that took... longer than we expected. Your father was supposed to infiltrade this... crime syndicate, or Yakuza, I think that's the term in japanese, and we all thought it would only take a month or two at maximum. Turns out, the group was bigger than we though, and their inflence spanned across several countries and cities. Your father was already a mamber of the group; pulling him out of there would be a death sentence. We had no choice, and he spent almost two and a half years with the Yakuza, and I think he only retured home a month or two before your sixth birthday."

Basilisk carefully placed the gift on Midoriya's lap, and promptly retracted his hand.

"I'm sorry. Because of us... you only got slightly more than a year to see your father... given what had happened after."

Midoriya's entire body started trembling slightly, unnoticeable to the untrained eye, but given that Midoriya had literally been as still as a statue for the past few days, the movement was obvious.

"You know, your father never really told us your name. He said it was too dangerous for you, in case it got out that he had a quirkless kid. He didn't want any villains going over to Japan to kidnap you or something, Midoriya. That's still weird, calling you that; up to this point, I've only called your father Midoriya." Basilisk scratched the back of his head, "He's only showed us pictures, of you and your mother. He loved you, and he was always praising you in some way during our breaks. Your father ordered this specially for you; custom made, he designed the entire thing, said you liked puzzles, even though we told him it was _probably_ too complicated. There were some problems during the delivery; there was this storm and the delivery was late, but the company said that they couldn't deliver it to your house, so they sent it to us cause the company address was the back-up address. We would have given this to you sooner but, uh... while Midoriya is not a common last name... it's not that uncommon. We also didn't know if you would have changed your name, or something like that, assuming you went into the foster system, so the name on the card wasn't very helpful either. We also didn't really have a way to find out who you were through your quirk because... well... that's kind of classified information and we had no way to access it all the way in Venice."

Midoriya's hands shook more violently, and Basilisk continued, "We just kept a hold of this, hoping we'd find a chance to give it to you. It was the least we could do for your father... given that it was our fault that you never saw much of him... We only found you through the news of the Kamino Incident. Green fluffy hair and freckles just like your father, uh, not the green, the fluffy part. Quirkless, uh, though that wasn't very helpful, since you might also have developed your quirk late like your father. Same surname, also in the right age range; we figured we got the right kid. Then one of our colleagues found your Sports Festival Fights, and I remember your father being so proud over the phone that you were learning how to fight while blinded and... that just sealed it. We found you."

Midoriya continued to look at Basilisk, not so wary, but more like in disbelief. The hero looked around, "I think I'm making him uncomfortable... I should... go now, I guess?"

Basilisk stood up, and made his way to Aizawa, Midoriya watching his every movement. He turned around, "Just... I'm sorry... for everything that happened."

Yagi walked over to Nezu, whispering, "I'll bring him to the gate. You make sure that Midoriya's okay."

Nezu mutely nodded. Yagi's attempt at whispering failed completely; while Nezu did appreciate the intent, he was sure that whispering did not entail everyone nearby being able to hear what was being said.

The animal principal walked over to Midoriya as Yagi led Basilisk out, and settled down beside the green haired boy, watching as Midoriya's gaze trailed from Basilisk back down to the neatly wrapped present in his hands in disbelief, his entire body shaking as he stared at the card on the gift.

Aizawa turned his attention back to the students, only to find that all of them had stopped practising, and were looking at Midoriya from the top of the cement structure that Ishiyama had manipulated for them.

"What are you looking at?" Aizawa growled, his voice lacking the usual bite behind it, "Get back to practicing!"

* * *

Ashido let out a peel of laughter as she watched Bakugou swearing as he waved his arms, before haphazardly scribbling down an answer on her physics homework. Kaminari had challenged him to some boxing on Wii Sports, and Bakugou couldn't deny the challenge. It resulted in Bakugou winning five games straight; he did almost lose the first game, but that was only because he had never used a Wii controller before.

"Kaminari, stop playing, help me with this!" Ashido whined, "It's not fair that you're so good at physics!"

"Well, you're good in chemistry." Kaminari replied, turning away from the screen, "Help me with chem and I'll help you with physics?"

"Deal." Ashido nodded, and Bakugou roared, "I'm the best, you can't beat me at this game, Pikachu!"

"My turn!" Sero laughed, and Bakugou gleefully smirked, "I'll fucking kill you, Office Supplies!"

"Just try me." Sero taunted, and Bakugou roared as he started another match, Kaminari giving his controllers to Sero before plonking himself down on the couch next to Ashido.

Shinsou stretched, and stood up, going into the kitchen to grab himself a glass of water. He had just finished the homework that Ectoplasm had given them, and he was slightly sore from his spars with Uraraka. Shinsou finished his water, and placed his cup on the sink, before walking over to the couch.

Ever since they had gotten back to the dorms, Midoriya had been sitting on the couch, still staring at the wrapped box that Basilisk had given him, the look of disbelief still etched on his face. Reiko and Ryuto were sitting beside the boy, but Nezu had been called off for another meeting, and Shinsou was very sure that the animal principal wanted to spend more time with Midoriya.

"Hey... can I... sit here?" Shinsou softly asked, not wanting to startle Midoriya. He didn't get a verbal response from the green haired boy, but Midoriya did shift slightly to the side, giving Shinsou enough space to wedge himself between Midoriya and Ashido.

Shinsou snuck a peek at the card stuck on the present, and he blinked.

_"Happy 7th Birthday, Izuku!"_

* * *

Midoriya couldn't believe it. He didn't own anything from his parents; everything from them that he owned had gone up in flames when he was seven.

He hadn't seen it in so, so long, but he could recognise his father's handwriting anywhere; the curly way he wrote his "y"s, the way his "h" slanted, the messy "u"s. He never thought he'd actually see it again, and he wasn't too sure whether this was real or not.

His favourite colour was light blue, and the box was wrapped in a very nice shade of light blue wrapping paper. The dimensions of the box also seemed about right, he remembered his father lamenting that morning that the delivery was late, his hands waving about, trying to show the seven year old Midoriya how big his gift was.

_He still didn't believe that this was real, that he had something from his parents, sitting right in front of him. _

He recognised Basilisk from a picture that his father had shown him. He was a colleague of his father's, and he had the ability to turn into a gigantic snake. He wasn't too sure whether was dreaming the whole thing up, whether his brain was showing him something that he wanted to see. The memory of what his parents looked like were starting to fade from his memory, and Midoriya _hated_ that; he remembered everything, everything his classmates had told him, every single suicide attempt, the Nomu trying to kill him, his torture at the hands of the League, but he could barely remember what his parents looked like.

"Are you going to open it?"

Midoriya was immediately startled out of his thoughts, and glanced at Shinsou, before looking back at the present.

_Shinsou can see it. Someone else other than me can see it. __This was very much real._

Midoriya gulped slightly, and carefully tried to peel away the tape that was keeping the wrapping paper around the box, trying to do his best not the rip the paper at all; this was something from his parents, he wanted to treasure every single thing from them. It took him a while, the tape was sticky from being so old, and his hands were shaking quite a bit, but he finally managed to peel off the tape.

He carefully unwrapped the box, only to find a pretty wooden box inside, painted in pretty shades of light blue and green, and a shiny layer of lacquer on top as a finishing touch. There weren't any hinges, and there were small holes on the sides of the box. He didn't notice that Ashido and Kaminari had stopped doing homework, and was not-so-subtly looking at him.

A picture slid out of the wrapping paper, fluttering to the ground, and it immediately caught Midoriya's attention. He saw a small green haired boy sitting on top of a light blue haired man's shoulders, with a woman with long, green hair standing beside them. They were all smiling, and Midoriya distinctively remembered that they had taken this picture at the park near their home, a month after his father had returned home.

He gently clutched at the picture, his eyes glued onto every single detail, burning it into his memory. He finally had something, a visual of his parents, something he'd never thought he'd see again. He didn't want to forget any detail about them.

Midoriya carefully placed the photo on the table, and turned his attention back to the box. He ran his fingers along the shiny, smooth surface of the box, finding small ridges between what seemed to be two seperate pieces of wood. Iida and Todoroki had made their way behind the couch, looking at the box, but Midoriya paid them no mind, and moved his hand to the bottom of the box, finding a loose piece of wood and pulling it out.

It was a puzzle box. When he was a kid, he used to love puzzles. He liked solving puzzles with his parents.

Midoriya's hand trailed to the side of the box, finding another loose piece and pushing it inwards, and an opening on the top of the box popped open. Midoriya tilted the box slightly, and a small, cylindrical piece of wood slid out. He grabbed the small piece of wood, and inserted it into the circular hole on the side of the box, which pushed out another compartment near the corner.

Midoriya repeated the process; using the previous step to, quite literally, unlock the next step. Shinsou wasn't too sure how long he had been watching Midoriya fiddle with the puzzle box, very much intrigued by the intricate craftsmanship that went into the making of the box.

It took quite some time, and in that time, Bakugou and Sero had stopped playing Wii, and almost all of 1-A was crowding around in the common room. There were also several 1-B students; apparently, Bondo and Kamakiri accidentally blew up the stove in the 1-B dorms, and they were currently going to be joining 1-A for meals until they got the stove fixed. Shishida, Kaibara, and Kendo were currently with Sato and Tokoyami in the 1-A kitchen.

Midoriya slid another piece into place, before a much larger compartment at the back of the box opened. Midoriya leaned over carefully, not wanting to dislodge anything by accident, and his eyes widened. Shinsou leaned over, curious and worried as to what would elicit such a reaction from Midoriya, only for Midoriya to reach out into the compartment, gingerly pulling out a small, oddly shaped chatoyant brown rock with pretty yellow-golden bands, hanging on a silver chain.

Upon closer inspection, Shinsou realised that it wasn't just an oddly shaped rock, but it was actually a dragon, its wings slightly unfurled, its tail wrapped around its body. It was intricately carved, and as Shinsou moved his head, he could see specks of yellow and gold, the colours reflection off the inclusions in the stone that made up the dragon like wisps of fire.

Midoriya stared at the dragon, cradelling it gently.

He remembered this dragon.

_He remembered his father, holed up in his room, working on something that he said was a secret. He didn't heed his father's warnings, and had entered the room in the middle of the night, only to see white hot fire._

_Midoriya let out a small yelp, and the fire immediately disappeared, and Hisashi turned around, spotting the small boy._

_"Izuku..." Hisashi sighed, and carefully placed whatever he was holding into a bucket, before walking over to Midoriya, picking him up._

_"I'm sorry... you said I shouldn't come here..." Midoriya mumbled, and Hisashi let out a small chuckle, "I don't blame you, Izuku; I knew you'd visit sometime. You're too curious sometimes. This was supposed to be a secret, but now that you're here, you can't tell anyone, okay?"_

_Midoriya vigorously nodded his head, "Mhm!"_

_Hisashi grinned, and settled down at his table. He placed Midoriya on his lap, and reached into the bucket, pulling something out and drying it with a towel. Midoriya noticed that the bucket had water in it._

_"What are you making?" Midoriya asked, and Hisashi smiled, bringing the object closer to Midoriya. It was a beautiful dragon head, partially carved into the rock, and it gleamed in the light._

_"Took me a couple of tries to figure out how to not break the stones." Hisashi sheepishly laughed at Midoriya's awe, "But I've gotten the hang of it."_

_It was only then that Midoriya noticed that there were many broken, cracked, or melted rocks littering Hisashi's desk, and in the dustbin. Hisashi reached out, and picked out a smaller rock, before giving it to Midoriya, letting the child see just what kind of material he was working with._

_"Hisashi? Have you seen Izuku? I heard a noise and he wasn't in his room and -" Inko's voice rang out, as she pushed open the door. Her eyes lay on Midoriya, and she heaved a huge sigh of relief, "Izuku!"_

_She rushed over, picking Midoriya up and hugging him, before smiling, "He's seen it?"_

_Midoriya nodded excitedly, pointing at the rock on Hisashi's desk, "Papa's making a pretty dragon!"_

_Inko glanced at Hisashi's slightly burnt hands, and sighed, "I told you not to do this while I wasn't around. You may breathe fire, but you're not fireproof."_

_"I'm fine, really. They're just minor burns." Hisashi protested, as Inko carefully put Midoriya down and cradled Hisashi's hands gently._

_"No more carving for tonight." Inko berated, "I'm putting ointment on those burns and wrapping them in bandages. I don't care that you're the mighty pro hero Dragon; I'm treating that, and you can't stop me."_

_Midoriya gave a small giggle as Hisashi comically pouted, letting out a reluctant, "Yes, ma'am."_

_"Good." Inko nodded, and led them out to the living room, "Now be a good little lizard and sit there."_

_Hisashi immediately obeyed, as Inko rummaged through the cupboards for the first aid kit. She pulled it out, as Midoriya hopped onto the sofa, next to his father. She gently rubbed the ointment on Hisashi's palms, all the while berating her husband for making bad decisions and being so impatient. Midoriya had gotten bored, and admired the rock that his father had given him._

_"It's really pretty. I like it. What kind of rock is this?" Midoriya asked, and Hisashi laughed, "I thought you'd like it. It's actually a __metamorphic rock in the quartz group. It's more commonly known as the Tiger's Eye, but there are people out there who call it the Dragon's Eye. It's said that it can dispel fear and anxiety, and is considered the stone of survival, __vitality and self worth, especially during difficult life transitions.__"_

_Midoriya didn't really understand all the big words that his father was talking about, but he accepted it anyways. Vitality sounded cool._

_"Are you making the dragon for someone?" Midoriya asked, and Hisashi nodded, "Yep. Someone close to both your mother and I. Someone we both care about. You know him too."_

_"I do?" Midoriya asked, and Inko nodded, "The person we're giving this to... he's facing some hardships, and will face more in the future. We just want to remind him that no matter what happens, he should never give up on himself, and that there would always be someone who cares about him. Falling down is a normal part of life; learning from our mistakes, and standing back up and trying again shows that you're strong. As long as__ you don't give up on something you truly believe in, you will find a way to succeed.__"_

_In the days to come, Midoriya sat in Hisashi's office, watching in awe as his father used his fire to soften the rock, using his tools to carefully cut and shape the stone, before Inko used her quirk to put the rock in water, letting it cool. And he watched as the dragon emerged from the stone._

Midoriya hadn't really understood all the words his parents had told him, and he just stared at the dragon, lost in thought.

They wanted him to live. Push past all the difficulties and finally, live his life.

_People will always hate you, Deku! _The voice in his head spat, _You'll never be loved, never be cared about you. Don't be stupid, did you really think that -_

Midoriya just did his best to ignore the nonsense his head was spouting.

Sato yelled, "Hey, dinner's ready."

"Hey, Midoriya, we're having dinner. Are you going to come join?" Shinsou asked. He wasn't really expecting a reply; he still wasn't too sure how Midoriya was feeling.

To his surprise, Midoriya tightened his grip on the small dragon pendant, turning to look Shinsou in the eye, and a quiet, barely audible whisper escaped his mouth.

"Okay."


	64. Chapter 64 - Left inside a half-life

Yagi scratched his head as he made his way back to the staff room, holding onto a bag and staring at a piece of paper, trying to make heads or tails out of whatever was written on it. He pushed open the door, and peered around.

"Uh... is Nezu here?" Yagi asked, and Kayama looked up from her grading, "He was here a minute ago; he left for another impromptu meeting. You just missed him. Did you need him for something?"

"No, no..." Yagi shook his head, "I just... Basilisk gave me a few more things to give to Midoriya before he left, and I figured it would be better if Nezu did it instead of me."

He reached into the bag he was carrying, and pulled out something that looked like a metal arm bracer. "Basilisk said it was a prototype of... something? Midoriya's father apparently designed it for him while he was working there, and some of the workers had just decided to finish it up, I think that's what he told me."

Yagi placed the bracer back in the bag, and pulled out another piece of paper, "The blueprints to the bracers, I think, though I don't really understand all the scribbles on it. I guess I should give it to Power Loader?"

"Hmm." Kayama frowned, "We'll let Nezu take a look at it first."

Yagi fished another small booklet out of his pocket, "Also, Basilisk said that this was the... guide, or instruction sheet, for that gift that he gave to Midoriya... looks like a puzzle, or something? Has a lot of steps though. Like... at least forty."

"Forty?" Kayama raised her eyebrows, taking the booklet from Yagi, "Wow... that's... really complicated. I heard from Shouta that it was supposed to be for his seventh birthday... but honestly, I can't even imagine myself solving this puzzle box. Even with the instructions."

She placed the booklet in the bag, before taking the bag from the former Number One hero, "I'll put this in Nezu's office. Once he gets back, he'll know what to do with it. I'm sure that Midoriya would like the bracers, and it fits with his fighting style, but it still has to go through checks before he can use them as support items."

* * *

Midoriya just glanced around the table, as Shoji helped Sato bring all the food out onto the table; he had already fixed up his puzzle box and put it in his room. Some students were sitting on the couches, and Kendo and Monoma had brought a couple of chairs over from their dorms so that there were enough places for everyone. Iida had switched on the news, and was watching it along with Shishida, Kaibara, and Kamakiri.

There was a huge variety of dishes, and while Midoriya wasn't very hungry, he figured that he should eat something, at the very least; he wasn't even sure when was the last time he had eaten anything. But he wasn't too sure what he was allowed to eat, and what he wasn't allowed to even touch. All he had currently was a few spoonfuls of rice; he didn't want to take too much and end up wasting food. When he was younger, his former foster mother never made any verbal complaints whenever he grabbed vegetables or meat, but he did remember meeting her disapproving gaze, and had slowly learned through trial and error about what kinds of food to avoid touching. He eventually just settled with instant noodles because it was just easier for everyone, and less stressful.

Midoriya tightened his grip on the small dragon pendant nervously. He hadn't eaten with his peers in the dorms before; he'd usually just grab some hot water for the instant noodles stocked up in his room, and that was all he ate. He wasn't too sure how his classmates would react if he grabbed anything he wasn't supposed to. He didn't want anyone getting mad at him.

Reiko purred, nuzzling his arm from her position on his lap as Ryuto chirped, nibbling on a piece of meat. Shirou usually sat on Shinsou's lap as he ate, but the larger cat was currently on the ground, resting by Shinsou's feet, seemingly wanting to put as much distance between himself and the smaller Reiko.

Shinsou seemed to sense his reluctance, and glanced at the green haired boy, "Midoriya, you can grab anything you want to eat, you know?"

Midoriya hesitantly glanced at the taller boy, before going back to gaze at the dishes on the table, before slowly reaching out with his chopsticks to grab a vegetable.

The rest of the students did their best to not put too much attention on Midoriya; they were all glad that he seemed to be doing better, and didn't want to risk doing anything that would make him close up again.

Midoriya slowly chewed up the vegetable, before taking a small mouthful of rice. He quickly finished up the rest of his rice, feeling slightly sick from eating, and he wrapped his arm around Reiko, standing up. He picked up his bowl, and Shinsou, Iida and Uraraka looked up at him.

"You're done?" Uraraka asked.

Midoriya nodded, and Ryuto purred, before hopping onto Midoriya's arm.

"Alright. Going back to your room?" Iida asked, and Midoriya nodded again, quickly cleaning his bowl and placing it on the drying rack as Ryuto tried his best to balance himself on Midoriya's arm while being careful not to dig his talons into Midoriya's arm.

Kamakiri watched him as he disappeared into the kitchen, and asked, "He didn't eat that much. Is he alright?"

"It's an improvement." Yaoyorozu nodded, "I don't think he ate anything last week."

Midoriya dried his hands, and picked Reiko up. He walked towards the staircase, before pausing. He turned around, facing his classmates, who were stuffing themselves with food.

"Sorry. For making you worry."

Before anyone could react, Midoriya had already hurriedly escaped down the hallway and up the staircase, back to his room.

Everyone just looked at the hallway, stunned, before Kendo asked, "He...spoke?"

"Yeah." Shinsou spoke up, "I guess he's comfortable enough with all of us."

* * *

Nezu took the elevator up to the roof of the dorms, and walked out onto the open. He took a breath of fresh air, and spotted a figure sitting by the edge, behind the railing.

"Hello, Izuku." Nezu greeted, walking over to sit next to him. Reiko and Ryuto were sitting on Midoriya's, sleeping. Midoriya glanced at him, and nodded in acknowledgment, before turning his gaze back to the sky, "A lot on your mind?"

Midoriya didn't reply for a long time, before he looked up, "I'm sorry."

Nezu's ears perked up, and he frowned, turned to look at Midoriya in confusion, "You're sorry? Sorry for what? You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I was selfish." Midoriya continued, averting his gaze away from Nezu, "I... I only thought of myself. I wanted to run away, to escape from... everything... but all I did was just make everyone worried about me. I didn't think about how everyone else would react... I saw everyone's expressions at the dinner table... they were all just... so... _relieved_ that... that I was sitting with them."

Nezu shuffled closer to Midoriya, right until he was pressed against Midoriya's side. He patted his arm, "Like I said... you have nothing to be sorry for. After everything that happened... wanting to run away from it all... it's natural. You've been through so much, so many stressful events happening right after another...you need a break, Izuku. You're not infallible, no one is. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You're pushing yourself too hard, you think you need to do more than you're already doing. But you've already done more than enough."

Midoriya tightened his grip, and Nezu noticed that he had something in his hand.

"What's that?" Nezu asked curiously, and Midoriya hesitantly opened his hand, revealing the small dragon pendant in his hand, gleaming in the darkness.

"I... I saw my parents make it." Midoriya spoke up, his voice wavering slightly, "They told me... that they were making it for something facing some hardships, and that person would face more in the future. At the time, I thought they were talking about a relative... or a friend... or just... someone. I didn't think it was for me."

He faltered, before continuing, "It's like they knew how much people would hate me... and wanted to make sure I knew that they were always there for me, even after they... passed. Even though I'm quirkless."

Nezu wrapped his arms around Midoriya as best as he could, before he spoke up, "There will always be people who care about you, Izuku. I care about you, your teachers care about you, your classmates too."

_Lies. Just lies! _The voice at the back of his head whispered, _Like real! They're just waiting for you to put your guard down! They'll just throw you away, just like everyone else! _

_"_We're not going to throw you away like everyone else in your old schools." Nezu finished, "We just want to help you, to help you grow, and reach your full potential. We all want you to live your life to the fullest, with no regrets. Do you understand?"

_"Izuku!" Inko rushed towards her son, eyeing the bruise on his cheek, "What happened?"_

_"Someone was getting bullied... and I tried to stop them." Midoriya looked at the ground, "It doesn't hurt - Ow!"_

_Inko had pressed her hand lightly against the bruise, only for the four-year-old to protest and flinch away._

_"Oh, Izuku." Inko sighed, picking him up and setting him down on the couch. "Be more careful next time. If you see them punch you, try to move away."_

_"You're not mad? Don't you think I shouldn't have... interfered..." Midoriya looked up, and Inko shook her head, a small smile on her face, "You just want to help. It's in your nature. If you didn't step in, I think you'd regret it. But heroes have to prevent themselves from getting hurt too. You can't save anyone if you keep ending up in the hospital, after all. And what if you get an injury that can't be treated? We can't control everything that happens, but it's the best to live with no regrets, don't you think?"_

Midoriya clenched his fists, and resolutely nodded.

* * *

"So... how do you even activate it?" Monoma mumbled, and Shinsou scratched his neck, "I don't know... it's like... flipping a switch, I guess?"

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Kaminari asked, grabbing a bag of potato chips from the kitchen and munched on them noisily.

"Oh, Monoma just copied my quirk and is trying to use it." Shinsou shrugged, as Kaminari took another bite out of his chips. Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose, and sighed; Monoma and Shinsou had brought up that idea, and Aizawa didn't think that it would be dangerous to do the quirk testing in the dorms since Shinsou's Brainwashing quirk wasn't destructive.

Monoma let out a quiet growl; the sounds of Kaminari's munching was too noisy and distracting. He turned to Kaminari and snapped, "Can you just... _please _not eat here and go away!? I can't think!"

Kaminari's eyes suddenly glazed over, and he turned around, walking towards the couch.

"Huh... I didn't think that he'd actually listen..." Shinsou mumbled, as Monoma mumbled, confused, "Do you normally get a headache?"

"No? Why?"

Shinsou barely finished his statement as Aizawa's eyes flared red, fixated on Monoma, and the blonde felt the mild headache fade away.

But it was too late. Kaminari had already walked into the television by the couch, and released all his electricity in his panic after snapping out of the brainwashing.

Electricity surged through the outlet, and the entire dorms fell into darkness. Thankfully, the curtains weren't drawn, and there was some light entering the common room through the multitude of windows.

"Oh..." Monoma mumbled, trying to process what had happened, before turning to Aizawa, "Sorry."

Aizawa sighed, "I should have figured. All of you are problem children. We'll get that fixed."

There was the sound of people walking, and Iida, Uraraka, Jiro, Yaoyorozu and Midoriya walked down the stairs, and Iida spoke up, "Aizawa-sensei, we were studying, and the lights suddenly went out! The elevator is also not working!"

Jiro spotted Kaminari lying on the ground, stunned, and she walked over to him, kicking his leg lightly, "Hey, hey, dumbass, get up."

Midoriya carefully moved over to Jiro, watching as Kaminari mumbled something incomprehensible from his position on the ground, before he glanced warily at the television, and snarled. Jiro looked up at Midoriya worriedly as the boy took a step away from the television, glaring at the sparking device.

He bared his teeth, as Uraraka helped Jiro bring Kaminari to the couch, and Shinsou turned his attention to Midoriya, immediately understanding the problem. The lavender haired boy slowly made his way over to Midoriya, and gently grabbed his arm, steering him away from the television.

Midoriya refused to turn away from the sparking television, but a gentle tug on his arm by Shinsou managed to coax the green haired boy to look at him.

"It's fine. Kaminari just accidentally overloaded it. No more villains."

Midoriya looked at the ground, and Shinsou could feel his arm shaking; it was no surprise to him that Midoriya still hadn't gotten over what had happened in Kamino.

"You're safe here, Midoriya." Shinsou gently squeezed his arm again, before wrapping his arms around the smaller boy. Midoriya didn't protest, and made no move to get away, as Iida and Uraraka walked over to the green haired boy to comfort him.

"So... what are we going to do with the television?" Yaoyorozu asked, "We need to fix it... right? Or else..."

She glanced worriedly at Midoriya, and Aizawa immediately understood what she meant.

"I'll deal with it. I'll call Power Loader."

* * *

"We're having a movie night! And a new television!" Ashido grinned, running around the dorms, as Iida chopped his arms about and told her to stop running around the dorms, "Do we have enough snacks?"

Kirishima opened the cupboard, and looked around, "Uh... microwavable popcorn, some chips, I see some sour candy... is that enough?"

"I don't think so... 1-B will be joining us." Jiro pointed out, as Shishida, Awase, Uraraka, and Shoji helped Maijama in installing the larger, newer television in the 1-A dorms, under Aizawa's supervision. Monoma and Kaminari had busted their older one, and with the combined efforts from Yaoyorozu, Maijima and the Support Course, they had made a television that should _theoretically_ be able to withstand literally anything that the hero students could throw at it.

Lucky for everyone else, none of them had plugged in any of their electronic devices during that period of time, so other than the television and a couple of lights, nothing else was broken.

"Can we go and buy more snacks?" Ashido asked, and Aizawa didn't take his eyes off the television, "Yes. Bring at least three more people, and keep me updated on your position at all times. Also, be back in an hour; the nearest store is only a few blocks away, and it's getting dark."

"Alright! We're going snack shopping! Anyone wanna come?" Ashido asked, and Sato popped his head out of the kitchen, "I'll come. We're running out of ingredients."

"I'll come too! I know what my class likes." Kendo volunteered.

Iida, Shinsou, and Midoriya had ended up joining them as well, with Reiko and Ryuto tucked safely in Midoriya's hood, and they set off towards the convenience store. They passed by a park, and Midoriya stopped, looking towards the park, and Shinsou slowed, "You alright?"

Midoriya nodded, and turned his attention back to the group that was slightly ahead, quickening his pace to catch up with the others. It didn't take them too long to reach the store, and they quickly gathered all the food they wanted before going to pay.

As they were queuing up, Midoriya spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly left the queue, unnoticed by his peers, and returned with a small batch of hydrangeas. He tugged on Iida's sleeve, and quietly signed, _"Can I get these?"_

Iida blinked in mild confusion as Shinsou translated for him, but he still nodded nonetheless, smiling, "Of course you can, Midoriya."

Internally, he was glad that Midoriya wanted to buy something and was asking if he could instead of just pushing down his urge to get anything.

The students left the store, passing by the park again. Midoriya stopped again, before he quietly asked, "Can I... have a moment?"

Ashido turned around, "Sure? Not too long though, or Aizawa-sensei will get mad at us."

Midoriya gave them a nod in thanks, before walking into the park, his classmates trailing behind him curiously. The green haired boy quietly made his way to the graveyard, quickly finding the headstone he was looking for.

He stood there, silently, as Reiko popped out of his hood and nuzzled him comfortingly.

Midoriya carefully took the hydrangeas out and crouched down, gently placing the flower by the base of the headstone.

He closed his eyes, and whispered, "Thank you. For everything."

Midoriya opened his eyes, before standing up, walking back to his friends that were standing a respectful distance away.

"You ready to go?" Kendo asked, and Midoriya nodded.


	65. Chapter 65 - There's a silencing

By the time the students got back to the dorms, dinner was ready, and Kirishima and Shoji were helping set the table, while Bakugou barked out orders from the kitchen. The television was sitting on the wall, and Maijima had probably gone back to his dorms after the installation of the television.

"You're all back." Aizawa nodded, "Good. Now, please try not to destroy anything else that's important. We already have a pretty big problem with all the gas pipes in the 1-B dorms, we don't need any more damages that would take more than a day to fix."

Shinsou, Kendo, and Iida moved to the kitchen to pack away all the snacks, while Ashido ran up to Yaoyorozu, "Have you guys chosen the movie?"

"No. I thought we should let everyone else choose." Yaoyorozu replied, "We should eat dinner first, then shower, before we start the movie.""The movie's going to be starting at nine!" Yaoyorozu announced.

The dinner table was really noisy, and Midoriya opted to just hide in a corner of the living room with a small bowl of udon and some seaweed. Reiko and Ryuto had already finished their food, and were curiously looking at the contents of Midoriya's bowl.

Midoriya glanced at them, before picking up a strand of udon from his bowl and held it in front of Reiko. She grabbed the udon, slowly taking it from Midoriya's grasp, before eating it. Midoriya held out another smaller strand out for Ryuto, and the hawk took a nibble out of it before eating the rest of it.

The green haired boy quickly finished his dinner, before washing his bowl and heading up to his room to finish up some homework.

"The movie's going to be starting at nine!" Yaoyorozu announced, as she took another spoonful of rice, and took her bowl to the kitchen, "Please be ready by then! But if you don't want to join, it's fine."

Midoriya didn't particularly like to leave his room after he had showered. Most of his shirts and hoodies were short sleeved, and he still had bandages wrapped around his arms, covering the multitude of scars that littered his skin. His uniform covered up the bandages, and he did have an extra set of cloth wrapped around his arms to use as a makeshift capture weapon when wearing his hero costume., so they weren't normally visible during lessons. But in his casual clothes, the bandages would be visible to everyone.

But he couldn't exactly back out of watching the movie with his peers, could he? Yaoyorozu had given them a choice, but it was pretty clear that she expected everyone to be ready for the movie.

* * *

Midoriya quickly dried his hair with his towel, and was drying Reiko down. Ryuto was perched comfortably on his shoulder, already dry, and Midoriya glanced over his table, making sure that all his homework was neatly stapled and filed up. There was a knock on his door, and Midoriya looked up, picking Reiko up, and opened the door, revealing Todoroki and Shinsou.

"You ready for the movie?" Shinsou asked, eyeing the bandages, as Midoriya wearily nodded, drapping the towel over the door knob and following his classmates down the stairs.

"What are we watching, anyways?" Tsuburaba asked, handing out the snacks.

"Avengers Infinity War! They're manly!" Kirishima grinned, flicking through the different genres and selecting the movie.

Sero gave a brief synopsis of the entire movie series. It was apparently about this group of humans that save the world. There was a guy with super strength that used a shield, some magic thunder guy with a hammer, another guy who could turn into a green monster, this super smart guy that flies around in a metal suit of armour, an archer with very good aim, and a flexible former assassin that wielded guns. All of them had some sort of quirk that played into their strengths, except for the hammer guy, who was apparently a god or something, and these twins who were quirkless but they had some genetic mutation due to scientific experiments with a magic stone and developed quirks; the male, who had apparently died in a previous movie, had super speed while the female had some sort of complex telekinesis powers.

Not to mention that there was also a robot made from godly lightning and the same magic stone, another group of people that consisted of a demigod, two aliens, a racoon and some sort of weird talking tree, and another secret race of people that originated from Africa. And another group of people that had another set of magic powers. It was just _weird_.

Rin was already downstairs, sitting on the sofa, sipping a cup of water as he watched Yanagi trying to help Kaminari connect Jiro's surround sound speakers to the television. Kaminari apparently thought that surround sound in an action movie was a good idea, and with Jiro's permission, Kendo, Uraraka and Shoji had brought them downstairs.

It was a good idea, just that no one had any idea how the inputs and outputs worked, and none of them understood the instructions manual that came with the speakers, the television, or from the internet.

"No, put the red port there." Kodai pointed out, watching as Kaminari almost got his hands stuck in the tangle of wires, as he tried to decipher the instructions manual.

"No, the yellow one goes there!" Kaminari retorted, and Kaibara took the instruction manual from them, "Kaminari, that port is for the left side. And that speaker is on the right."

Midoriya blinked, confused at the sight in front of him. Uraraka and Yanagi were arranging a couple of mattresses that were strewed on the ground, between the couches and the television, and Midoriya hesitantly kicked a thick fluffy blanket away.

Midoriya placed Ryuto and Reiko on the couch, before walking over to Kaminari, trying to stay as far from both the television and the blonde as possible. Kaminari put him on edge for some reason; Midoriya wasn't too sure why.

He quickly connected all the wires correctly, before glaring at the television and walking away, trying to find some coffee. He was tired from training, and as much as he wanted to sleep, he was already down here. He wasn't too sure that he would be able to stay awake throughout the entirety of the movie, though, and sleeping in the middle of it would just be plain rude, wouldn't it?

He didn't find any coffee, but he did find an energy drink. To him, coffee was way more effective than energy drinks, but he would take anything that he could find.

By the time he had gotten back to the common room, most of 1-A and 1-B were already there, all wearing their pyjamas or sleeping wear, and were fooling around. The only one missing was Monoma, who was apparently in the bathroom and would arrive in a minute or two. Most of the students were settled comfortably on the mattresses, and Midoriya had no idea how all of them could be so comfortable in the presence of so many thick, stuffy, suffocating blankets.

He immediately hopped onto the couch, near the arm rest, and Reiko and Ryuto crawled onto his lap. He wanted to get as far from the blankets as possible.

Kaminari and Ashido threw themselves on the couch, with Ashido near the other armrest, and Midoriya eyed the blonde nervously. He knew that Kaminari _probably_ wouldn't shock him on purpose, but there was a faint, distinct scent of ozone that constantly lingered around the blonde, a smell that Midoriya was way too accustomed to for his liking.

Midoriya was doing his best to subtly press himself against the armrest, trying to stay as far away from Kaminari as he could, but the duo remained on the couch, not even noticing Midoriya's unease as they chatted loudly.

Shinsou walked into the common room with a bottle of soda and some popcorn, where Bakugou was operating the microwave and Tsunotori was helping to give them out. He immediately sat on the empty spot, right between Midoriya and Kaminari, and Midoriya relaxed, internally relieved.

"Hey, Shinsou!" Kaminari grinned, before noticing Midoriya on the other side of the lavender haired boy, "Hey, Midoriya! I didn't see you there! I see Reiko and Ryuto, but where's Shirou?"

Midoriya gave him a small look in reply, before pulling his knees up to his chest, being careful not to crush either Reiko or Ryuto. Shinsou shrugged, "He's sleeping."

"Alright! Everyone's here!" Kendo nodded, and Tokage used her quirk to switch off the lights, as Kaminari started the movie.

* * *

"What! You can't end it like that!" Ashido protested, "You can't just leave the story hanging like that!"

"Not cool at all!" Sero retorted, and Kirishima whined, "That's not manly at all! Snapping your fingers is cheating!"

"Shut up!" Bakugou yelled, shoving the red head harshly, "It's just a set up for the next movie. It's how they make money."

"Kaminari! Play Endgame!" Ashido yelled, as Kaminari reached for the remote. It was just out of his grasp, and Jiro picked it up and passed it over to the electric blonde.

"Whatever..." Kaibara muttered, shifting in his seat, but secretly, pretty much everyone wanted to know how the story would be resolved.

Midoriya was leaning back into the couch, blinking wearily as Tokage flipped the lights on for some of the students to use the bathroom. Ryuto had shifted his position, and was perched on his shoulder, leaning against his neck, already asleep. Reiko blinked, her eyes adjusting to the change in light, before curling up again.

The greenette felt a sudden urge to yawn, and before he realised what he was doing, he had already opened his mouth and inhaled, before exhaling.

Shinsou let out a quiet laugh. Midoriya had pretty sharp teeth, but unlike Kirishima, whose teeth were all sharp, only Midoriya's canines were uncharacteristically sharp. When the greenette yawned, he bared his teeth, just like a cat, though it was more cute than threatening.

Midoriya's nose itched, and he let out a small sneeze, before settling back into the couch, slightly dazed, trying to regain his bearings as he blinked in confusion.

Shinsou nearly turned red; Midoriya sneezing was just like a little kitten, absolutely adorable.

He spotted Uraraka pointing at him and snickering, as Asui looked at her in confusion and Iida berated her quietly, and glared at her. Thank goodness the lights were still dim and everyone was so busy talking about the movie that they didn't notice his flushed cheeks.

Luckily, the students who had left for the bathrooms had come back, and Tokage flipped the lights off again, before settling into her spot next to Sero, and Kaminari pressed the play button for the next movie.

* * *

"Ah, that is a much more satisfying ending!" Ashido sighed, hopping off her seat and stretching. "Bad guy went poof!"

"What else did you expect, Pinky? All movies end like that!" Bakugou snapped, and Kirishima laughed, "Come on, don't you agree that the iron guy was pretty manly?"

Midoriya had apparently fallen asleep in the middle of the movie, curled up against the armrest, resting his head on his arms. He was curled up around Reiko protectively, and Ryuto was settled in Midoriya's hood, snuggled up against his neck.

Shinsou stretched his arms, and yawned, and sat up. He reached over, patting Midoriya on the head, his fingers running through the greenette's fluffy green hair. Shinsou paused, realising what he had done, and quickly pulled his hand back. He wasn't too sure that he was allowed to do something like that; Midoriya seemed to trust him, sure, but he wasn't sure that Midoriya trusted him enough to allow for head patting.

Much to his surprise, Midoriya barely reacted to the head scratch. Instead, he let out a low pitched rumble from the base of his throat, relaxing slightly, before curling up tighter around Reiko.

Shinsou blinked, trying to process what had just happened, as Kaminari stood up, walking over to Midoriya.

"Did he just purr?" Ashido asked, leaning over the couch, and Kaminari reached out.

"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea -" Shinsou started, but was cut off as Midoriya's eyes snapped open, and he bared his teeth, his canines glinting in the dim light. He let out a threatening growl as he flinched away from Kaminari, crashing into Shinsou, the sudden movement jolting Reiko and Ryuto awake, and Midoriya glared at the blonde with glowing emerald eyes.

Kaminari immediately pulled his hand away and jumped, as Midoriya realised that it was just Kaminari, and it wasn't an electrified metal cell and he wasn't being muzzled and chained up and he could see everything in front of him clearly and he wasn't freezing and he wasn't bleeding all over and there weren't any villains and -

Midoriya took a sharp intake of breath, shaking slightly as he tried to will all the bad memories away, curling up even tighter. Ryuto nuzzled the boy, chirping, as Reiko licked his cheek comfortingly.

Shinsou reached out for the boy, pulling him into a hug, before scratching his head gently. Midoriya seemed to like it, and he relaxed slightly, taking deep breaths, trying his best to calm himself down from an imminent panic attack.

"Hey... you okay?" Ashido asked, and Midoriya looked up at her in confusion.

"Uh... sorry about that..." Kaminari sheepishly apologised, scratching his head.

"It's... fine..." Midoriya hesitantly mumbled, before he quickly scooped Reiko and Ryuto up. Shinsou stood up, tugging on Midoriya's arm gently, "Come on, you're tired, aren't you?"

"I hope he's okay... No doubt that Kamino must have been hard on him..." Kendo muttered, watching as Shinsou gently coaxed Midoriya towards the staircase.

"Just leave it to Shinsou, kero." Asui nodded in their direction, "He knows Midoriya the best, and Midoriya seems the most comfortable around him."


	66. Chapter 66 - And I saw the truth

**Notes: I named Koda's rabbit Fuwa in this story, but I found out that her canonical name is Yuwai, so I changed it.**

* * *

"Hey. You alright?" Shinsou asked, as Midoriya trudged into his room. Midoriya glanced at him, and nodded wearily, as they heard Iida's voice reverberating down the hallway, "Let's put all the mattresses neatly in one of the spare rooms! And the blankets! We don't want anyone to be tripping on them in the morning! Also, who left a soda here!? Ashido, you can't just leave your food here!"

"Just now... Kaminari's quirk... it reminded you of _that_, right? Being back there?"

Midoriya froze up, and didn't reply, and Shinsou asked, "Do you... want us to tell him? Tell him not to get near you?"

The green haired boy slowly turned around, facing Shinsou, before he shook his head.

"He doesn't have to know. They don't have to know. It's not his fault. It's mine."

"Midoriya, it's okay to be scared, you know. We're all scared of things sometimes. And it's going to take time to get over it." Shinsou replied, watching Midoriya's movements carefully. He didn't want to spook Midoriya any more than he already was.

"I... I still want to thank you. For what you did for me six years ago."

Midoriya shook slightly, clenching his fist as he bit his lip, "You... still remember... that?"

"Of course." Shinsou mumbled, "You were the first one to ever tell me that my quirk wasn't a villain's quirk. You're the first person that ever tried to help me, to encourage me, to even hold a conversation with me without being scared that I would brainwash you and make you do something bad. You got Dad to come and get me out of that place."

Midoriya reached out for his doorknob, and Shinsou continued, "Back then, you were the one that saved me. Not the heroes, not the police, not even Dad or Pops. You were the one that reached out, and offered me your hand."

Midoriya opened the door to his room, and Shinsou asked, "Midoriya, we just want to help you."

"Good night, Shinsou." Midoriya softly spoke up, before he walked into his room and quickly shut the door.

Shinsou stared at the door in front of him, and sighed.

"Good night, Midoriya."

* * *

"Sleepover!" Uraraka cheered, and Shinsou blinked, "But we all live in the same dorms... does even it matter that much? We had one last time at Yaoyorozu's house, and that was fun, but we weren't living in the dorms then."

"Mhm!" The brown haired girl grinned, "Asui, Yaomomo, Jiro, Hagakure, Mina and I had one just the other day. It was awesome!"

"And you're going to have another one? And since when did you give Yaoyorozu a nickname?" Iida asked, in mild confusion, and Uraraka excitedly nodded, "Hagakure started with the nickname, and Mina slipped up once. Yaomomo didn't really mind, though, and said we can call her that, and it just stuck!"

A loud bang reverberated from the common room, and Iida, Shinsou, Uraraka and Midoriya turned to the source of the noise in confusion. Apparently, Bakugou, Awase and Kirishima were playing some racing game on the Wii, and Bakugou's controller wasn't working too well. Kaminari and Yaoyorozu had already ensured that the controllers were quirk proof, and they had even added an extra layer of protection around the controller that Bakugou was using because of his quirk. The blonde had blasted the controller into the television in his frustration, and while the controller itself was fine, the television was also perfectly fine as well.

"Well... I guess the television can withstand whatever _Bakugou_ throws at it." Awase joked as he blinked at the controller, before pausing the game and picking it up, "Looks like it's low on battery. Is Kaminari here? He can charge it up in a minute or two."

There was a ding as the elevator arrived on the first floor, and Kaminari walked out of the elevator, holding a box in his hands.

"Is that the box that was under your bed?" Ashido asked, and Kaminari grinned, "Yep! I was looking for my VR controllers and uh... I found this bunch of stuff that I packed."

Ashido peered inside the box, and pulled out what looked to be an action figure with multiple moving parts, "Transformers? I didn't know you liked them."

"Oh, yeah! I loved the cartoons and the movies and stuff!" Kaminari exclaimed, placing the box on the ground, "I wanted to display them on my table... except that they keep falling over in their robot forms. I wanted to put them back into vehicle form, except... I don't know how to do it. I lost the instructions a long time ago, and I tried to find them on the internet, but I still couldn't put them back. I was wondering if one of you could help."

"Kaminari, can you charge this?" Awase tossed Bakugou's Wii controller at the electric boy, and Kaminari caught it easily, laughing, "Sure."

It didn't take him too long to charge the remote, and Kaminari gave it back to Bakugou. Midoriya peered into the box curiously, trying his best not to get too near to Kaminari. He did know what Transformers were, he had seen the other children at his former foster home watching it on cartoon channels, but he didn't think that there were toys that could actually transform from a robot back to a car.

"Here. You can try!" Kaminari picked one figurine up, and passed it over to Midoriya, "Don't worry if you can't fix it. I've spent ages trying and I still can't get them back in vehicle form."

Midoriya reached out for the toy cautiously, hesitating slightly, but took it from Kaminari's hand when he saw Shinsou and Iida grab a figurine each from the box, trying his best not the flinch at the mild static shock he received from Kaminari's hand.

"Hmm... interesting..." Iida mumbled, as he analysed the toy, and Shinsou experimentally moved the robot's arms around, "Cool."

Midoriya fiddled with the toy, before he tucked one of the arms under the robot's chest, and pulled the wheel outwards.

It was just like a puzzle box, except that he was trying to change the entire shape of the box instead of unlocking something. It wasn't that hard, and with a few more minutes of fiddling, Midoriya managed to turn his robot back into a fancy yellow sports car.

Kaminari was chatting with Sero as he fiddled with another robot, and Midoriya hesitantly reached out, and tugged on Kaminari's sleeve hesitantly.

"Oh, Midoriya? Did you want something - You're done already?" Kaminari gawked, staring at the the car in Midoriya's hand, and squealed, "Oh my god! You're amazing, Midoriya!"

He was about the hug Midoriya, when Sero quickly wrapped Kaminari in tape and pulled him away from Midoriya, laughing sheepishly, "Ha ha ha... I guess you're still as energetic as usual, huh?"

Midoriya just stared at Kaminari in confusion. It was just like a puzzle; how was fixing a toy considered amazing?

He did appreciate the praise, but he wasn't too sure it was genuine.

Kaminari glanced curiously at the collar and the metal chain around Midoriya's neck as he passed Midoriya another figurine. He knew that the green haired boy had started wearing that dragon pendant that came in the box that the hero Basilisk had given him, but he had no idea why Midoriya wore the collar everywhere. It wasn't part of his hero costume, heck, the boy had been wearing it even before he had gotten into the hero course.

Kaminari asked, "Hey, Midoriya, I was wondering, why do you wear the collar? I know the necklace was in the gift you got, but what about the collar?"

Midoriya's face fell, and he just glared mildly at Kaminari, giving him a warning growl instead of his usual threatening growl, and Kaminari laughed sheepishly, "Alright, alright, touchy subject. Sorry!"

Midoriya just glared at him for a few more seconds, before turning his attention back to the toy, curiously fiddling around with it.

* * *

Iida yawned, and walked down to the common room, getting ready for his morning jog, only to find that there were some people in the common room.

He walked out, curious to see who it was, and found Midoriya sitting on the couch, holding up a piece of paper, with Nezu leaning on Midoriya's back, wrapping his arms around Midoriya's neck while leaning on Midoriya's shoulder, looking at whatever Midoriya was looking at, pointing at something scribbled on the paper.

It was honestly cute, though he wasn't going to say that to the principal's face. Iida had seen Nezu a few times in the past, mostly when Tensei was meeting up with several friends in UA while on his off days, but there wasn't anyone at home to babysit him, or when Tensei was called off for some emergency and he needed a teacher to take care of him for an hour or two. Nezu was nice, but even as a child, Iida could tell that Nezu was slightly awkward around kids and teenagers. He could see that Nezu found it hard to interact with the students; even if he was just in the cafeteria during lunch, there would be a tense atmosphere lingering in the air, and all the students would be somewhat subdued in their conversations.

It was nice to see that Nezu was comfortable around Midoriya, and vice versa.

Iida quietly tiptoed behind the couch, hoping that neither Nezu nor Midoriya would notice him. He quickly made his way to the door, and did his best to open the door as quietly as possible. He shot a look at Nezu and Midoriya on the couch, before Nezu turned to him, a cheeky smile on his face, and brought his paw to his mouth, shooting him a shush gesture.

Iida gulped, and hastily slipped outside.

Nezu grinned, and turned back to the paper that Midoriya was intently analyzing.

"You can keep it if you want; I know anything related to your parents is important to you. Power Loader already made a copy of it, and it's already been approved, so if you want to use it, the Support Course can start making it."

"I can... keep it?" Midoriya quietly asked, glancing at Nezu, "Thank you."

"Yep, don't worry about it." Nezu smiled, patting Midoriya on the head, as Reiko nuzzled Midoriya's arm and Ryuto shifted slightly, before going back to sleep.

Midoriya paused slightly, before turning to Nezu, "Can I make extra additions to my hero costume equipment?"

* * *

"Alright, we're going to be doing some training on how to fight without using your quirks, or any weapons. Pure hand to hand combat." Aizawa started. "There are going to be times in the future where your quirks are unsuitable for the situation at hand, or when a villain's quirk counters yours perfectly. You can't be reliant on your quirk all the time. Now, I want you to split into groups based on your quirks. Emitters on one side, and mutant and transformation on the other side."

Everyone quickly complied, and Midoriya just stood there, confused. He had a quirk, but he didn't want it, he wasn't supposed to have one, no one was supposed to know that he had one, what was he supposed to do -

"Midoriya, you're quirkless. Stay here for now. You have the most experience doing this out of everyone else." Aizawa ordered, and Midoriya remained still, internally relieved that Aizawa hadn't used that opportunity to reveal his quirk, and he wondered when Aizawa would do that.

Kirishima, Asui, Iida Ojiro, Jiro, Shoji, Sero, Mineta and Hagakure quickly assembled on one side of the gym, while Aoyama, Tokoyami, Ashido, Shinsou, Uraraka, Todoroki, Koda, Sato, Kaminari, Bakugou and Yaoyorozu assembled on the other side.

Aizawa glanced through the students, before calling out, "Jiro, Hagakure, Todoroki, one group. Asui, Ashido, Sero, you three are together. Kirishima, Iida, Bakugou, you three are another group. Aoyama, Koda, Yaoyorozu, you three. Kaminari, Mineta, Tokoyami, you're in a group. Sato, Shoji, Ojiro, group up. Uraraka, Shinsou, and Midoriya. That's it."

"Hey, Aizawa-sensei, if we're not supposed to use our quirks, doesn't that mean that Midoriya is at an advantage?" Hagakure asked, and Aizawa sighed, "I put you into groups taking your body shape, your current hand to hand combat levels, and your reliance on your quirks into consideration. I know this may be difficult, but try your best not to use your quirks in battle, even though you may feel a very strong urge to do what's natural to you. Everyone, I want you to remove anything that may be potentially used as a weapon. Shinsou, your capture weapon, Bakugou, your gauntlets, things like that. Just wear your normal hero costumes. Midoriya, no knives."

Midoriya promptly removed the ten knives hidden in his pockets, and on his belt.

Aizawa resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "And the ones up your sleeve."

The green haired boy took out the six small throwing knives that were up his sleeve, secured firmly with arm bands.

"And the ones in your shoes."

Midoriya removed those as well, adding them to the pile.

"And those switchblades in your pocket." Aizawa blinked, and scratched his neck. He didn't even know that Midoriya had blades hidden there; he had started off by joking with the boy with the blades up his sleeve, and he didn't actually think that Midoriya actually had so many knives. How on earth did he even get so many in the first place?!

"I am honestly... concerned at how many knives he has." Kaminari sweatdropped, staring at the ever growing pile of knives at the green haired boy's feet.

"Well, it's better to be over prepared, right?" Kirishima grinned.

"There's a thing called going overboard, you know." Jiro muttered.

"Now, find a spot and practice within a group." Aizawa ordered.

* * *

"Whew. Practice today was tough... I never thought I would have to fight without my quirk... I'm sore all over!" Kaminari groaned, rubbing his back where Tokoyami had accidentally summoned Dark Shadow, and the quirk had slammed the electric boy into the ground.

Yaoyorozu spoke up, "My quirk only allows me to make items, so I do know basic combat, but I've never done pure hand to hand before. My hands are sore."

Shoji muttered, "My extra limbs just get in the way when I'm trying not to use them."

"Tell me about it." Ojiro laughed sheepishly, "I've tripped over my tail way too many times."

"Well, there is that thing called quirk suppressants, right? Who knows, maybe there's a villain that can produce chemicals like that, and it renders our quirks useless." Yaoyorozu shrugged, "Anyways, it's good practice. It does make sense that we'll find ourselves in situations where our quirks aren't suitable for usage.

Midoriya just remained quiet, trailing behind the rest of his classmates as he followed them back to the dorms. Shinsou and Uraraka were fast learners, and they were decent in hand to hand combat, given that their quirks on their own didn't really give them many offensive options. But it didn't really help that Midoriya was leagues above them in terms of battle experience, and while he did try his best to bring himself down to their level to help them improve, he had thrown both Shinsou and Uraraka to the ground way too many times for him to be comfortable with.

They didn't seem to mind, and they kept telling him that it was okay, and they were just practicing. That was the only reason why he continued to participate in that training session, but it still made him uncomfortable. His classmates walked into the dorms, and he gently tugged on Uraraka and Shinsou's sleeves.

"Midoriya?" Uraraka asked, turning around, "Are you okay?"

Midoriya paused, and looked at the ground nervously, before he spoke up, "I'm... sorry... for throwing you guys on the ground during practice. And hitting you. And -"

Shinsou gave a small laugh, "Seriously, Midoriya. It's fine. It's just training, no harm done. Don't worry about it."

"Mhm! We all need practice, and you're awesome at hand to hand!" Uraraka grinned, and punched the air excitedly, "You've got to teach me that move where you get down and sweep people's legs out from under them. That was so cool! Come on, don't think about it too much; Iida and Koda are probably waiting for us for our study session!"

Midoriya nodded, and the trio walked to Uraraka's room, where the study session was being hosted. They found Iida and Koda standing by the door, waiting.

"Ah. I didn't notice that you three lagged behind." Iida smiled, as Koda gave them a wave in greeting, and Uraraka pushed open the door to her room, before switching the fan on.

"Alright! Let's study!"

* * *

"Ahh..." Uraraka grinned, "Thanks so much! I had no idea what Midnight-sensei was talking about, but now I understand!"

"That's great!" Iida nodded, and Koda gave her a big smile and a thumbs up. Todoroki had joined them in the middle of the session, and was helping out in physics and chemistry.

Midoriya sighed, and rested against the cupboard, keeping a watchful eye on Uraraka as she gently ran her fingers through Ryuto's feathers.

Shinsou gave a small grin as he rested his head on the table, watching his friends chatting, signing and laughing as he pet Shirou, who was settled on his lap, purring.

"Thinking of something, Shinsou?" Iida asked, seeing Shinsou's smile as he turned away from his conversation with Todoroki, and Shinsou gave a small laugh, "It's nothing much. With a quirk like mine, I never had any friends. Before I came to UA, you were my only friend, Iida, and that was because Dad and Pops knew your brother. I honestly never expected that I'll have any, and here we are. I'm just... happy... I guess."

_"Same here." _Koda signed, _"People find it weird that I don't talk, and because of my appearance, I also never really made any friends before coming to UA."_

"I was homeschooled, so I also didn't have friends." Todoroki added.

"Can I say something stupid?" Shinsou asked, and Iida looked at him in confusion, "It can't be that stupid, but go ahead."

"Can you guys... call me Hitoshi? I know it's kind of silly... but you are all the first friends that I ever made... and -"

"You don't have to explain yourself." Iida nodded, "And of course. You can call me Tenya."

"Ochako is perfectly okay!" Uraraka gave Shinsou a thumbs up, grinning cheerily, as Koda smiled and signed, _"You can call me Koji."_

"Hmmm..." Todoroki mused, "Shouto is fine. I think I prefer it to you calling me by the last name that I share with my father."

Shinsou gave his friends a smile, "Thank you. For being so supportive."

"That's what friends are for, aren't they?" Uraraka laughed, patting Shinsou on the shoulder, before turning to Midoriya, "You can call us by our first names too!"

There was silence as Midoriya looked at her in confusion, before he lowered his gaze towards the ground.

"Izuku."

Uraraka blinked, not sure what was going on, as Midoriya continued, "You can call me Izuku. It's only fair."

Shinsou smiled, "Thank you. For trusting us at least this much."

Midoriya looked at Shinsou, looked at the rest of his friends smiling at him, not sure what to do about that weird tingly feeling inside his chest.

_What was that? It felt nice... but what on earth was that?_

* * *

"So, did Midoriya say anything about the bracers? And I'm assuming you let him keep the original blueprints." Maijma asked, and Nezu nodded, "Yup. He didn't have any problems with the design, and I'm letting him keep it. He... he's attached to anything from his parents. I'm not surprised. He was also asking about something else to add to his hero costume."

"Oh? He asked for something?" Maijima raise his eyebrow curiously, "What did he want?"

"Ceremic knives." Nezu scratched his head, "I'm not sure why he wants them, and he didn't really explain himself either, but he seems to be wary about something. He was thinking about regular knives as well as ceremic blades that could be shot out of the bracers."

"Ceremic knives, huh... It's better to be safe than sorry, I guess." Maijima mumbled, "Well, those are easy to make, compared to all the other kinds of Supoort Items. We just have to dry-press and fire some powdered zirconia. How many did he want?"

"Uh... five of each kind of blade." Nezu replied, and Maijima nodded, "Alright. That won't be too hard. The blades, along with the bracers, should all be ready by next week. That gives him around another week to get used to them before the provisional license exam."


	67. Chapter 67 - Inside the real you

"Bean bags!" Kaminari cheered, and flopped onto a grey bean bag that was sitting in the middle of the common room.

"Woah! That's awesome!" Sero grinned, jumping onto a yellow bean bag, as Ashido flopped onto a light blue one.

Midoriya suspiciously stared at a black bean bag that was sitting in the corner, by the window. He poked it with his foot, as Reiko pawed up to the bean bag, and sniffed it, before purring and rubbing herself against Midoriya's leg.

"Eh? Why do we have bean bags?" Yaoyorozu asked, confused, as Aizawa walked into the room, "There was an accident in the library, and we needed to replace some of the furniture. We got bean bags, and the principal decided to add a few bean bags to the common room of each dorm since you teenagers seem to like bean bags in general."

_Well... if Nezu was the one that got the bean bags, then they shouldn't be dangerous... they should be fine..._

Aizawa watched as Midoriya spared a glance at Sero and Ashido, observing how they sat in the bean bag, before he settled down in it experimentally, copying them. He sunk into the bean bag, and he made a small squeak in confusion, before he lay down, as Ryuto hopped up onto his lap, settling into the crook of his elbow, and Reiko chirped, licking Midoriya's cheek as the boy settled down.

Midoriya looked exhausted, though most of his peers were also tired due to their training for the provisional license exam, but Midoriya looked like he hadn't slept at all. His eye bags were darker than usual, and there were times during lessons when he could tell that Midoriya wasn't really paying attention.

But at least he was still reacting when his name was called. If he had stopped reacting and just shut off like last time, it would be terrible. Aizawa was glad that Basilisk had showed up at the right time, and had given Midoriya that gift; whatever the contents of it were (a puzzle box, according to Nezu, Shinsou and Kayama), it had revived Midoriya's will to fight, to improve.

He should probably tell Nezu that Midoriya seemed to like the bean bag; that seemed to be a start. Maybe he could do something with that information.

* * *

"I'll be giving back your math tests that you did last week." Ectoplasm spoke up. While he did give Midoriya homework that was beyond what his peers were learning, for formal tests and exams, he had Midoriya take the same tests as his classmates in order to give him a grade for official school documentation. Though lately, for some reason, Midoriya seemed distracted in lessons. He did his homework well, but his handwriting was messier than usual, and there were times where he just seemed to stare into space.

It wasn't the same situation as before; Midoriya still reacted when his name was called on during lessons to hand in homework, or to write his answers on the board, so there must be something bothering the boy. Ectoplasm didn't want to hide the fact that the Hero Commission wants him out of the hero course, but telling him that would just give Midoriya more stress.

"Ah, I only got a fifty percent." Kaminari sighed, and slumped onto his table, "I studied so hard for it too! And Yaomomo even tutored me!"

"Well, at least it was better than your last one, and you passed." Yaoyorozu smiled, as Ectoplasm gave her back her test. The teacher finally got to Midoriya's seat, and placed his test on his table, "Full marks, Midoriya. Given the level of mathematics homework I normally give you, I'm not surprised, but good job."

Midoriya blinked in confusion, and looked up, staring at his teacher as he handed Bakugou his test paper. His teacher actually praised him? Actually told him that he had done a good job?

He clenched his fists, not really knowing how to react.

_They're just trying to fool you! Trying to make you lower your guard!_

The voice at the back of his head was back again, and Midoriya wasn't too sure what to believe. Believe the voice, who was reminding him of everything that people had done to him before, reminding him not to make the same mistakes over and over again? Believe that people would always be the same, no matter where he went or what he achieved?

_Are they really just trying to do that?_

Or trust his heart, the part of him that wanted to believe that things were different now, that he truly had friends that that he could trust and rely on?

Both of them were a part of him, contradicting each other. And Midoriya didn't like to, didn't know how, wasn't used to making choices. And he didn't know if he was going to make the right choice or not.

* * *

Ectoplasm kept a close eye on Midoriya as he attacked a punching bag ruthlessly. They were supposed to use clones to practise super moves, but for one, Midoriya did not have a quirk to create a super move, and it wasn't like the kid needed one anyways; he was more than capable of taking a hoard of villains on his own. If Midoriya were to fight the Ectoplasm clones, he would destroy them almost every other minute. Even Bakugou took at least five minutes to destroy a clone on his best day.

He was worried about the boy. Midoriya was pushing himself way too hard, and it was getting riskier the closer they got to the date of the provisional license exam. He didn't want Midoriya to injure himself by accident during practises and miss his only chance to get his license.

Midoriya's current attack was to attack the punching bag in quick, successive strikes ranging from punches to kicks as he leapt around it. It would be effective against any opponent that wasn't fast enough to keep up with the former vigilante, and that wasn't even counting his bracers, knives, and make-shift capture weapon. Obviously, he couldn't use them unless he wanted to rupture the punching bag, but against a moving target, that would be very effective at ensnaring and enemy. Perhaps he should let Midoriya try that tatic on a clone of his, provided that Midoriya _didn'__t_ destroy it mere seconds after it's creation.

Suddenly, there was a loud creak, and a snapping sound resonated throughout the gym, and a large punching bag crashed into the ground, sand leaking out of the bag.

Ectoplasm looked up, only to find that once again, Midoriya had broken yet another punching bag chain, and was staring at the broken punching bag that lay on the ground.

"That's the third one this week. They're old, sure, but still." Aizawa mumbled, almost dumbfounded, "We need to get better chains."

Ectoplasm created a clone to clean up the mess, and looked at Midoriya, before yelling, "Don't worry about it. I'll bring you a new one."

At least the boy was wearing gloves; he had some fingerless gloves that came with his hero costume, but it was more than enough to protect his knuckles from the backlash of his attacks.

* * *

Midoriya quietly slipped out of his room, closing his door quietly. Ryuto was sleeping on his arm, along with Reiko, and the both of them had been jolted awake before making his way to the common room for a glass of water. It was dim, but Midoriya could still see his surroundings as long as it wasn't completely dark.

He took a sip of water, and rubbed his head, trying to rid his head of the nightmares that had been plaguing him ever since he had gotten back to the dorms from the hospital. The same dream, now only much more intense, the nightmare of being trapped, of his parents dying, of his classmates getting hurt, and him, being able to see everything, but couldn't make a single move to save anyone. No matter how hard he tried to move, he just couldn't.

Midoriya wiped away some sweat from his forehead; he could feel, hear his heart pounding in his chest, and his hands were shaking. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't push away the ominous feeling that _something terrible was going to happen._

Maijima had just finished the gauntlets based on the blueprints from his father, as well as the ceramic knives he had asked for, through Nezu. He didn't give Nezu a reason as to why he wanted ceramic knives, and while he was glad that Nezu didn't press for a reason, opting to trust his judgement, Midoriya was slightly guilty for hiding the real reason why he wanted ceramic knives.

Midoriya placed his cup in the sink, and walked over to the black bean bag sitting in the corner, by the window. He settled down in it, and looked out the window, as Reiko and Ryuto settled on his lap.

_You can't save them. You'll never be able to save anyone! __There's only so much you can do. Everyone will surpass your worthless, quirkless self in terms of power and experience sooner or later. _

_I can still try._

_There's a limit to human effort, Deku._

* * *

Nezu frowned as he compared his notes with Aizawa's. Aldera was already dealt with, and they had moved on to investigating Midoriya's elementary school. They had gotten the security feeds, and they were currently combing through it with Ectoplasm's help, since the man could make clones of himself, and with his help, they were going through the feeds much faster than before.

Except something wasn't adding up. According to the old reports that they managed to salvage, Midoriya's parents had died eight years ago, when Midoriya had just started first grade. However, based on the security feeds, there wasn't actually any change in Midoriya's attitude during that time. Sure, he seemed sadder, and more desperate to interact with his peers, but he was still talking to his classmates, still trying to defend himself from his classmates' bullying. It was nothing at all like the quiet and reserved Midoriya that just let people walk over him, and only lashing out if someone else was getting bullied, or was in danger.

They assumed that Midoriya's accidental "fall" off the school building when he was nine would be the event to trigger the change in attitude, but Midoriya, as Void, had saved Shinsou from his former household after the event, and according to both Aizawa and Shinsou, Midoriya was nothing like he was now. And after cross referencing with the security feeds from his elementary school, Midoriya also didn't really display much of a change in attitude. He was more subdued, and more quiet, but whenever someone talked to him, even if they bullied him, Midoriya would always perk up and excitedly try to hold a conversation.

The real change occurred when Midoriya was in fourth grade. One day, he was happy, excited, still desperately trying to interact with his classmates and make friends, and the next day, he was completely silent, not reacting to his classmates, not even when they dragged him out of his seat and beat him up.

"That date." Nezu narrowed his eyes, as he looked at the date that was recorded on the security footage, "Something must have happened between the previous day and this date."

Ectoplasm scratched his head as he searched up the two dates, "Nothing much happened, generally. There was just a huge storm the previous day, according to the records."

"This needs more investigation..." Aizawa grumbled, "It has to be something big to cause such a drastic change in behaviour in less than twenty four hours."

"I'll deal with it." Nezu spoke up, "For now, we need to make sure that all the students are ready for the provisional license exam. Especially Izuku. This is his only chance to pass."

* * *

"Sorry to call you here on such short notice..." Nezu scratched his head, before turning to Midoriya, who was sitting on the couch in his office, "I thought I should tell you that... you can't bring Reiko and Ryuto for the provisional license exam. You can bring them to the location itself... but you'll have to leave them with Aizawa before you take the exam."

Midoriya bit his lip, and tugged on his collar nervously; he had never actually been separated from Reiko and Ryuto, and even when they were, they were in Nezu's office, or with one of the teachers, and Midoriya trusted them, at the very least, to not hurt them. Plus, if they even tried to hurt them, Reiko would scratch their eyeballs out.

But he didn't even know where the provisional license exam was going to take place, or who else was going to be there. Were there others who would hurt Reiko and Ryuto?

Reiko purred, and rubbed herself against Midoriya's arm, trying her best to reassure him. Ryuto chirped, nuzzling Midoriya's cheek from his position on Midoriya's shoulder, as Nezu continued, "Also... we're going to need your hero name. When your pass, they're going to be giving your license right before you leave, so they're going to be printing your hero name directly on the spot."

Midoriya noted that Nezu used the word _when_ instead of _if_. Nezu had so much confidence that he would pass provisional license exam, and he didn't want to let the principal down.

"You missed the session when the rest of your class were choosing their hero names, so... did you have anything in mind?" Nezu asked, and Midoriya stared at the floor, thinking. He never really thought that he would be in this situation; he never expected that he would be able to enter UA, to be transfered into the hero course, that he would be good enough to even participate in the provisional license exam.

He looked up at Nezu, and nodded, "I have a name in mind."

* * *

"So.. the locations of the tests are finalised." Aizawa announced. "All of you, go to bed early. I don't want any of you to be tired in the morning before the exam.

"Yes sir!" Iida saluted as Aizawa left the common room, and Yaoyorozu stood up, "We should have a plan. All of us are in the same testing area, and while there is a fifty percent chance of passing, that may always change. Teaming up with friends and classmates whose quirks we know is the way to win. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"We kill them. Painfully." Bakugou snorted, and Kirishima sweatdropped, "How about no?"

There was some murmuring between the students of 1-A, and Midoriya carefully slipped out of the room into the hallway, unnoticed by all except for Dark Shadow and Shinsou. Shinsou tapped on Iida's shoulder, and gestured in the direction of the hallway, and Iida nodded. Shinsou quietly slipped out of the room after Midoriya, and found him leaning against the wall, deep in thought, as Reiko pawed at his leg and Ryuto perched on his shoulder.

"Izuku." Shinsou's tone softened, "What idea do you have?"

Midoriya hastily looked away, not daring to look Shinsou in the eye, and the lavender haired boy blinked in confusion.

"Izuku, are you okay?"

Midoriya clenched his fist, before he spoke up softly, whispering, his voice so quiet that Shinsou could barely hear him over the ruckus his classmates were making, "I can bait the other examinees. Then the rest of you can take them out."

"No, Izuku, we are not going to do that." Shinsou stated, "We're not going to sacrifice you in order to pass. We're all passing together, all twenty one of us. You're going to pass with us no matter what."

Midoriya blinked, before he went back to staring at the ground.

"Stain's attack on Hosu shook the public's trust in Heroes. The fall of All Might's only increased that sense of unease. Do you really think that things are going to stay the same? After everything that has happened? They're most likely going to get us to fight the other examinees in order to pass, and they will probably lower the passing rate as well."

Shinsou froze. He knew that things would never remain the same, but he didn't think that it would have started all the way during Akaguro's arrest. The fall of All Might created a hole, a hole that they, as hero students, were going to have to fill.

"But don't they need more heroes to fill in that role? So wouldn't they raise the passing rate?" Shinsou asked.

"No. They're most likely going to want only the best students available at each site to get their licenses in order to fill the gap left by the fall of All Might."

"Izuku..." Shinsou muttered, placing his hand on the greenette's shoulder, "You know that All Might's retirement isn't your fault."

Midoriya turned away from him, "It is. No matter how you look at it, the fall of All Might, the loss of the Symbol of Peace... that's my fault. If I hadn't been kidnapped, they wouldn't have to save me. But that's not the matter at hand right now."

Shinsou bit his lip, forcing himself to stay silent. He'd ask Midoriya about Yagi's retirement in private, after the exam, somewhere where his classmates wouldn't accidentally walk into their conversation. Now, they had to focus on the Provisional License Exam, or everything else wouldn't matter.

Midoriya clenched his fists, "They've seen all your quirks doing the UA Sports Festival. And they know that I was in the center of the Kamino Incident, as well as being quirkless. But they don't know how much you've improved since then, or your super moves. Humans are naturally arrogant and self centered, willing to take any advantage they can and exploiting any weakness. They're definitely going to be going after us first, me in particular, since I'm quirkless."

"Oh," Shinsou hummed, deep in thought, "You want to use their arrogance against them, to lure and trap a large group of examinees for us to pass."

Midoriya nodded, before quietly continuing, "It doesn't matter what I do. They're definitely going to come after us."

Shinsou sighed, "It's a good idea, theoretically. But let's go hear what the others have in mind, alright? We're not going to give you up in order to pass, or let you face them alone. We're all going to pass together."

Midoriya looked away, thinking, before nodding slowly, and Shinsou led him back to where the rest of the class were still talking about the plan for the provisional license exam.

"So, did we miss anything?" Shinsou quietly asked Iida, and Iida shook his head, "Nope. Bakugou just keeps saying we should kill them. And all the other ideas aren't viable."

Midoriya glanced at Shinsou, and the lavender haired boy frowned, "Izuku, we're not going to do that, alright?"

"Did something happen?" Uraraka asked, and Shinsou gave her a look that meant that it wasn't a good time to talk about it.


	68. Chapter 68 - I'm just a parlor trick

"Hey, Izuku. Izuku, wake up."

Midoriya could feel someone shaking him, and he blearily opened his eyes. He looked upwards, seeing Shinsou shaking him gently.

"You slept down here in the bean bag again. Come on, we're leaving for our exam soon and we should eat some breakfast. At least drink something." Shinsou muttered, as Reiko yawned and stretched, before hopping off Midoriya's chests. Ryuto was still snoozing by Midoriya's neck, and the boy gently picked the sleeping bird up before sitting up.

Midoriya stumbled to his feet, and carefully stretched, not wanting to wake Ryuto up. Midoriya flinched internally as his his joints made that weird popping sound; he was tired and aching all over from training, and while sleeping in the bean bag in the common room probably wasn't good for all his sore muscles, he could barely sleep in his own room for some unknown reason, and the common room was the only place where he could actually rest for the day.

Midoriya just placed Reiko and Ryuto on the table, before settling down in a chair, trying to ignore the feeling of unease bubbling in his stomach as he watched Iida wake up the rest of their classmates.

He could feel it. Something bad was going to happen, but he didn't know what.

_You can't save anyone, Deku._

_Shut up._

* * *

Midoriya kept a tight grip on his case with his hero costume, as Shinsou and Iida hopped off the bus. Shinsou glanced at Midoriya worriedly; ever since he had woken up, Midoriya had been tense, on edge, almost as if he was expecting something to happen.

"Eraser? It's you, isn't it, Eraser?"

Aizawa's face immediately twisted into a scowl as he turned to face the source of the voice, and Shinsou sighed, "Oh dear. Here we go again..."

"I've seen you on TV and at the sports festival, but it's been a while since I've seen you in person!"

"Ms Joke?" Uraraka raised an eyebrow, watching as the female pro hero walked towards them, "Aizawa-sensei, you know her?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Aizawa muttered, just out of Fukukado's earshot. Fukukado laughed, and grinned, "Let's get married."

"No."

Fukukado burst into laughter, "No? Good one!"

"You're hard to talk to as usual!" Aizawa sighed, shaking his head. Why did he have to put up with all the noisy, annoying people? Why him?

"If you marry me, we can make a happy family with never ending laughter!"

"A family like that can't be happy." Aizawa retorted.

"You two seem close." Asui spoke up.

Fukukado smiled, turning to Asui, "Our agencies used to be close together! In our cycle of helping and being helped, our mutual love for each other bloomed and -"

"No it didn't."

"I love your quirk retorts! You're so worth teasing, Eraser!" Fukukado laughed, jabbing her finger in Aizawa's chest. Aizawa swatted her hand away, grumbling under his breath.

Midoriya subtly moved away from Fukukado. He was getting pretty annoyed with Fukukado at this point. While Yamada, Kayama and Yagi were noisy, they were actually trying to teach them something, so they were doing something constructive at the very least. Fukukado was just here, wasting their time.

The lack of sleep, as well as his agitation, were probably not helping his mood. Something bad was going to happen; Midoriya could feel it, the feeling of unease bubbling up from the depths of his very being. Ryuto nibbled Midoriya's earlobe, trying to reassure him.

Aizawa sighed, and turned back to Fukukado, "Since you're here, that means -"

"That's right! Come here, everyone! It's UA." Fukukado turned around, as a group of students walked up behind her.

"Oh! It's the real thing!" A black haired male exclaimed.

"Wow! That's amazing! I've seen them all on TV!" The blonde female beside him patted his back.

"Ketsubutsu Academy, second years, Class 2!" Fukukado announced, giving Aizawa a thumbs up, "They're my class, please be kind!"

"If they're second years, then we don't have to be kind to them." Bakugou grumbled, explosions popping off his palms in annoyance.

Midoriya turned to face the batch of incoming students, narrowing his eyes.

"They seem friendly enough." Kaminari smiled brightly.

"Second years." Shinsou muttered, "They have more experience than us, and we're all fighting for limited positions."

The black haired boy ran up to Midoriya and grabbed his arms, smiling, "I'm Shindo! This year, UA has had a lot of trouble, so it must have been tough! But even so, you're all aiming to be heroes like this, huh?"

Midoriya flinched slightly, and tried his best not to pull his hands away on instinct as he stared at Shindo, his eyes glinting as he let out a hiss, baring his teeth in warning. Reiko growled at Shindo from her position by Midoriya's feet, exposing her claws. Ryuto seemed more chill about Shindo, but he did give him a screech as a warning.

Shinsou promptly pulled Midoriya away from Shindo, "Hey, leave him alone."

Shindo noticed the green haired boy's reaction, but just brushed it off, and outrightly ignored the two animals, "That's wonderful!"

Shindo took a good look at Midoriya, before he realised who he was, "Wait! You're Midoriya Izuku! You were in the center of the Kamino incident and - "

Midoriya barely reacted to the statement, but Reiko let out a particularly harsh growl, finally catching Shindo's attention.

"You brought your cat?" Shindo asked in confusion, before he looked back at Midoriya, "Anyways, you won the Sports Festival despite being in the General Education course! That means you managed to transfer into the Hero Course despite being quirkless!"

"That's cause Midoriya's super manly!" Kirishima butt in.

"Mhm! A heart of fortitude is what I believe all heroes from now on should have!" Shindo grinned.

"Yeah! Plus Ultra!" Kaminari, Sero and Kirishima cheered, only for another student to suddenly barge into their group in the middle of the cheer.

"PLUS ULTRA!"

Todoroki looked up at the student who had suddenly joined the cheer. He was familiar... but Todoroki couldn't really place where he had met the other student before.

"You shouldn't just barge into other people's huddles, Inasa." A male with dark purple hair grumbled, and Yoarashi stood up, perfectly straight, and promptly bowed down, bashing his head into the ground as he did so, "Oh no! I am very extremely sorry, UA, Shishikura-senpai!"

"What's with this guy trying to get by with just his enthusiasm!?" Kaminari yelped.

"Wait! That uniform! It's the famous school in western Japan! Shiketsu High school!" Jiro blinked in realisation.

"I just wanted to say it just once! Plus Ultra!" Yoarashi yelled at the top of his lungs, "I love UA high school! I am very honoured to be able to compete against UA students! I'm looking forward to it!"

"Yoarashi Inasa?" Shinsou muttered, thinking. He remembered that name... Aizawa had mentioned it once or twice during dinner, "Wasn't he one of the recommendation students that turned down his acceptance?"

The blonde from Shiketsu turned to the UA students, before her eyes landed on Midoriya, "That's the one from Kamino, fam."

"He's not from Kamino, Camie. He was involved in the Kamino Incident." Shishikura corrected, as the figure beside them that was completely covered in light brown hair chided, "Camie, Seiji, it's rude to talk about an event like that right in front of him."

"Yes, Nagamasa." Utsushimi and Seiji replied.

Suddenly, Midoriya felt a jolt run through his body, and he tensed up. He could feel that familiar playful, cheeky, and deranged aura somewhere in the area, and he clenched his fists. He could hear his heart pounding in his chest, as he bit his lip nervously.

_What was she doing in a place like this? _

"Izuku?" Shinsou noticed that Midoriya had tensed up, and he shook him gently, "Hey, Izuku, you okay?"

Midoriya raised his hands, signing, _"She's here."_

Mora frowned, "She's here? Who's here?"

"You know sign language?" Uraraka asked, and Mora nodded, "Yes. We learnt it in our second year. Most of us except for Inasa are decent in it. I think the students from Ketsubutsu Academy are also in their second year, and should also know basic sign language."

_"The League of Villains. Himiko Toga."_

Shinsou, Koda, Aizawa and Fukukado's froze up at the name.

"Who is it?" Todoroki asked, as Mora sighed, "Sadly, we're not proficient enough to understand names."

Yoarashi glared at Todoroki in mild confusion.

"She's here?" Fukukado asked, "How do you know?"

Midoriya shakily replied, _"I can feel it. She's somewhere here. Something bad is going to happen."_

"Alright." Aizawa nodded, "I'll inform the others."

"Eraser, you trust him?" Fukukado asked, confused, and Aizawa merely nodded replied, "Midoriya's instincts have never been wrong before."

Midoriya glanced at Aizawa in confusion.

_He trusts me? _

"I don't mean to be rude…" The teacher in charge of the Shiketsu students said, "But I believe we're all going to be late for the exam if we do not start making our way inside."

Aizawa checked his phone, "You're right. Thanks for the reminder. Midoriya, you know you can't bring Reiko and Ryuto with you, right?"

Reiko purred in irritation, walking up to Aizawa and sitting by his feet, while Ryuto looked at Aizawa, then at Midoriya, then back at Aizawa, before he realised what was going on. He let out a sad sounding whine, before huddling down by Midoriya's neck.

Midoriya let out a low rumble from the base of his throat, and Shindo blinked at the sound that Midoriya had made. Ryuto let out a desperate warble, but Midoriya just let out another rumble, gently picked Ryuto off his shoulder, cradling him gently, before placing him on the ground. Ryuto didn't look too happy about it, but he still flapped his wings and flew over to Reiko's side.

"So Midoriya can speak cat? Or bird? Whatever that sound was?" Ashido asked, but Koda just shook his head, signing, _"I have absolutely no idea what he is saying to Ryuto."_

"Anyways, I'll be doing my best while learning from you!" Shindo grinned, as Midoriya narrowed his eyes at the black haired boy.

He _hated_ people like that; whatever they were saying didn't match the expression on their face. People like that couldn't be trusted.

_"Hey, Deku, you should just kill yourself, you know. No one except your parents would care if you died. Oh wait, they're dead too!"_

"Enough wasting time. Change into your costumes and go in for orientation." Aizawa ordered. Midoriya took one last wary glance at the Ketsubutsu students, before following his classmates as they filed into Takoba National Stadium.

"Midoriya Izuku, huh." Shindo muttered, "He's the one you told us to be wary of. Honestly, he doesn't seem like much. He's too meek and mild."

"Yeah... he's nothing like what I've heard from the other heroes..." Fukukado replied, her grin slipping, "Still, keep an eye out. Don't underestimate him. From what I've heard, he may seem mild, but once you piss him off, he's a real monster in battle. He's not someone you want to get into a fight with."

"Interesting..." Shindo grinned, his eyes glinting, "I can't wait to bring UA to their knees."

* * *

"I'm so excited, and nervous at the same time." Kaminari admitted.

"Shh. He's gonna start speaking." Iida hushed them.

"Well then… let's do this provisional licence exam thing… I'm Mera from the Heroes Public Safety Commission, the kind of sleep is non-REM sleep, nice to meet you. I've been so busy that I haven't gotten much sleep… We're too short staffed! I'm so sleepy! With that conviction, I will give you the orientation."

Midoriya looked up at the sleepy man, before glancing around the room warily. Toga was in there, somewhere, he could feel it, but he had absolutely no idea where she was. Then there was the Ketsubutsu students. He wasn't too sure about the others, but he could tell that Shindo was putting up a friendly facade so that other people would let their guard down. Midoriya knew he wasn't fooled, but some of the more naive ones, like Kaminari and Kirishima, were definitely fooled.

Fukukado seemed to be friends with Aizawa, and Midoriya didn't really want to take out her students, but worse come to worse, if he deemed Shindo a threat to his classmates, he'd take down the Vibrate quirk user on his own without any hesitation.

"About the content of the provisional licence thing, frankly, all of the one thousand, five hundred and forty examinees here will have to find a way to win through a free-for-all exercise. Ever since Stain was arrested, people have lost faith in heroes, even though our community is considered saturated with heroes. Well, as a private citizen, no matter the motivation, to tell someone risking their lives to save others to not seek any rewards... it's the ruthless story of these modern times."

Almost everyone in UA glanced at Midoriya. After what they had seen from the boy during the attack on UA, and his kidnapping at the training camp, they were pretty sure that Midoriya would risk his life for anyone and everyone and ask for nothing in return. That was the kind of person he was.

"But anyways, whether it's for compensation or for loyalty and courage, the result of many heroes working hard to protect people and defeat villains is that right now, the time from when an incident begins to when it's resolved is so short that it would make you sick. You're about to receive your provisional licences and finally throw yourself into these rapids. If you're not fast enough to keep up with the pace of society changing, or the influx of villains, you'll have a hard time ahead. So today, you guys are going to be tested on speed. The first hundred people to fulfill the requirements pass."

Shinsou froze up, as he remembered what Midoriya had told him the previous day.

_"Stain's attack on Hosu shook the public's trust in Heroes. The fall of All Might's only increased that sense of unease. Do you really think that things are going to stay the same? After everything that has happened? They're most likely going to get us to fight the other examinees in order to pass, and they will probably lower the passing rate as well."_

"Wait! Didn't they say half would pass?" Yaoyorozu gasped, and Shinsou glanced at the green haired boy beside him, who was looking more tense by the minute.

_He knew, no, he predicted this would happen. Izuku really is amazing._

"Twenty one of us, and one hundred spots. The odds are against us..." Iida murmured, "We really need to stick together."

"I'm getting even more nervous..." Jiro sighed.

"Well, a lot's happened out there in the world, and you know, about luck and everything, so here are the requirements."

Everyone was given three targets that they had to place on their body, as well as six orange balls. The targets would light up if they were hit by one of the balls, and if all three targets of an examinee were hit, then they are eliminated. Each person had to eliminate two other competitors in order to pass, though it is considered an elimination if they hit another student's third target.

"That's it for the rules. We're going to open up, and then start one minute later. You all have terrain that you like and dislike. Use your quirks well and do your best."

The ground rumbled, and the room opened up, revealing the massive interior of the stadium that was made up of various different terrains.

"This was so unnecessary, and my sleep was disrupted... I hope the developments are speedy so I can rest as soon as possible." Mera mumbled.

* * *

"Eraser, your fly is down." Fukukado laughed, as Reiko and Aizawa both glared at the female hero, "I honestly can't believe you still have all your students. It's unusual for you to not have expelled anyone. In fact, you have twenty one."

"Midoriya was a special case." Aizawa groaned.

"You still like all of them." Fukukado pointed out. "But still, if you liked your students so much, why didn't you tell them about that. Every year, the test is different, but one thing stays the same; the crushing of UA. All the schools around Japan compete to pass the Provisional License Exam, and the only school that has lost the advantage of no one knowing their quirks is the top school whose sports festival is broadcasted across the country, showing not just the students' quirks, but their weaknesses and fighting styles. UA, your school."

Aizawa snorted, "If that's how you think, then you've already lost."

Fukukado looked at Aizawa in confusion.

"Let's just say that when it comes to information and analysis, UA has a trump card that is unmatched among all the examinees. And skills?"

Aizawa looked at Fukukado, his eyes glinting, "The Sports Festival might as well never happened. A hero is someone who can turn around a bad situation. This is no different."

* * *

"Everyone! Don't get to seperated! Move as a group!" Iida ordered.

"Shut up! I don't take orders from you, Four Eyes!" Bakugou roared, but instead of running off on his own, he remained with the group.

It didn't take too long for several schools to converge on UA, and balls rained down on the twenty one students, everyone doing their best to dodge the incoming barrage of balls from their position at the bottom of the valley.

"Yosh! I've got them!" A boy dressed as a battery yelled, aiming an electric attack at Jiro while she was distracted. Midoriya promptly turned around and pushed her away, taking the brunt of the electrical attack. He did his best to endure the attack; it wasn't that bad, honestly compared what he had experience with the League-

_I'm not there... I'm not there... I'm out..._

He could feel his heart pounding, a familiar phantom pain flaring through his entire being, the sensation of not being able to see, not being able to even make a single sound -

_You can't protect anyone, Deku._

Something snapped.

* * *

"Midoriya!" Jiro yelped, hastily batting away several balls that were about to hit them, "Midoriya, are you okay?"

Suddenly, the air around Midoriya changed, and he looked up, glaring at the students who were throwing the balls at them, before he disappeared.

"Izuku! Where are you going?" Shinsou yelled, "You were the one who said we should stick together!"

Suddenly, the boy who had fired off the electrical attack at Jiro was sent flying, and he crashed into the ground a few feet away.

"What was that?" Someone yelled, trying to help the boy up, when a figure stood up, putting down the leg that was used to kick the boy.

"It's the quirkless one! The weakest one in UA!" A yell resonated, "Seperating yourself from your group, what a stupid mistake! We're going to take you out first and crush you!"

"Weakest?!" Kaminari yelled, "What kind of nonsense is that!?"

"That's so unmanly!" Kirishima retorted.

"How did he get up here to quickly though?!"

Midoriya didn't react, as the students started yelling again and throwing the orange balls at him, trying to hit his targets. The green haired boy easily weaved through the barrage of balls, using his bracers to block a few more balls,before spinning and kicking a ball, aiming right at one of the other student's targets.

"Shit! He hit my target!"

"How is he still not hit yet!?"

Midoriya simply disregarded the kids in front of him, before he suddenly gave off this menacing aura that made everyone freeze in their tracks, stunned.

There was a blur of green, as one by one, in quick succession, the other examinees fell. Midoriya kicked one student in the face, before crouching down and sweeping another two students off their feet. He quickly righted himself, weaving between two more students who tried to attack him, and kicked one of them in the back of his head, knocking him out, before digging his knee into the other student's gut.

There was a girl whose quirk allowed her to make nets out of thin air, and she tried to restrain the green haired boy, but faster than any of them could react, Midoriya had whipped out a knife, easily slashing through the net and slamming the butt of his knife against her temple, knocking her out.

There was another batch of balls being thrown his way, and Midoriya easily dodged them, kicking two of the balls towards the boy who had already been hit once. The balls made contact with the two remaining targets, taking him out.

"Let's go! Restrain everyone that Izuku's knocked out!" Shinsou yelled. Bakugou rolled his eyes, and cursed under his breath, but with a few well aimed AP Shots, Bakugou destroyed some of the rocky terrain, the falling boulders pinning several of the unconscious students down.

"Urg. This is boring. I'm going off on my own." Bakugou grumbled, but Kirishima grabbed his arm, "Come on, man, that ain't manly at all!"

"What is he doing?" Yaoyorozu yelled, and Shinsou sighed, glancing up at Midoriya, "He's just trying to protect us. But... something's wrong."

"Whatever it is, we can't let his efforts go to waste!" Iida ordered, "Everyone, restrain all the other examinees that had fallen! We need to take down forty two students in total to pass! Every single one counts!"

* * *

"He's fast," Shindo admitted, as he and the rest of the Ketsubutsu students observed the chaos from behind a rocky blockade.

They were originally waiting for the other schools to take down UA, before swooping in to take down whoever remained, except that Midoriya was easily ploughing through all the other students, taking down anyone who stood in his way, and showed no signs of slowing down. He had already taken an examinee out, deflecting his opponents balls instead of using his own.

"That's actually terrifying..." Nakagame muttered, observing as Midoriya's eyes glinted like a predator ready to strike.

"This is ridiculous! He's quirkless!" They heard someone yell, as some of the students started running away from Midoriya's merciless assault. Some of the braver ones remained, trying to take Midoriya down, but Midoriya merely dodged and parried away attacks with his knives and bracers, fighting like a well-oiled machine.

Another examinee with a speed quirk tried to attack him, but despite his quirkless status, Midoriya was easily able to evade all her attempts to take him down, merely sidestepping and tripping her up, letting her crash into the ground.

Shindo turned his attention back to the rest of UA. Uraraka, Shinsou, Sero and Mineta were easily restraining the downed students, while Yaoyorozu, Sato, Koda, Shoji and Jiro parried away any other attacks as the others took out any other student in the near vicinity.

"Come on. Let's go. It's too risky to be here. Let's go find some easier opponents to take down." Shindou grumbled.

* * *

"He's actually pretty good." Fukukado admitted, watching as Midoriya easily destroyed the hoard of students that tried to participate in the crushing of UA, "I didn't think he was actually capable of taking down so many people at one go."

"Everyone underestimated him due to him being quirkless. Their arrogance is going to be their downfall. We don't need heroes that underestimate opponents purely based on their quirk. They don't have the potential to react to threats in this fast paced society." Aizawa crossed his arms, leaning into his chair.

"I suppose that's the point of the first phase, huh, Eraser? Also, you really like your class this year, don't you?"

"I don't."

"Don't be embarrassed!" Fukukado laughed, "That's so lame! Your own kid is in there, of course you like your class. Eh? What's that?"

They spotted a huge tornado in the distance, as a voice rang out over the intercoms.

_"Wait?! A hundred and twenty students are eliminated already? Only two people have passed?" _

"That's probably Yoarashi. His quirk is wind based." Aizawa mumbled. With Midoriya practically mowing down students and the rest of 1-A either completely restraining them or taking advantage of the confusion to take out more students, it was only a matter of time until the remaining examinees would realise that they were no match for UA, and would retreat to find easier targets. So far, only two people had passed, so there were plenty of spots for his students to finish off their opponents and pass.

* * *

"Whew... this was easier than I thought..." Ashido sighed, "But still, is Midoriya going to be okay, facing everyone on his own?"

"I hope so... but we should have enough to pass." Kaminari added, "He took out a lot of people."

"Tch... this is boring..." Bakugou snapped, but Yaoyorozu turned to him, "Save your strength. I don't think the second portion of the exam is going to be so easy."

"Tenya, let's go check on Izuku. Ochako, can you send us up?" Shinsou asked. Uraraka nodded, activating her quirk on the two boys. Iida and Shinsou quickly made their way up to the top of the cliff, and Urarak released her quirk, before joining the others in activating the targets of the fallen examinees and passing.

Iida and Shinsou found Midoriya still going strong, taking out examinees one after another. Some had already retreated, and it didn't take too long for Midoriya to take out the remaining students.

The green haired boy looked around warily.

"Izuku, that's enough." Shinsou spoke up, "There's more than enough examinees here to pass."

Midoriya clenched his fist as he continued to survey his surroundings, before he walked over to Shinsou and Iida.

"Come on. The others are probably making their way to the resting venue." Iida nodded, as Midoriya let out a frustrated growl.

"If it's about Toga..." Shinsou started, as Iida blinked at the name, "If you say she's here, we trust you. But if we don't know where she is, neither we nor the teachers can do anything about it. Don't worry about it too much. Once she reveals herself, we'll take her down, alright?"

Midoriya gave Shinsou a confused glance, before he turned away, taking out the orange balls that he had been given and activating the targets on two fallen examinees.

_Where is she? __Why is she here? __What does she want? _

His hand shook as memories flashed through his mind; Toga's laughter, the pain flaring through his body as she dug her metallic blade deeper and deeper into his flesh, blood trickling out of his body like a leaky faucet.

_You can't save anyone, Deku. Just give up!_

Whatever the League was up to, he would stop it. Even if it was a trap, even if he was merely a puppet in their play, Midoriya wasn't going to let anyone else get hurt.


	69. Chapter 69 - A two-bit counterfeit

Aizawa noted that most of the students who had been eliminated by Midoriya were still in the stadium, watching from the stands. He suspected that most of them were either salty that they had underestimated Midoriya and had been eliminated by him, or they were curious to see how a quirkless student would perform in the exam.

"Ahh... we missed the first portion..."

Aizawa looked up at the familiar voice, spotting a blonde with cyan eyes, as well as a familiar man wearing a grey suit with a polka dotted tie and a blue skinned female.

"Hello, Nighteye, Bubble Girl, Lemillion." Aizawa dryly greeted, as Togata smiled, waving at Aizawa, "Aizawa-sensei! Hi!"

"Aizawa. And Ms Joke." Sasaki nodded.

"You guys aren't teachers or anything." Fukukado noted, "What are you guys doing here?"

"I heard from Orca that the second part of the exam was based off the Kamino Incident, and that Midoriya Izuku was one of the examinees in his location. I wanted to see how he would tackle this." Sasaki stated.

"Who's taking care of the agency?" Aizawa asked, and Awata smiled, "Oh, Centipede is! He wanted to come as well, but he didn't finish all his paperwork so he's stuck in the agency."

"So... who passed?" Togata asked, and Fukukado replied, "As far as I know, all the UA students and my students passed. Also, your fly is down, Lemillion."

"Eh? It is?" Togata naively replied in a panic, and quickly looked down to check, and Awate facepalmed as Togata sighed in relief, "Whew... it isn't."

"I don't think curiosity is the only reason you came, though." Aizawa glanced at Sasaki as the hero pushed up his glasses, "The provisional license exam occurs in three locations, and the mock boss villains in each location are Gang Orca, Kamui Woods and Shishido. We haven't had a new official Hero Billboard ranking since the loss of the Symbol of Peace, but the one with the highest ranking since the last Hero Billboard Chart JP is Gang Orca. I had a bad feeling about this exam... that may be the reason why."

"Maybe." Aizawa narrowed his eyes, "Midoriya mentioned that he had a feeling that Toga Himiko is around here somewhere... it may be connected."

"Well... we'll just have to be on the lookout." Fukukado grinned, "Anyways, relax! What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

Midoriya stared at the ceramic knife in his hands, admiring the sharpness of the blade as he ran his finger along the edge gently, careful not to cut himself.

It wasn't that easy; his hands were trembling slightly. He had been rash and expended too much energy in the first round, and he still hadn't completely recovered from the Kamino Incident, or the attack on UA; he still had scars that throbbed if he pushed himself too much. Given all the accumulated nerve damage he had received in such a short period of time, he didn't really expect that he could fully recover from it anymore.

But it didn't matter. If he had to get hurt to protect his classmates, then he would gladly get hurt. They mattered more than him.

Midoriya pulled the dragon pendant out from under his hoodie, rubbing his fingers along the smooth surface of the rock. He tried to recall the good times he had with his parents, especially that one year when he was with both his father and his mother, trying to use them to push out all the bad memories.

He clenched his fist, wrapping his fingers around the dragon, when suddenly, a white paper cup filled with water appeared in his field of vision.

Midoriya blinked in confusion, and looked upwards, seeing Shinsou holding the cup, as well as a plate with some snacks.

He smiled, "Need a drink, Izuku?"

Midoriya placed the ceramic knife back into its holder and slipped the pendant back under his hoodie, before gingerly taking the cup from Shinsou. He examined it warily, before taking a small sip. It seemed like just normal water, and he really didn't want to think that Shinsou would do anything to the water.

His heart wanted him to trust Shinsou, but somewhere at the back of his head, something told him that it just wasn't logical to trust anyone anymore.

Midoriya took another sip of water as Shinsou settled down beside him, putting a small black and white sandwich-looking biscuit in his mouth, before offering his plate to Midoriya, "Want one?"

Midoriya shook his head and focused on his water. He needed to focus, he had been distracted by the thought that Toga was somewhere in the near vicinity, and one small electric shock had sent him into a panicked rampage that made him expend much more energy than necessary.

Most of 1-A was with them, either chatting, resting, or just eating some snacks while they waited for the next segment to finish.

"Hi!" He heard the sound of several students getting closer, and he could feel that familiar, irritating presence of the Ketsubutsu student.

Shindo stopped in front of the group, and smiled widely, "So, you all passed! That's awesome!"

For some reason, the praise to 1-A seemed more genuine instead of fake. That was just confusing.

"Yep! I see that all the Ketsubutsu students passed too!" Kaminari grinned, "You guys are awesome too!"

Ashido pointed to the corner, where the Shiketsu students were standing and resting, "I see Shiketsu too! Though the one with purple hair isn't here..."

"Mina, pointing is rude..." Jiro lightly berated.

Mora seemed to have noticed that Ashido was pointing at them, and the Shiketsu students walked over to them. Yoarashi was glaring at Todoroki with disdain for some reason; Midoriya wasn't really too sure what was going on anymore.

Suddenly, a tingle ran down his spine, and Midoriya tensed up. It took all his willpower not to crush the paper cup in his hands; there was still water in it, and if he did so, he would be wasting water.

_She was somewhere in the room._

He hastily finished up the water in his cup as Shindo started chatting with Sero, Kirishima and Kaminari. Utsushimi seemed to get along well with Nakagame, Ashido and Hagakure, while Yoarashi was being annoying and talking so loudly that Midoriya wanted to rip his own ears out just so that he didn't have to hear his ridiculously loud voice.

"Hey... is he okay?" Toteki quietly whispered to Iida, "I haven't seen him say a single word this entire time."

Iida glanced at Midoriya worriedly, before trying to get Toteki's attention off Midoriya, knowing that the boy would not enjoy the attention, "He's fine. He's usually quiet; he's probably trying to focus for the next segment."

_"Okay, a hundred have passed. We're done with the first round. One minute for you to settle down, and then we'll explain the next part. All of you who passed, watch this."_

Midoriya glanced up in confusion, as the televisions in the room blared to life. The screens displayed several buildings, and some of the students were starting to get confused as to what was going on. Suddenly, buildings started exploding at random, rock formations started falling apart, as the field they once battled on fell into ruins.

"Why!? What is going on!?"

_"The next __test __will be the last one. We will have you all perform rescue exercises as bystanders in this disaster site. We will assume that those who have passed the first test have received your provisional licences and test how well you can carry out suitable rescue procedures."_

"There's people out there!?"

"Elderly and children!?"

"What are they doing there?! It's dangerous!"

_"They are people who have undergone training to be professional people in need of rescue and are high in demand right now. The "Help Us Company", or "HUC" for short. They have dressed up as injured victims and are on standby throughout the disaster site. We will now have you carry out the rescue. In addition, we will score your rescue based on points and if you have more points than the benchmark at the end of the test, then you pass. We will start in ten minutes, so please use the restroom and take care of any other business before we start."_

Suddenly, there was the sound of a sharp intake of breath, and the sharp sound of paper crumpling. Everyone turned around startled, only to see that Midoriya was frozen where he sat, his emerald eyes glued intently on the screens as the buildings shook and crumbled. The empty paper cup was crumpled in his hand as he clenched his fist tightly, his arm shaking.

_No... what is this? This is Kamino... right?_

The familiar rumble of buildings filled his mind, as memories of a building falling all around him and his classmates filled his mind, as clear as the time it had happened.

_What's going on?_

_Didn't I... didn't we..._

_It can't be..._

_Stupid, worthless Deku. Wallowing in your memories... How pathetic._

"Izuku? Are you okay?" Shinsou asked, leaning over to check on Midoriya. He still didn't make a single sound, but one look into his eyes revealed just how _terrified_ Midoriya was. His emerald orbs were filled with pain, fear, panic, terror; that was the first time he had ever seen so much emotion being expressed by the green haired boy, but it was just painful to see just how much pain he was holding inside of him.

_Memories... just memories..._

_We're just having the license exam... it's not real... this isn't real...__ Focus..._

Midoriya closed his eyes and reached up, gripping the dragon pendant through his hoodie, and exhaled, his grip on the paper cup loosening slightly.

He opened his eyes, and noticed his classmates staring at him.

"Midoriya? You doing okay there, buddy?" Sero asked. Midoriya seemed to have calmed down, and he had loosened his grip on both his pendant and the cup.

The green haired boy glanced at Sero, and nodded, before signing, _"It has to be a simulation of Kamino."_

Shinsou's eyes widened in understanding, "Oh... A Kamino simulation... it's no wonder you were shaken up over it."

Iida frowned, "But the Kamino Incident was dangerous. Are you sure that they would use it to test us?"

_"It's the only explanation. The Kamino Incident was one of the most important recent events, leading to the fall of All Might and the capture of one of Japan's most wanted and strongest villains. All for One and All Might's battle caused the destruction of many buildings, trapping civilians underneath all the rubble. We're supposed to save people trapped during the destruction of such an event... It only makes sense."_

Most of the Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu students roughly understood what Midoriya was signing, but they found something... a little off. Midoriya seemed _way_ too calm talking, or rather, signing about a huge event like that. He did seem to have a panic attack just prior, but he had gotten over that ridiculously quickly and was already starting to analyze the situation at hand. It just wasn't natural, but the UA students didn't seem to notice how odd it was as Shinsou translated everything for 1-A, and Sero mumbled, "So... it doesn't seem that bad though... we just have to rescue people."

Midoriya shook his head, _"It's not going to be that easy. We're most likely going to have to fight mock villains as well. On its own, rescuing or fighting is already challenging, both of them together would make the difficulty increase exponentially. And that's exactly what happened in Kamino; rescuing civilians while fending off the League of Villains. They'll want us to strike a balance."_

"So..." Kaminari asked, after Shinsou finished yet another translation, "Does anyone have a plan?"

Midoriya glanced at Yoarashi and Todoroki, who were subtly glaring at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. Those two needed to get along with each other, not only did they both have powerful quirks, but if they combined their powers, they would practically have pyrokinetic powers with Todoroki's ability to create fire and Yoarashi's ability to control the fire with his wind powers.

But that could wait.

Yaoyorozu pointed to one of the screens, "There's an open area there where we can access all the different areas from there, so we should set up a first aid station or something. Since we have to rescue people, we should assume that they have injuries."

"Very well." Mora noted, "I can clear the area, and we'll set up a station. We should also spread out, and try to rescue as many people as fast as possible."

* * *

A loud bell rang, interrupting the ongoing conversations.

_"Villains have begun a large scale terrorist attack! This is occurring in all areas of Blah Blah City. Due to buildings collapsing, there are many injured. Due to heavily damaged roads, the first group of rescue workers have been delayed. Until they arrive, the heroes in the area will lead the rescue efforts. Save as many lives as you can. Well then, start."_

It didn't take long for the room they were in to open up, and Mora promptly cleared the area with his quirk, and Shindo, Nakagame, and Toteki promptly started to set up a first aid station.

"I hear a child!" Shoji yelled, pointing towards some buildings, directing Shinsou, Iida and Midoriya over to check on it, with several others trailing behind.

"Help! My grandpa is trapped!"

They carefully picked their way through the rubble, and carefully made their way towards the wailing boy, not wanting to make the uneven footing even more unstable.

"Okay, calm down. Everything is alright." Iida tried to soften his tone, "Are you injured anywhere?"

"He has a head injury… and his breathing is... weird? I can't really tell... to be honest..." Shinsou muttered, picking up the boy.

"Minus points!" The boy yelled, "You can't say something like that to us! Heroes are supposed to know what to do, especially during an event like this! Saying that you don't know wouldn't help reassure victims!"

Midoriya could feel himself feeling extremely annoyed, but promptly pushed it away. These HUC members weren't really injured, and even though they were trying their best to _pretend_ that they were, Midoriya couldn't help but just see through their facade and deceptions.

They were really just perfectly healthy people with red paint splattered on them. His judgement was completely screwed over _because_ everything was fake.

_He couldn't do this. He just couldn't force himself to believe what was fake._

"Anyways, we need to bring him to the first aid station. Izuku, do you think you can do that? You're the fastest amongst us while taking the instability of the ground into account." Iida stated, and Midoriya nodded, carefully carrying the boy on his back. He didn't like the situation, nor did he like physical contact with anyone he wasn't even familiar with, but he'd just have to suck it up for now if they wanted to pass.

"Jiro, Shoji! Check the area! Uraraka, once you locate him, try and lift the rubble with Yaoyorozu's help!" Iida ordered, and Midoriya promptly made his way to the first aid station.

With some pointers from the HUC members, the process was going along a lot smoother, as rescues from all over the arena became more and more frequent. But Midoriya continued to refuse to make his own decisions, opting to let others take charge and just follow along if someone told him to do something.

Shoji had identified another faux victim, and Shinsou and Midoriya set out to find them. They found a man lying under a precarious pile of rubble that looked like it was about to fall any second, and Shinsou blanched, "We need to get him out of there, fast."

Suddenly, there was a loud crash coming from the other side, as the pile of rubble shifted and came crashing down, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

"Look out!" Shinsou yelped, as Midoriya felt his body react, quickly running over and sliding under the pile of falling rubble, pushing the man to safety.

"Minus points!" came a shout from the other side, "What if someone was trapped on the other side! You could have crushed them!"

Shinsou coughed, and tried to look around as the dust slowly cleared. The HUC member had been pushed out of the way just in time, but Midoriya currently had his leg pinned to the ground by all the rubble, and was trying to free himself.

"Shit... Midoriya? Are you okay?" Shinsou asked worried, trying to see if there was a good way to save Midoriya without dislodging any rubble, before he spotted Uraraka and Koda out of the corner of his eye, "Ochako! Koji! Can you guys come over for a second?"

Uraraka and Koda quickly turned at the sound of Shinsou's voice, before quickly making their way to his side.

"Can you make the rubble lighter so we can get Izuku out of here?" Shinsou asked, and Uraraka nodded, before promptly activating her quirk on the rubble. Koda easily lifted all the rubble up, allowing Shinsou to pull Midoriya out from under the rubble.

Shinsou carefully rolled up Midoriya's pants leg, as the green haired boy stared at his foot that was pointing in the wrong direction.

"It's broken." Shinsou muttered, and Midoriya rolled his eyes.

_No shit._

Midoriya reached over to the side, grabbing two sturdy pieces of metal rebar, and pulled it over. He quickly rightened his leg, and placed the rebar next to his leg, before undoing the cloth around his arms and wrapping his leg and the rebar up tightly.

Deciding that his makeshift splint was good enough, Midoriya pulled his pants leg back down, over his leg, and stood up experimentally.

The HUC member stared at Midoriya as Koda picked him up, because the green haired kid had just fixed his own broken leg, and was walking around on the makeshift splint with no trouble at all.

_This kid's a monster..._

Most of the fake victims were rescued, and all they had to do was to pick up the stragglers who were in odd places. Some of the students had gone off to start searching for them, as Midoriya looked at all the rescued people at the first aid station, trying to do a mental headcount. He was surveying the area; his makeshift split was working perfectly fine, but Shinsou, Uraraka and Koda insisted that he stay at the first aid station so he wouldn't make his broken leg worse.

But he was getting an uneasy feeling. A burning fire in his gut that wanted to burst out, twisting and turning like an agitated dragon, the familiar sense of foreboding he felt whenever something went wrong.

_Something was going to happen._

All the HUC members at the first aid stand were just being incredibly annoying, from his point of view, pretending to have injuries that they didn't. It was all acting for the exam, sure, but Midoriya just hated the idea of being fooled. Midoriya looked around, his eyes falling on a building that was still somewhat intact, as the feeling in his gut grew stronger.

Midoriya raised his hands, catching Shindo's attention, before signing something. Shindo quickly processed Midoriya's signing, before frowning, "You want to move the first aid station?"

_"Yes."_ Midoriya replied, _"Something's going to happen close to those buildings over there. The villains, most likely. We need to move the station."_

Midoriya pointed to a building, but Shindo wasn't too sure whether he wanted to trust the green haired boy's judgement. Sure, there may be a bad feeling, but without any concrete proof, moving the station would just be a waste of time.

_"Midoriya's instincts have never been wrong before."_

He remembered what Aizawa had stated before the exam, and sighed, "Alright." Shindo promptly turned around, and started hollering at the examinees in their vicinity, "Guys! We're moving the station that way! Let's go!"

The HUC members would have deducted points from Shindo for hollering, and from Midoriya for signing since there was absolutely no reason to do so, especially since he wasn't mute, but they were too busy looking at each other; they did understand what Midoriya had signed, and they were utterly confused.

_He knew that there was going to be villains!?_

It didn't take them too long to start the move of the first aid station, when suddenly, there was a huge explosion, right from the building that Midoriya had pointed at.

"Explosions!?"

"What's going on!?"

"What is this?!"

_"There has been a large scale terrorist attack by villains!"_

"There!" Someone quickly pointed out Sakamata, who stood at the top of the building, and Shindo demanded, "How the heck did you manage to predict this!?"

_"Villains have appeared and have started their pursuit. Hero candidates at the scene should continue their rescue efforts while still suppressing the villains!_

"Get everyone to safety!" Shindo yelled at the students who were lagging behind in the process of moving the first aid station, "Hurry! Tell everyone up front to get them as far away from the villains as possible!"

Shindo ran out to meet the faux villains, and Midoriya ran out after him.

"Stay back!" Shindo growled, "There's too many of them, and they have guns! You have a broken leg!"

Midoriya just ignored him. Like he was going to trust anything Shindo said.

"I'll deal with them! I won't let them get any closer!" Shindo snapped, but right as he finished the statement, Sakamata appeared right in front of him.

"Too slow."

Sakamata aimed a concentrated hypersonic wave at Shindo, knocking the teen back. Midoriya had noticed Sakamata's presence and had already evaded, staring at Shindo who was lying on the ground in a daze.

"Only a single rear guard when there's such a difference in ability? You must be underestimating us!" Sakamata growled, as Nakagame ran over to Midoriya to help him with Shindo, "Come on, let's go. Don't worry about them! It's just a test, Gang Orca can't hurt us too badly."

Some of the faux villains ran over to the first aid station as Sakamata lost interest in Shindo, and Sero, Ashido, Ojiro, and Hagakure had just arrived to help carry all the faux victims.

"Hold on." Shindo pushed himself out of Nakagame's hold, and placed his palm to the ground, sending out a vibration and knocking the faux villains off balance, "I'm used to the recoil from my own quirk…. Uh… things are still spinning a bit, though…"

Sakamata leapt in front of Shindo, "You still haven't learnt!?"

Midoriya promptly rushed forward, sweeping downwards and using his momentum to knock Sakamata off balance.

_He's too strong physically... I can't take him out like this..._

Todoroki appeared on the cliff, blasting Sakamata with ice and taking his attention off Shindo. A strong blast of wind knocked Sakamata off balance, and the killer whale growled, turning around and finding Yoarashi grinning at him. Yoarashi and Todoroki were constantly attempting to attack Sakamata with their quirks, but they just weren't in sync; Yoarashi's wind was blowing Todoroki's fire away, and Todoroki's fire was affecting how Yoarashi's wind moved. Sakamata was barely fazed by the weak attempts.

A mistake from Yoarashi and Todoroki accidentally sent a wave of fire in Shindo's direction, but Midoriya had ran over, and just barely managed to pull the dazed Shindo out of the way of the attack, before trying to drag him out of the way of the fight.

Sakamata roared, and fired off a few hypersonic waves at them, sending them flying, before running after them. Some of Sakamata's men started shooting their cement guns at the downed Yoarashi and Todoroki, forcing them to dodge. They managed to herd Yoarashi into Sakamata's hypersonic waves, and he hit the ground hard, before immobilising Todoroki, letting Sakamata knock him into a daze.

Midoriya growled, and unravelled the cloth around his broken leg, the two pieces of metal rebar falling to the ground; the splint was bulky and severely hindered his movement. His leg was _only_ broken, it wasn't anything major.

Nakagame dragged Shindo away, "Midoriya, what are you doing!? You're injured!"

Midoriya didn't answer, and threw himself at Sakamata's men. Ignoring the pain flaring up his leg, Midoriya easily weaved through all the cement shots that the faux villains were firing at him. He punched one man in the face, before grabbing the cement gun right out of his hands and knocking him off balance, finishing him off with a knee to the gun. He whirled around, using the cement gun as a shield, as he leapt at another faux villain. He didn't really want to use his knives unless it was necessary; it was just an exam, and it wasn't logical for them to want to hurt the examinees severely. The cement guns were there to trap the students; if they really wanted to hurt them, they would be using real guns.

Ojiro had just arrived, and smacked away one of the faux villains, "Midoriya! Your leg is broken! Stop fighting, you'll make it worse!"

"He's not going to listen." Jiro mumbled under her breath, before yelling, "Don't bother about that now! We need to take care of these goons first!"

With Ojiro, Jiro and Midoriya fending off Sakamata's men, the faux villains were barely able to move, having to deal with a ranged fighter and two nimble close ranged fighters. Shinsou had appeared and joined the fight, though his brainwashing quirk didn't seem to be very effective since none of the men replied to his questions, but he was taking care of his fair share of faux villains with his capture weapon. Shindo seemed to have recovered sufficiently from his fight with Sakamata, and was sending out vibrations to throw the faux villains off balance.

It didn't take them too long to defeat all the faux villains in their area, and Yaoyorozu had arrived at just the right time, providing them with long, sturdy rope to tie up Sakamata's men.

Shinsou walked over to Midoriya, supporting him to lessen the strain on his broken leg, before looking towards Sakamata, who was looming over Yoarashi and Todoroki. Neither boy could do anything, being pinned to the ground with cement.

"Dammit. We managed to defeat these, but I don't think we can pass if we don't take out the boss." He cursed, "We're stuck. We need to get them out of there."

"Midoriya." Jiro turned to him. Midoriya gazed at her in confusion, as she nodded at him, "If you have any ideas... just tell us. We'll follow your lead."

_She trusts me? They trust me? They'll listen?_ They don't understand sign language though, and -

Midoriya pulled his hood over his face nervously, his own emotions swirling inside of him, wanting to burst out and swallow him whole.. That wouldn't happened, it couldn't, he was quirkless and useless and no one ever listened to him -

_Selfish brat. You're not that important._

But they didn't have a choice. They needed to pass.

_Sakamata Kugo. Quirk: Orcinus. Weaknesses - _

"Jiro!" Midoriya yelled, "Send some soundwaves at Gang Orca, frequency of two thousand hertz! Make it loud!"

"Got it!" Jiro nodded, promptly adjusting her speakers and plugging her earphone jacks into them, firing off the soundwaves at the killer whale.

Sakamata was about to fire another hypersonic wave at Todoroki, when a piercing screech filled his ears, and he promptly covered his ears in pain.

Todoroki and Yoarashi looked at Sakamata in confusion, when they heard Midoriya's voice, "Yoarashi! Shoto! Combine your powers and trap Gang Orca in a fire tornado; he's a Killer Whale and he's weak to heat! Jiro, cut your attack off!"

Despite barely having any interactions with Midoriya and his amonisity with Todoroki, when Yoarashi heard Midoriya's tone, he couldn't help and just _obey_. Todoroki and Yoarashi promptly fired off their quirks in perfect synchronisation, engulfing Sakamata in a swirling tornado of fire.

Nakagame and Shindo looked at the column of fire in awe, before Midoriya's eyes glinted. He pulled a knife out, twirling it in his hand, and yelled, "Stop the fire attack!"

Yoarashi and Todoroki immediately cut off the attack, despite their confusion.

"What? That was working though -" Shindo asked, his question cut off as Midoriya flung the knife in Sakamata's direction. They watched as the fire tornado died away, revealing Sakamata who was holding a bottle of water above his head, ready to pour it on himself, before Midoriya's knife made contact with the bottle with deadly accuracy, smacking the bottle away.

Sakamata looked up in confusion, stunned, as Midoriya ordered, "Shoto, Yoarashi, make another fire tornado!"

Yoarashi and Todoroki created another fire column, trapping Sakamata inside, as more of Sakamata's men ran over, firing their cement guns at the students. Yaoyorozu quickly created a shield to block the cement shots, before Shinsou sent out a vibration, cursing, "Shit, there's more of them!"

"Hagakure! Aoyama! Blind them, then go to Gang Orca! Jiro, when Orca destroys the fire column, blast him with more soundwaves until you see a bright light." Midoriya yelled while signing something to Shinsou. Shinsou paused, and nodded, speeding off as Aoyama fired his laser at Hagakure. Hagakure immediately refracted the the laser, blinding the faux villains, giving Shinsou ample time to slip past them and make his way towards Sakamata, Aoyama and Hagakure following behind him.

"You have a plan?" Nakagame asked, and Midoriya nodded, not even looking at her, "Five minutes, maximum."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean - " Shindo didn't even get to finish his statement as Midoriya leapt out towards the faux villains, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter.

* * *

"Alright. Understand?" Shinsou asked, and Hagakure and Aoyama nodded. The plan was simple, but it would be effective. Based on the reactions of Sakamata's men to his questions, Shinsou was pretty sure that they were all aware what his quirk was.

Midoriya must have noticed it too, because he had told Shinsou to use his voice changer to sound like one of faux villains, and to get Hagakure and Aoyama to blind Sakamata to prevent him from seeing Shinsou's identity. Shinsou's quirk was the fastest way to take Sakamata down, but there was no way Sakamata would respond to Shinsou willingly, especially if he knew what his quirk was.

Sakamata finally managed to muster up enough energy to blast out another hypersonic wave, tearing the fire column apart, but that was when Jiro struck. She blasted Sakamata with more soundwaves that the students themselves could barely detect, but Sakamata, being a killer whale, could hear loud and clear.

Sakamata roared, covering his ears, trying to detect the source of the sound when Hagakure and Aoyama jumped in, Hagalure refracting Aoyama's laser and concentrating it on Sakamata so that only the pro hero would be blinded.

Jiro immediately stopped her attack, and Shinsou put on his voice changer, and walked towards Sakamata.

"Sir? Are you alright?" Shinsou asked, ad Sakamata tried to clear the ringing in his ears and blink the spots out of his eyes, absentmindedly replying, "Yeah, I'm fine. We -"

Shinsou smirked, and activated his quirk as Sakamata's eyes went blank.

"Now go to sleep." Shinsou ordered, as Sakamata promptly collapsed, completely passed out.

_"Uh, this may seem arbitrary, but all the HUC deployed have been rescued in some form or another, obviously still alive. With this, all provisional licence exam procedures have been completed. After we tally the scores, we will announce the results here. Those who are injured should go to the infirmary. The rest of you should change and be on standby."_

The faux villains immediately stopped firing at the examinees, as Yaoyorozu lowered her shields in confusion, "It's over?"

"I think so..." Nakagame muttered, "They stopped firing at us."

Midoriya took a deep breath, trying to quell the panic that was rising up from his stomach. He had been terrified, terrified of the entire Kamino Simulation, terrified that no one would listen to him, terrified that Sakamata would injure his classmates, terrified that they would all fail.

_It's all over now._

Shinsou and Mora immediately set to work, freeing Yoarashi and Todoroki from the cement.

Suddenly, the feeling in his gut blazed to life, and Midoriya looked down, a chill running down his spine.

Toga was standing right there, at the bottom of the cliff, some greyish liquid at her feet, as a portal opened right behind her. Sako, Hikiishi and Bubaigawara stepped through, before Hikiishi declared, "Finally. The exam is over. We're going to kill one of the top ten pro heroes in Japan, right in front of everyone!"

* * *

"Midoriya actually spoke up." Fukukado mused, as Aizawa sighed, "He doesn't like talking, but in order to pass... I think he's trying his best to help everyone pass."

"He's interesting... That's for sure." Sasaki mumbled, watching as Shinsou, Aoyama and Hagakure ran out to fend of Sakamata, "But he does know Orca's strengths and weaknesses. Using hypersonic waves and fire to counter him, as well as preventing him from rehydrating, is smart. Being able to aim at the bottle through the fire, and be able to hit it, especially from that distance, is pretty impressive."

Mera finally announced the end of the exam, when suddenly, thick glass walls rose up, separating the arena from the spectator's stand, and everyone leaned forwards in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on.

Sasaki's sharp eyes caught onto a familiar blonde, and he mumbled, "She's right there. Toga Himiko."

"Midoriya was right..." Fukukado hissed, as she noticed the portal and the three villains that stepped out of it, "The League! We should go help them!"

Aizawa stood up, and was about to find the exit to go deal with the villains when all the doors suddenly shut.

He growled, "Dammit. They must have added these emergency features to protect civilians, but we can't get out now."

_"It seems like there is a villain attack. All teachers in the stands, please stand back and let Gang Orca handle this. We have gotten into contact with the Hero Commission, and this is the course of action that they have decided on while waiting for other heroes to arrive."_

"Does Mera not know that Orca is unconscious? And that there are heroes in the stands?" Fukukado grumbled.

"I can slip through the walls." Togata suggested, but Sasaki shook his head.

"But-" Togata tried to argue, and Sasaki sent him a sharp glare, "It's not like I don't want you to help. But this is a direct order from the Hero Commission, and as my intern, it's my responsibility to prevent you from getting into any trouble with the Commission."

Sasaki turned back to the arena, where the League was standing, "We'll just have to wait."

* * *

Midoriya took a step back, his entire body trembling slightly.

_No no no... why are they here?!_

He noticed that Toga had pulled out a knife, and was aiming it at the downed Sakamata.

_I can't let anyone get hurt..._

Before he knew it, Midoriya leapt down from his position on the cliff, whipping out another knife and deflecting the one that Toga had thrown.

Toga blinked in surprise as her knife was smacked away, and she looked up, only to find that Midoriya had landed, a knife in his hand, glaring coldly at them.

"Oh! It's Izu-kun!" Toga happily chirped, gaining the attention of the three other villains. Midoriya forced himself not to flinch as she smiled at him, her canines glinting maliciously as she took out another knife, and he tried to push all his memories to the back of his head.

Hikiishi narrowed her eyes warily at Midoriya, and raised her oversized magnet. The knife on the ground that Midoriya had deflected started shaking, and Hikiishi growled, "You're here?"

Midoriya let out a low growl in warning, as Sako raised his hands and Bubaigawara whipped out his measuring tape. Hikishi growled, "Forget about the pro. This kid's more of a threat! This time, we'll kill you for real!"


	70. Chapter 70 - I'm a puppet in your play

"Mera... where is Gang Orca?" One of the supervisors asked, as Mera shrugged, "Don't know. All cameras were destroyed somehow. We don't have a visual on anything. That's the standard announcement we all make in the event of a villain attack."

The supervisor made a quick call to one of the supervisors down in the stands, before hanging up, "Mera, Gang Orca was taken out by Shinsou Hitoshi right before the exam ended. Right now, all the students are in danger from the League."

Mera snapped to attention, before asking, "There are a few heroes who are teachers, right? Lower the glass walls and open the gates, let them in."

One of the guards tapped on the computer, as a loud beeping sound resonated from the device, "We've been hacked. I can't lower the gates."

"Just get the heroes to bust through." Mera asked, "Has the hero commission been contacted?"

"They won't be able to." The guard replied, "That glass was made specifically to withstand high amounts of pressure and heat."

"The hero commission has been contacted. However, it seems like there have been villain outbreaks all over the place. Raging fires and random villain attacks. All the heroes who were on their way are currently occupied."

Mera growled, and ordered, "Try to regain control of the security system, and see if the heroes in the stands can find a way to help. Also, relay the information to the HUC and students that they're allowed to use their quirks in self-defence. I'll try to contact the Hero Commission again."

"All contact has been cut off. The signals are being jammed. We can't contact anyone." The guard announced.

Mera sighed, and rested his head in his palm, "Just get to work. We need to fix this as soon as possible."

* * *

Kurogiri stared at the security room he had thrashed, eyeing the guards who were all unconscious on the ground.

Toga had infiltrated the stadium as a student, and all she had to do was to identified the coordinates of the security room, as well as signify the end of the exam, right when everyone was tired, and their guard was down, so that he could teleport a few members of the League into the stadium to kill Sakamata. Out of the three heroes who were posing as the "villains" of the exercise, Sakamata had the highest ranking, and killing him would have the largest impact on the hero community.

He was _not_ expecting to see that Midoriya was also in the stadium. At least Sakamata had been taken out by the students, so there would be less problems with the rest of the League taking care of Midoriya. Being the only quirkless person to even make it into the Hero Course and to be involved in so many major events, he was relatively well known in Japan. His death would prove how useless the Hero Commission was, not even being able to protect one quirkless child.

Kurogiri turned away from the security room. His job here was done; he just needed to collect the others when they were done with Midoriya.

* * *

"Sir... you are aware that the students are in danger, right?"

The Public Safety Commission President sighed, "Of course. Recovery Girl and other rescue heroes are on their way."

"Even so, with so many villain attacks, the heroes we have sent out have not been able to reach the destination, and Gang Orca had been knocked out." Her subordinate added, before asking, "You don't seem particularly worried, though."

The President merely chuckled, "They'll be fine. It's UA, after all. Those students have been up against the League before, not to mention that they have a powerful player on their side."

"You mean Todoroki Shoto? Or Bakugou Katsuki?" Her subordinate asked, "But they're not in any condition to-"

"I mean Midoriya Izuku."

"But he's quirkless. Surely he can't -"

The president glared at her subordinate, "Yes. He's quirkless, and yet he's won the Sports Festival? He's been the one targeted by the League? Even now... he tried to rescue his fellow examinees despite having a broken leg. He came up with a strategy to defeat Gang Orca. He may be quirkless... but he has sufficient skills to make up for it."

"But you wanted to take him out of UA's hero course..."

"Nezu wouldn't tell Midoriya. I just wanted to see how the other heroes would react to it. After all, it wouldn't be fair to fail him just because of his lack of a quirk. If I wanted him out of the Hero Course, I wouldn't even let Tsukauchi suggest that we give him a chance."

She continued, "It's clear that Midoriya is important to the community as a whole despite only being a first year. He is also one of the least destructive of all the current Hero Students, and would cause the least collateral damage. He's also willing to put himself before others without wanting anything in return, takes advantage of any situation he's placed in, analyses the problem at hand to find practical solutions, and he inspires his peers. Those are the qualities that we need in a hero. Plus... he has far fewer legal limitations than everyone else, and we need to keep an eye on him to ensure that he, and everyone, will be safe. I'm curious to see how this would turn out."

"If you say so... I guess failing him for being quirkless would also be a bad public display." Her subordinate sighed.

* * *

Toga grinned at Midoriya, "It was you who shouted out orders, wasn't it? Your voice is so pretty! Why didn't you let me hear it when I was stabbing you?"

Midoriya didn't reply, and warily glanced at his surroundings. Behind him was the unconscious Gang Orca, and the League was currently stationed between him and the first aid station. As long as he kept their attention on him... everyone else should be fine.

It didn't matter that he was scared; the League was after him, they were his problem. No one else should get hurt when it was all his fault.

"Ah, that's right." Toga smiled sweetly, "Shiggy wanted you muzzled. Pity, though. I would have enjoyed hearing you writhe in pain."

Midoriya let out a small growl at the mention of being muzzled, as Toga rushed forwards, aiming her knife at his neck. The greenette quickly parried away her knife, ducking under her arm and elbowing her in the gut. Toga stumbled back, grinning, "You're not so bad! Even with a broken leg!"

Midoriya grit his teeth together. He could smell blood... but he wasn't too sure where it was coming from.

"Toga! Don't underestimate him because he's quirkless! He's the one that single-handedly took out Muscular!" Hikiishi snapped, and Mora blinked in surprise as he helped Yoarashi up.

_Wasn't Muscular that well known A-rank villain with some powerful muscle augmenting quirk? Sure, Midoriya has knives and his instincts and combat sense were on point, but how the hell would he be able to defeat someone like that who could easily overpower him?_

"What should we do?" One member of the HUC asked.

"The exam has ended... neither us nor the examinees are allowed to use our quirks, and we haven't gotten any other instructions from Mera either. All we can do is wait." Another HUC member replied.

Midoriya felt a familiar tug on his body as Hikiishi activated her quirk, pulling him towards her magnet. He was about to react when he heard a yell, "Hey! You! Midoriya Izuku, right? Get back here! Don't engage with the villains!"

Midoriya froze at the shout, not really sure whether to follow orders or continue, and the small distraction was all Hikiishi needed to smash her oversized magnet into his chest and smack him into the ground, breaking several ribs that also pierced several organs in the process. He hissed as Hikiishi raised her magnet to smash him into the ground again, before lifting his legs, using the force of Hikiishi's attack to propel himself out of the way. He quickly got up, and swerved to the side as Sako attempted to drop a boulder on him.

He could feel his insides slowly starting to heal, but the healing stopped before his broken ribs fully healed. His ribs were aching and pain flared through his body whenever he made a single movement, but he ignored it in favour of concentrating on the villains.

"Please don't distract him!" Yaoyorozu stated to the HUC members, "None of us are allowed to use our quirks now, and Midoriya is the one that stands the highest chance against them!"

"Toga Himiko is an A-rank villain, Magne and Mr. Compress are B-rank villains and Twice is a C-rank villain!" He retorted, "What's a quirkless examinee with a broken leg supposed to do against them?"

"Eh? Midoriya has a broken leg?!" Kaminari yelped, "That's not good!"

"That's not the point, Kaminari!" Jiro growled.

Bubaigawara rushed at Midoriya with his measuring tape, and the green haired boy neatly dodged, sticking his foot out and tripping the villain. Sako swept in, trying to encapsulate the boy, or at the very least, mutilate him. But Midoriya was already aware of Sako's mutilation ability, and had moved out of his range.

Hikiishi immediately activated her quirk on Midoriya, yanking him backwards, ready to crush him, but Midoriya merely whipped out a knife and threw it at her with deadly accuracy.

She ignored it, fully expecting it to get attracted to her magnet, only for the knife to continue on its course, zipping right past her, mere millimeters from her neck.

Hikiishi released her quirk in shock, and Midoriya pressed his hand against her magnet and flipped over it, using the momentum from the attraction to the magnet against Hikiishi and kicking her in the face.

Hikiishi's face met the ground as Midoriya jumped off to fend off Bubaigawara, as Sako muttered, "The knife isn't made of steel?"

"That doesn't matter now!" Hikiishi snarled, pushing herself up, "I'm not going to fall for that again! Toga!"

"Got it!" Toga grinned, before rushing at Midoriya. Midoriya immediately parried her blade away, ducking down as Bubaigawara slashed his tape measure at him, before kicking Sako's hand away right as he was about to release a bolder. Sako ended up releasing the bolder right on top of Hikiishi, but she easily swatted it away before using her quirk once more on Midoriya, pulling him towards her magnet.

Midoriya growled, before plunging his knife into the rocky terrain beneath them, grounding himself, before flinging another ceramic knife at Hikiishi. She used her magnet to block it, but the ceramic shattered upon impact, startling her as she tried to block the ceramic shards, releasing her quirk in the process. Sako was about to drop another bolder on Midoriya as he was grounded, but Midoriya managed to roll aside as he did so.

"Tch... you're annoying as usual! Especially with a broken leg, so cool!" Bubaigawara slashed his tape measure again, only for Midoriya to easily dodge. Hikiishi tried to swing her magnet at Midoriya, knowing that just using her quirk wasn't going to be effective against the quirkless child; he's already had several countermeasures in place to counter it. Midoriya dodged an attack by Hikiishi, only for Sako to leap in, dropping another batch of boulders around him, but the green haired boy managed to jump out of the way in time, before ducking down as Bubaigawara tried to slash at him.

Toga looked at the ongoing fight, before a sadistic smile crept up her face, as she turned around, lunging at the group of students that were gathered around at the first aid station. She eyed the nearest student, which just happened to be Kaminari, as Jiro yelled, "Kaminari! Get out of there!"

The electric boy turned, noticing the blonde girl shooting towards him, as fear bubbled up from the depths of his very being, and Kaminari promptly froze up.

Toga merely grinned at him toothily as she raised her knife, ready to bring it down into Kaminari's flesh, as Midoriya noticed the absence of the blonde girl in the assault and promptly disengaged, parrying Bubaigawara away before rushing over to Kaminari.

"Toga! No!" Hikiishi turned and yelped, noticing Midoriya disengage, as Toga brought her knife down on Kaminari.

But her knife never met its mark.

* * *

"This is getting ridiculous." Aizawa muttered, standing up, "I'm not going you just let the League do whatever they want, especially when it puts my students at risk."

"Agreed." Fukukado nodded, for once not joking around. She noticed that the doors leading to the exit were also closed, and she growled, "We're locked out too. Let's just break the glass."

"Let me phase through it first." Togata suggested, before running towards the wall and trying to phase, but he ended up running right into the glass. He fell backwards, and rubbed his face, "Eh?"

Aizawa had activated his quirk, sighing, "You're not in your hero costume. You're going to end up popping in there nude, and that's not going to help the situation at hand. Reiko promptly leapt out of her seat, tackling the glass wall, and Ryuto followed suit.

Fukukado walked down to the glass wall, and aimed a solid punch at it, but the glass wall barely budged at all. Fukukado rubbed her hand, hissing, "What is this?"

"Specially reinforced glass." Sasaki murmured, "It's strong enough to be able to withstand most physical attacks."

"Well, I can just punch through it, right?" Togata grinned, as Sasaki sighed, "No. It would take far more power than you can utilize right now. You'll only end up breaking your arm if you want to break the glass."

"But if I break my arm, then you, Aizawa-sensei and Ms Joke can go down and help them!" Togata tried to argue, but Aizawa shook his head, "No. We'll find another way. If I can somehow gain access to the servers, maybe I can hack through it and lower the barricades."

All of a sudden, a malicious, ferocious aura burst out, and everyone froze. Reiko and Ryuto were barely fazed, as they continued to attack the glass.

Aizawa recognized that feeling, the feeling of anger and determination that only one student in his class could emanate, the feeling whenever one of his peers was getting targeted instead of him.

_The villains had fucked up._

Now, they just had to find a way to get down there as fast as possible.

"Joke, let's go! Togata, Nighteye, stay here with the rest of the teachers in case something else happens; I think most of them aren't pro heroes." Aizawa ordered, kicking Fukukado's leg lightly, as she looked around nervously, trying to determine the source of the malicious aura.

"What was that?!" She managed to stammer out, as Aizawa pried open a panel and tried to access the computer system, "Joke, concentrate!"

It took them a few minutes to hack through the system, but Aizawa finally managed to get the door open.

"Alright... security is compromised, so we'll have to find the security room, as well as find a way to get to the students." Aizawa stated, as Sasaki looked around, before ordering, "Lemillion, you stay here and make sure all the other teachers are alright. I know the layout of this building, I'll get Eraser Head and Ms Joke to their destinations."

"Gotcha, sir!" Togata smiled brightly, "Leave it to me!"

* * *

Kaminari wasn't too sure what had hit him. It wasn't the knife, for sure... he could see that very clearly from his position on the ground -

_Wait, he was on the ground?_

Kaminari looked up, seeing blood dripping down Toga's knife as she glanced at Midoriya, who was right in front of her, his hoodies cut open with a long, straight diagonal slash, as blood dripped down and stained the ground, turning the dirt under his feet to an even darker shade of brown, his own knife lying on the ground.

Midoriya snarled at her, not even seeming to be bothered by the injury on his chest, and he bared his teeth threateningly. He took a step forwards, spitting out some blood, and Shindo reached out, trying to pull the injured boy back, "Stop it! You're just going to bleed out if you -"

Shindo froze, cutting off his sentence. There was some sort of intense pressure hanging in the air, some angry aura that had enveloped the entire arena, and he found it hard to breathe in the suffocating atmosphere. The only ones who didn't seem as badly affected were the UA students, but even they looked unsure of what to do next.

Midoriya's emerald eyes were practically glowing with rage, as he took another step forwards.

Toga unconsciously took a step back, as Midoriya glared at her, a flame of anger burning in his eyes, locking her in place. She lifted her knife, before hesitating, but that was all Midoriya needed as he lunged forwards, appearing right in her face and disarming her, before kicking her into a rocky wall.

Midoriya ignored her as he leapt at the other three villains, kicking up the knife that Toga had dropped before lunging. Bubaigawara hastily made a clone of Sako as Midoriya slashed at the real Sako, who barely managed to avoid the blade, before immediately turning around and slashing the knife at Bubaigawara, leaving a gash on his arm. Using his momentum, he flipped onto the ground, supporting himself with his arms, before flipping over and twisting his body, using his legs to pin the fake Sako's arms to his side as he plunged his knife into the clone's throat, causing the clone to dissipate.

He immediately pushed himself up, as Bubaigawara created two more clones of Sako, only for Midoriya to slash through them almost as quickly as they were being created. Hikiishi tried to lunge at him, but Midoriya merely lunged at her as she tried to strike, jumping and rolling over Hikiishi's back, before landing and turning around instantly, digging his knee into her gut.

Shindo nearly choked as he finally regained his bearings, "Did he _actually_ get faster?!" Midoriya's movements were much more precise compared to when they were fighting the faux villains, much more vicious. There was a fire in his eyes that wasn't there before, and Shindo realized just _how much Midoriya had been holding back_.

Midoriya immediately got up and tried to kick Bubaigawara, only for the villain to just barely avoid his attack. Midoriya's broken leg made contact with the ground, leaving a crater in its wake, but Midoriya was barely fazed by the impact and pivoted around his good leg, slamming his foot into Bubaigawara's gut, and that was the final straw for some of the examinees.

"Are you... sure he's quirkless?" Another examinee stammered, terrified, taking a step back in fear. This was a side of Midoriya that none of them had seen before; it was almost like a dragon, slumbering peacefully under the surface, finding no reason to emerge unless he was truly enraged.

Jiro helped Kaminari up as Yaoyorozu and Iida promptly took charge, Yaoyorozu speaking up, "That doesn't matter. Anyways, we should all try to get out of here. All of us are just being distractions and gives the villains something to use against Midoriya. Shinsou, Uraraka, you guys can fight quirkless, help us with the HUC, then come back here and give Midoriya back up if he needs it."

"Got it!" Shinsou nodded, as Midoriya unraveled the cloth around his arms and flung them at Toga, wrapping her up and immobilizing her; he must have put them back on after unraveling his splint.

Toga immediately slashed the cloth apart, before lunging at Midoriya. She grinned as her face changed, her blonde buns being replaced by brown hair, her uniform slipping off to reveal Uraraka's pink hero costume. Midoriya blinked in confusion as he turned, finding two familiar warm, brown irises staring back at him.

Shinsou had been keeping a close eye on Bubaigawara, before Toga's transformation caught his eye, and he frowned; hadn't Uraraka been with Iida on the other side of the group? How did she end up so close to Midoriya?

Midoriya was still trying to process what had happened; he swore Toga had been the one standing there, not Uraraka, until she ran at him, before burying her knife in his gut. He spat out some blood in shock, trying to figure out what was going on, as he noticed Uraraka's face grinning at him in satisfaction. His anger momentarily slipped away, as he spat out some blood, and sadness and betrayal took its place, because he had _really_ thought that Uraraka wouldn't hurt him.

But something wasn't right. Something was prodding at the back of his mind, telling him that this was yet another lie, because as far as he was concerned, Uraraka wasn't proficient with a knife.

Then he noticed her eyes flashing with golden specks for a split second, and his mind immediately made the connection.

It was the blood.

Toga had taken some of Uraraka's blood during the training camp... and she can use the blood somehow to transform into that person. That was her quirk.

Knowing that this wasn't the real Uraraka just heightened his anger, but even so, he was reluctant to fight her. This wasn't Uraraka, but he couldn't bear to hurt the villain that looked like his friend.

But he had to fight her, fight the villain that had stolen Uraraka's face.

Midoriya slammed his eyes shut, before lashing out, punching Toga in the face.

If he didn't see her, then he wouldn't be affected by the lookalike.

* * *

Aizawa raced down the hallways, Reiko right behind him, based on the instructions Sasaki had given him. According to the other pro hero, the security room should be a few doors down...

The Erasure Hero slowed down as he reached the door, and listened carefully, trying to determine what was inside the room. He could hear the sound of machinery sparking and static, but there weren't any sounds that he could make out. Aizawa pushed the door open, and came face to face with some purple mist.

His hastily activated his quirk, his hair flying around him as he lashed out with his capture weapon, wrapping Kurogiri up in the binds of his grey cloth.

"Hmm... you found me... interesting..." Kurogiri mused, "But how long can you keep it up, Hero?"

"As long as I have to." Aizawa hissed, his eyes starting to burn from his dry eye, as well as the bright lights of the flickering screens and the sparking machinery.

"Well... too bad." Kurogiri muttered, raising his arm and swinging it at Aizawa. The Erasure Hero dodged on instinct, but the second his eyes left the misty villain, Kurogiri teleported away, and Aizawa could only watch as Kurogiri disappeared, catching a glimpse of something in Kurogiri's eyes.

_Shirakumo?_

Aizawa shook his head; Shirakumo was dead, his nerves were probably getting to him.

He should go find Fukukado and help his students.

"Alright... this room is cleared... should we go help Joke?" Aizawa asked, and Reiko nodded.

* * *

Shindo, Nakagame, and some of the other students had been standing near the back of the group of students and HUC members, ready to attack in case the villains took their attention off Midoriya, and noticed as Midoriya punched the Uraraka lookalike away, before harshly tugging the knife out of his gut.

Midoriya was no longer looking as he was fighting, his eyes completely shut, but somehow, he knew where the villains were as they tried to take advantage in his voluntary loss of vision, to no avail. Midoriya seemed to have no problems parrying the fake Uraraka and Bubaigawara away, dodging Hikiishi and Sako, or even determining which two out of the three Sako's were clones made by Bubaigawara and promptly destroying them.

It didn't take too long for Midoriya to dig his heel into Hikiishi's gut, taking her out, as Uraraka's face slid off, splattering on the ground as grey goop, revealing Toga's real face, and Midoriya opened his eyes, glaring viciously at Toga.

He snarled, lunging at her faster than anyone could react, and slammed the butt of his knife into her forehead, knocking her out.

"Shit! Compress, he's yours!" Bubaigawara yelled, jumping backwards as Sako pulled out another cyan marble.

"I was saving this for the pros, but you're much more troublesome to deal with than they are!"

He flung the marble at Midoriya, before compressing Hikiishi and Toga snatching their marbles up, before leaping out of the way as he released his hold on the sphere that he had thrown at Midoriya.

Fire erupted out from the marble, as Midoriya blinked at the flames, stunned, and hastily raised his arms in an attempt to block the attack. His hero costume was fireproof, but his arms weren't covered by anything, and he could feel the familiar feeling of panic bubbling up as the cyan flames washed over him.

He did his best to push it away, but he could feel the fire licking at his skin, memories rushing through his head. A numbing pain that shot throughout his body as he tried to calm himself down, trying so hard to shut off the flow of memories that had been haunting him since he was seven, as his eyes burned from the bright light of the fire.

"We got him!" Bubaigawara cheered, before rushing in to attack Midoriya as the flames died down; Dabi's flames were powerful, but they died out relatively quickly without a source of fuel.

Midoriya could sense that someone was near, and in his panic, he quickly slashed his knife in that direction. Bubaigawara just managed to jump out of the way, yelping, but Midoriya just followed the noise and ran after him, slashing his knife wildly. Sako jumped in and tried to activate his quirk, only for Midoriya to promptly grab his hand and stab his knife into his arm, before flipping him over. Bubaigawara made two more clones of Sako, but Midoriya just destroyed them immediately.

Sako clutched his bleeding arm; it wasn't too deep, but it was painful enough that it made it hard to concentrate enough to use his quirk through that hand. He took out a few more marbles, and flung them at Midoriya, releasing a few more boulders, but Midoriya just kicked his way through them and lunged as Sako, punching him in the face before kicking him in the chin.

Sako fell to the ground as Midoriya continued charging, as Bubaigawara came up behind Midoriya, trying to defend the fallen villain. Shindo was pretty sure that Midoriya wouldn't be able to counter Bubaigawara; he was moving too fast in one direction to be able to react, anyone would trip and fall over.

To his surprise, Midoriya immediately pivoted on his broken leg, forcing his broken leg to bear the pressure of his body weight and momentum, before kicking back, forcing his body to move against his momentum. A cracking sound resonating as the bone completely snapped, but the green haired boy ignored it and whirled around instantaneously, kicking Bubaigawara in the gut.

Shindo and Nakagame weren't too sure what to do, when suddenly, a misty portal appeared out of nowhere, picking Bubaigawara and Sako up, and disappearing, leaving no trace that the villains had actually been there.

Yet, Midoriya just growled menacingly, his eyes closed tightly as he stalked around, trying to find the villains.

"Hey! Midoriya! The villains are gone now! You can chill!" Shindo yelled, only for Midoriya to turn around, snarling, and he lunged at the black haired boy. Shindo just barely managed to dodge Midoriya's sharpened blade, yelping, before Midoriya seemed to realize that there were more people.

He turned around, his eyes still shut, but Shindo could tell that Midoriya knew _exactly_ where they all were.

Nakagame exhaled slightly, and Midoriya immediately turned around, lunging, but she managed to activate her quirk just in time to dodge him.

"Get away from him slowly!" Came a yell. Shindo whirled around, seeing that Shinsou, Uraraka, and Iida had run back, and Shinsou shouted again, "Try not to make any noise!"

He could feel fear and panic rolling off Midoriya in waves, as Midoriya constantly turned around, trying to detect any sources of danger. He wasn't thinking straight, and was attacking anything around him that even just moved.

One of the other examinees tried to turn and run, catching Midoriya's attention, but Iida managed to activate his engines in time and sped forwards, pulling her out of the way.

Midoriya whirled around, confused by the engine sounds, and whipped out his knife, only for Shinsou to jump in and grab the hand with the knife, disarming him. The green haired boy hissed, preparing to punch Shinsou with his other arm, but Shinsou grabbed his other hand in time to prevent getting a punch to the throat. While Midoriya still packed a punch, in his panicked state, his movements were much more predictable.

"Izuku, calm down." Shinsou tried to reason with Midoriya, only for the smaller boy to growl, lunging forwards to sink his teeth into Shinsou's arm.

Shinsou grit his teeth in pain, but continued to keep a tight grip on Midoriya as the boy clamped down harder on his arm, still trying to get out of his grasp; Midoriya had a ridiculously strong jaw. He didn't want to use his quirk on Midoriya, the poor kid had already went through enough, and he tried his best to push the pain away. There was blood splattered on the ground, and on the green parts of Midoriya's sleeve, as well as on Midoriya's face, and he was pretty sure that the only reason that he didn't look even more bloody was because the former vigilante's outfit was mostly black, which hid the blood stains, though it wasn't very reassuring since Toga had sliced through Midoriya's hoodie, the large diagonal slash on his slender yet muscular torso spanning from his left shoulder to his hip visible for anyone to see.

"Izuku. Listen to me, Izuku." Shinsou spoke up, tightening his grip on Midoriya's hands to get his attention, strong enough to hold Midoriya in place but gentle enough so that he didn't hurt the boy.

Midoriya tried to get out of his grip, but somehow, he did recognize the presence right in front of him. A familiar presence of security and comfort... but he couldn't really place it. His struggling slowly ceased, and Shinsou, seeing that Midoriya had calmed down somewhat, spoke up again, "Alright, Izuku, can you hear me?"

Midoriya paused, and slowly nodded; he did recognize that voice, but he wasn't too sure why. His eyes were still closed, and his teeth were still unknowingly clamped tightly around Shinsou's arm, and the lavender haired boy continued, "Okay. The villains are gone now, and you're safe, alright? Can you open your eyes, please?"

Midoriya was hesitant to do so, but still, he obeyed, slowly opening his eyes and letting light flood in. He noticed that he was biting something, and his eyes trailed upwards to the lavender haired boy.

It then dawned on him that _he was biting Shinsou_. Midoriya hastily released his grip on Shinsou's arm, his eyes widening in shock that _he had just hurt his friend._

He didn't do it on purpose, but that was no excuse for his actions. His jaws weren't strong enough to cause any lasting damage, but his canines were definitely sharp enough to puncture skin, and Midoriya could see that there was some blood on Shinsou's arm.

_Look at what you did! All you can do is hurt people, Deku! You did this, you worthless, useless being! You hurt an innocent person. You did this._

Midoriya looked towards ground, guilt pooling in his stomach, no longer processing what was going on around him. He didn't want to hurt anyone, and yet he had hurt one of his friends.

"I'm sorry."

Shinsou just glanced at his arm briefly, before loosening his grip on Midoriya's hands, the smaller boy's arms dropping down limply as he stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm -"

His broken leg gave out, and the lavender haired boy immediately wrapped his arms around Midoriya, gently pulling him in for a hug, doing his best to support him without putting more pressure on his wounds, "It's fine, it's not your fault, Izuku."

Midoriya let out a small whimper, as a small, hoarse whisper, "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. You have nothing to be sorry for." Shinsou muttered. Midoriya shakily reached up and grasped the taller boy's shirt desperately, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm useless, I'm pathetic, I'm sorry-"

"Shush. It's okay. I'm fine, everyone'ss fine." Shinsou tried to comfort the smaller boy, ignoring the blood that was seeping through his hero costume from the Midoriya's injuries, "Come on, let's go and get you some medical help."


	71. Chapter 71 - You pull the strings

**Author's note: Worthless Necessity has a side series called Problem Time... it's somewhere on my profile... somewhere...**

**Also, since that's a youtube channel based fic, I have a youtube channel called Kira Tiyuji so OWO**

* * *

"Hey, Izuku." Shinsou gently shook the smaller boy. He was helping the green haired boy as he limped along. blood trickled down his chest and left a bloody trail in their wake as Uraraka and Iida led the way.

Midoriya blinked blearily, trying his best to stifle a small whine as he accidentally put more pressure on his broken leg, slumping against Shinsou as the rest of his strength left him.

Shinsou quickly supported the smaller boy, as Midoriya weakly lurched forwards, spitting out a mouthful of blood. The lavender haired boy gently wiped the blood off Midoriya's chin as the shorter boy tried to suck more oxygen into his lungs, coughing all the while.

"Hang on for a bit longer, okay?" Shinsou muttered, shifting his grip gently, "We're almost back to the others."

Midoriya coughed, barely registering what Shinso had said. His head was spinning, his entire body was numb, and he could barely think straight. He was tired, exhausted, and his muscles felt like they were constantly on fire.

Luckily, it didn't take them too long to reach the rest of the students, and Fukukado, Sasaki and Togata, who was holding Ryuto, had apparently managed to get down from the stands and found the students, and other rescue heroes like Shuzenji were on their way; Aizawa, with Reiko, was busy hacking through the rest of the system, and Sakamata had just woken up from Shinsou's mind control.

It wasn't really anyone's fault; if Shinsou didn't allocate a specific period of time for the person to stay unconscious, most people would usually be knocked out for around half an hour.

"Oh dear, are you alright?" Fukukado gasped as she honed in on the bloody Midoriya, walking over to Shinsou to help him with the injured boy, and Shinsou could feel that Midoriya had immediately tensed up upon sensing that someone was getting too close.

Luckily, Uraraka subtly pulled the female hero away just in time, before Midoriya decided to lash out and attack, and seeing the smaller boy's reaction, Fukukado got the message and just ordered Shinsou to help Midoriya sit down first. Ryuto, who had been perched on Sasaki's shoulder, promptly turned around and squawked, hopping off and flying over to settle on Shinsou's shoulder.

It didn't take too long for Aizawa and the other security guards to regain control over the building, and they promptly opened up all the gates. The Erasure hero promptly made his way back to the center of the arena, where all of his students were located, as Reiko glanced around worriedly, looking for her human.

Midoriya was leaning against some rocks as the lavender haired boy tried his best to stem the bleeding with his capture weapon, and the green haired boy winced slightly and did his best to stiffle a hiss as Shinsou accidentally pressed too hard on his injury.

"Sorry." Shinsou muttered, as Midoriya shakily took another breath, before spitting out more blood. Reiko quickly ran over to him, sniffing his arm, as Ryuto chirped, nuzzling the injured boy.

Midoriya was barely awake by the time Shuzenji and the other rescue heroes arrived, and the youthful heroine immediately turned her attention to the green haired boy, carefully walking over to them. Midoriya warily opened his eyes, eye Shuzenji, and she paused, not wanting to stress the boy out even more.

"Just a gash on the chest?" Shuzenji glanced over Midoriya, and turned to Shinsou, "Are there any more injuries that I'm not aware of?"

"He got stabbed in the gut, I think... and he also has a broken leg." Shinsou replied, as Shuzenji honed in on the blood that was seeping through a few haphazardly applied bandaids on Shinsou's arm.

"What happened to you?" She asked, and Shinsou shrugged, "Nothing too major. Don't worry about it."

The students that had seen Midoriya bite Shinsou were about to speak up, but Uraraka glared at them darkly, clamming them up almost immediately.

After Fukukado took her attention off them, Uraraka pulled them aside and smiled sweetly, "You tell anyone that Izuku bit Hitoshi for absolutely no reason, I will hunt you down and kill you. Understood?"

They all nodded, terrified, and Uraraka grinned. Was it Midoriya's fault that he had panicked and bit Shinsou by accident? Hell no, and she wasn't going to let anyone say otherwise.

Shuzenji carefully maneuvered over to Midoriya's side, purposely making her actions obvious and pronounced so Midoriya knew exactly what she was doing. She knelt down beside Shinsou, and carefully placed her hand gently on Midoriya's chest, as a quiet, pained whimper escaped his lips.

Shuzenji bit her lip gently, as Shinsou brought her attention to the stab wound around his gut. That wasn't too serious, to be honest, and Shinsou had done a pretty good job trying to stem the blood flow, given that none of them had any experience or training, but they needed to heal Midoriya quickly before he lost too much blood. His broken leg was the least of their problems right now.

She carefully healed Midoriya up slightly, and watched as Midoriya relaxed, though it wasn't by much. She didn't want to drain too much of Midoriya's energy before she had a full, complete idea of what injuries he had and how serious they were; based on several reports from Aizawa and the other teachers, Midoriya had been sleeping very little, and his appetite had also gone down. He didn't have much energy to spare for her to utilize her quirk; she just wanted to ensure that he was completely out of the danger zone before they decided on any other courses of action. But compared to Midoriya's injuries from the attack on UA, and from Kamino, he was much better off.

"Shinsou, can you pick him up and bring him to the infirmary?" Shuzenji asked, "One of the other heroes would lead you there. Also, you should also get your arm checked out in case of bacteria; there's a lot of dirt and rusty metal here. Uraraka, can you accompany them as well?"

"Alright." Shinsou nodded, carefully slipping his arms under Midoriya's back and knees and easily picking the smaller boy up. Midoriya was shorter than him, so it did make him easier to carry. Not to mention that Midoriya was _insanely _light; Shinsou was seriously concerned with how much the smaller boy ate.

"Come on, let's go." Uraraka nodded, as the rest of the rescue heroes tended to the other students.

* * *

Yagi settled down in the seat, swamped within his loose, oversized hero costume, a thick glass wall between him and All for One. The villain was hooking up to a few beeping machines, and was being closely monitored by surveillance cameras.

"Ah... All Might..." All for One chuckled, "Come to visit? The second semester is starting soon, right? Or has it already started? I thought you were going to devote yourself to teaching. What do you want from me?"

Yagi merely sighed, and leaned back into his chair, "I just want to make things clear, All for One."

"This place is stifling, All Might." All for One admits, "For example, if my back starts to itch, and I scratch it with the back of the chair, all the gun muzzles immediately point to me. In addition to my vital signs, even my brain waves are constantly being monitored. One thought about activating my quirk and my life is in danger. I'm imprisoned deep underground covered by layers of security with the thorough removal of anything irregular. The world likens this place to Greek Mythology, calling it Tartarus. It's the name of the god that represents the underworld. Even I would have trouble rebelling against a god."

"No. You can't get out." Yagi growled, but All for One merely laughed, "I'll let you think that. So, what do you want? Where's Gran Torino? You're acting alone? What's with that costume that looks like you don't know how to give up? Don't tell me you're still working as a hero?"

"You've got a lot to say." Yagi mumbled.

"Try to understand." All for One grinned with a patronising tone, "This is the first decent conversation that I've had in a while."

"I have a few questions, and I want you to answer them truthfully." Yagi spoke up, and All for One just shrugged.

"Shigaraki. Where is Shigaraki Tomura right now?"

"I don't know. Unlike your successor, who's still learning how to use his wings, mine's already left the nest." All for One replied, "But then again, at this point, that's not interesting."

"What are you trying to achieve? What did you want to do? Preserving that body beyond human reason to live on for a long time, devoting all that time to exploiting, controlling and toying with people, what did you hope to accomplish?" Yagi asked.

"This isn't a very productive topic." All for One admonished, shaking his head, "You wouldn't be satisfied with my answer even if I told you. There will always be people who can't understand each other. I'm the same, you know, the same as you. Just like you longed to be a hero of justice, I longed to be like an evil devil king. Isn't that simple? I had an ideal and the power to give it form. If I could live forever in my ideal, then I wouldn't begrudge the effort to make that happen."

"Then why do you need a successor?" Yagi asked, and if All for One had eyes, he would be rolling them, laughing, "You're the one to ask. That's funny. It's because you took everything from me! Look at my body! I am just barely able to remain alive with the help of this tube. After you appeared, my seemingly infinite ideal became finite. When a person realises that their end is coming, they pass it one to someone else. That's true for everything; the houses and buildings you see everywhere, the food you casually put in your mouth, all if it developed as it passed from person to person. I'm just trying to do what everyone else is doing."

_"All Might... you have three minutes left."_ One of the guards announced, and All for One chuckled, "Hey, don't say that. I want to talk more! I know, the world's probably pretty shaken about your retirement, but how are things looking?"

_"He must be isolated from outside news."_ Another guard spoke up, _"Please refrain from saying anything carelessly."_

"You heard them." Yagi grumbled, and All for One sighed, "That's too bad, I suppose. I'm sure it's like this! Right now, the media's unease by you being gone, coupled with their worry with Endeavor as the new leader is causing them to complain about the unity of hero society as a whole. Meanwhile, sensing the growing instability, villains think that they might have a chance to change society and have started to move in an organised way. I think Tomura and his group will continue to hide for a while, in order to be sure which organization will rise to the top, but of course, they may do sneak attacks. Everyone will want to increase their influence, so there will likely be quite a bit of fighting amongst villains themselves. Supposing that does happen, then it would have all been because of your fake form and your retirement. From now on, you would not be able to save people as you wish to. All you can do is look on, at the villains you yourself caused to increase and be stricken by your powerlessness as you pass the rest of your days. But, won't you tell me how you feel?"

Yagi tensed up, and stood up, as a guard spoke over the loudspeaker, _"All Might, please stand back."_

All for One smirked, "When people's feelings are guessed correctly, they often get angry. Too bad, you can't punch me in here, if you can even punch at all. At least, there are some people amongst you that understand that and aren't so easily baited, though I'm fairly sure it isn't healthy."

"What do you mean?" Yagi growled, and All for One smirked, "What was his name again, Midoriya Izuku?"

Yagi tensed up as All for One continued, "I saw everything, you know? Even I know him better than you at this point. For a hero in training, the boy really doesn't seem to have any faith in the society of heroes."

"Don't think that you alone know everything." Yagi hissed, but All for One smirked, "Oh? I didn't say I know everything, though. But you do know nothing about poor little Midoriya, don't you? How much he's suffered in the past; his life has just been a never ending tragedy. But are we here to talk about you, or about him?"

_"All Might, it's time."_

Yagi growled, and stood up to leave, just as All for One finished off, "A flame may burn brightly on its own, but that doesn't mean that it can't be extinguished. It would either swallow you up, or die out, no matter how much you try to protect it. It doesn't matter what you do; a quirk, corrupted by anger and hatred, can only cause pain and suffering."

All for One let out a laugh as Yagi turned around, glaring at the villain one last time before he exited the room.

* * *

Luckily, Midoriya's injuries weren't too serious. Pretty much all of his injuries could be healed with Shuzenji's quirk, and she could heal him up just enough so that his body could finish healing everything up naturally, but he's still going to experience some pain; he just didn't have sufficient energy for her to completely heal him in his current exhausted, completely burned out state.

The poor boy was already doing his best to stay awake, and looked like he was on the verge of collapsing; the students were currently making their way back to Aizawa, who had already come back with Reiko after he went to secure the security room. As much as he was trying to support his weight on his own, he was still limping, with Shinsou and Uraraka were supporting him on both sides; Shuzenji forbade her from using her quirk on Midoriya because not only would it make her nauseous, even though Midoriya was ridiculously light, but there weren't actually any unhealed injuries that they had to be wary of.

Plus, Midoriya was stubborn and probably wouldn't be happy about her using her quirk unnecessarily.

Shinsou, on the other hand, just had a bite on his arm, which both he and Uraraka admitted to be inflicted by Midoriya, who had been in a panic attack. She couldn't really blame the boy, Shinsou had told her that one of the villains had shapeshifted to look like Uraraka, but she was surprised at how strong Midoriya's jaws were, and how sharp his teeth were.

Most of the students who had witnessed the fight had already been interrogated by the police officers, and Tsukauchi was just waiting to get the statements from Shinsou, Uraraka and Midoriya.

Aizawa quickly did a head count of his students; he was pretty sure that if Iida hadn't told him that Shinsou and Uraraka had brought Midoriya to the infirmary, he would be flipping his shit right now. But there were eighteen students, and everyone was accounted for; Shuzenji had sent him a quick text regarding Shinsou and Midoriya's condition, and had informed him that they, as well as Uraraka, were on their way back.

It took them a few minutes, given that all of them were exhausted, but Aizawa was relieved when he finally spotted the trio. Reiko and Ryuto were being taken care of by Koda, and they nearly leapt out of his arms to find Midoriya had Shoji not lent a few hands to catch them.

"Alright, you guys are back." Aizawa muttered, finishing up another headcount in his head. Most other schools only had five or six students, and those who had already failed the first round had already left. All that was left was for all the examinees that had taken part in the second part of the exam to be okay, and for the Hero Commission to announce the results before they could all go back to the safety of UA.

Why the students had to be present was mind boggling. Couldn't they just make a video and mail the licences to the schools directly? Then again, the Hero Commission liked their dramatic reveals and stuff, of course they'd want to include a long list of bullshit before the students could finally be dismissed.

He turned his attention to the other important events while Tsukauchi questioned Uraraka, Shinsou and Midoriya; Tsukauchi had dealt with Midoriya before, and the Erasure hero did trust the human lie detector to not do anything to his students.

Aizawa and Sasaki did have a brief idea of how the League managed to stage the attack. Toga, disguised as another student, had snuck in, giving Kurogiri the coordinates for teleportation. They had specifically been targeting the pros, but had noticed Midoriya and had turned their attention the the boy; the HUC members wore these recording devices that allowed them to analyze the students' actions, and it had recorded whatever the villains were talking about, not to mention Kurogiri only knocked out the security cameras and not the microphones that were built into the security cameras, but stored on another system that remained untouched.

Sasaki and Togata had been called out to deal with some other villains, but it seemed that the villains weren't targeting Midoriya at all, and had been lucky, or unlucky, enough to stumble into the one out of three arenas that the boy could have been in.

It didn't take too long for Tsukauchi to finish questioning the trio, but by the time they were done, Midoriya already looked so drained and exhausted that it seemed like he would pass out on the spot. Apparently, he must have been able to figure out Toga's quirk, since Uraraka and Shinsou were openly gaping at the tired boy as Tsukauchi quickly scribbled haphazardly into his notebook.

Luckily, it didn't take Mera too long after that to grab a microphone and start speaking, "Okay, everyone, thanks for your hard work. Now, I will announce the results. But before that, I will tell you about the scoring system. Between those of us at the Hero Public Safety Commission and the HUC, we had a two-fold demerit system while watching you. In other words, we were marking you based on how few mistakes you made in a crisis situation. The names of those who passed are listed here in syllabary order. Keep that in mind and check the list."

Everyone's hearts were pounding as they scanned the board, trying to find their names on the humongous board in front of them. Even with his blearly eyesight, Midoriya squinted, trying to locate his name on the board even though he could barely make out the white squiggles against the blue background.

Shinsou gave a relieved sigh as he found his name on the board, "Whew, I made it."

He turned to the smaller boy, who was almost leaning on him completely, "Found your name yet?"

He wasn't surprised that Midoriya was still peering at the board, blinking blearily, and the lavender haired boy turned to the board and tried to locate Midoriya's name.

Shinsou found the greenette's name located somewhere in the middle of the board, and his smile softened. Of course they had to let Midoriya's pass; he was the one that had given them orders that managed to bring Sakamata down, had somehow gotten Yoarashi and Todoroki to work together despite their hatred of each other (he would have to ask the dual coloured haired boy about that later), and was the one who fended off four members of the League of Villains simultaneously, after he had been kidnapped and tortured by them.

If they hadn't let him pass, Shinsou was pretty sure there was going to be some sort of uproar, especially from the UA students. Considering that only a hundred students at maximum could pass, and twenty of them, not counting Midoriya himself, were from UA, they definitely had enough influence to be able to catch the attention of the Hero Commission.

The tired boy was still trying to make out the words on the brightly lit board, and Shinsou stretched out his hand and pointed at the middle of the board, helping Midoriya focus his line of vision.

"Somewhere there. A bit to the left." Shinsou pointed out, watching as Midoriya squinted, trying his best to decipher the blurry japanese characters.

It seemed like the rest of their peers had already found their names on thr board, and all of them were cheering and talking loudly amongst themselves. Kirishima was even hugging Bakugou and getting away with it, but Shinsou was pretty sure that the only reason Kirishima was still alive was because Bakugou was happy that he had passed and hadn't yet noticed the red haired boy clinging to him.

"I... passed?" Midoriya murmured, so quiet that Shinsou could barely hear him say anything, but the taller boy nodded, smiling, "Yeah, you did. We all passed."

"Now, we're going to pass out your results, with the breakdown of you scores, so please look over them carefully. The cut off score was fifty points. Your teachers will tell you what you can or can't do with your licenses, either now or later, so you can go any time you like." Mera continued, "Anyways, for those who passed, during emergency situations only, you may exercise authority the same as that of pro heroes. In other words, fighting villains, saving people from criminal acts or accidents, you may act on your own judgement in these cases without the direction of a hero. However, this means that each and every one of you actions carries with it a responsibility towards society. I'm sure that you all know that the great hero, All Might, has used up all of his power. His existence played a large part in suppressing crime."

_This is your fault, Deku._

Midoriya lowered his head, and clenched his fists. Shinsou gently pat the smaller boy on the back as Mera continued talking.

"With that deterrent gone, impudent people will appear. The balance will be destroyed and as the world changes greatly, you young people will become the center of society. You must become explementary heroes and become great enough to suppress crimes yourselves. You've received your licenses to perform hero activities, and I would like you to think of yourselves as fledglings, and be even more diligent in your studies."

_Useless Deku. All Might had fallen, all because of you. You need to make up for what you've done._

* * *

"Eraser! Since we've got this chance, want to have a joint practice sometime?" Fukukado asked.

"Yeah, sure. That might be good." Aizawa dryly replied, as Yoarashi ran up to them, "Hey! Hey!"

"Oh.. even Shiketsu's here..." Asui muttered, as Yoarashi grinned, "I heard joint practise! Can we join?!"

Mora sighed, "Inasa, calm down."

The supervisor of Shiketsu chuckled lightly, "I'll ask the higher ups about it, but I'm sure they won't mind a joint practise with Ketsubutsu and UA."

Midoriya's head suddenly dropped, and his eyelids fluttered shut as his legs gave way. He would have hit the ground if Shinsou hadn't already been supporting the tired boy, and had managed to tighten his grip on Midoriya in time.

"Hey, Izuku?" Shinsou gently shook the boy, shifting the smaller boy easily into a more comfortable position. Midoriya gave a small, tired whine, trying to righten himself, but his muscles just refused to work with him. He shakily tried to stand up, with Shinsou supporting him, but to no avail. The lavender haired boy turned to Aizawa, "Da-... Sensei, what should we do?"

Aizawa eyed the tired boy, and sighed, "Alright, that's it, it's late, everyone back on the bus. You can compare your scores on the bus, or back in UA."


	72. Chapter 72 - And I obey

The second that Midoriya boarded the bus, with the help of Shinsou and Koda, the green haired boy had fallen asleep almost instantly, slumping against the side of the bus, his forehead pressed lightly against the window. Shinsou took his usual aisle seat next to the tired boy, as Iida admonished Uraraka for... something. Shinsou wasn't _actually_ sure what she did, something about a picture or something. Shinsou was honestly too tired to care.

He sank into his chair, sighing as he took out his phone. There weren't any messages, other than Yamada sending them messages about having heard about the League attack and whether they were okay. Aizawa had already responded with a curt "we're fine" and "we're on our way back", and Shinsou just shot them a quick message that they were alright, and that they were just tired.

Shinsou pocketed his phone, as the bus started heading back to UA. Reiko and Ryuto were settled on Midoriya's lap at the moment, slumped back into his seat, and closed his eyes. He would just take a small nap on the bus, go back to UA, get to his room, sleep until dinner, then shower, and then sleep some more.

The bus suddenly braked, and a loud screeching sound filled the air as Shinsou lurched forward, nearly hitting his head against the chair in front of him had he not used his hands to soften the blow in time. There was a small, almost unnoticeable whine, Shinsou sat up, looking around, trying to discern the source of the sound, before realising that the sound was coming from right beside him.

Midoriya was literally trembling in his seat, clenching his fists as he curled in on himself. Shinsou hastily picked Reiko and Ryuto up before Midoriya hurt them by accident; he knew that if anything happened to them, Midoriya would most likely blame himself for it, even if it wasn't really his fault.

The greenette's breathing became heavier, and he started shaking more violently, attempting to wrap his arms around himself.

Shinsou carefully reached out to try and comfort the trembling boy.

* * *

Midoriya unconsciously let out a small whimper as he was abruptly thrown back into consciousness, unconsciously clenching his fists tightly as he attempted to curl in on himself for protection. Memories, both distant and recent, were swimming around in his head, mingling together to create a cacophony of discordant screams and noises, illusions of his past flashing past his vision. He clutched his head, and closed his eyes, hoping for the sudden surge of memories to just die down, but they just kept coming, faster and faster.

He felt like he was drowning. He could breath, but the air was so thick and heavy that the very action of doing so was getting harder and harder.

Midoriya wanted to escape.

He reached out, trying to find something to grab onto, something that would give him leverage to pull himself upwards.

There was nothing. He could feel himself sinking, his limbs feeling like concrete, getting heavier and heavier and constantly dragging him downwards, into the never-ending abyss, the air around him tightening, threatening to suffocate him.

Suddenly, he felt some pressure on his arm, snapping him out of his internal panic. He instinctively lashed out, only for his wrists to be grabbed in a firm yet gentle grip.

"Izuku?" A familiar voice whispered worriedly, "Are you okay?"

Midoriya tried his best to inhale as much air as he could, and slowly opened his eyes.

He found Shinsou looking back at him, worry etched onto his face. His eyes trailed down to Reiko and Ryuto, who were sitting obediently on Shinsou's lap. He could sense that both he and Shinsou were sitting right at the back of the bus, while pretty much everyone else was crowded at the front of the bus.

"You doing okay there?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya slowly nodded, forcefully pushing his memories away. He'd deal with them later, in the safety and the privacy of his room. Shinsou gently released Midoriya's hands, and turned his attention to the commotion in the front of the bus.

"Hitoshi, is Izuku alright?" Iida asked, and after noticing how Midoriya tensed up slightly, Shinsou replied, "He's fine. He woke up, just a little startled, that's it. What's going on?"

Iida and Uraraka walked back to their seats, which were just across the aisle, and Aizawa sighed, "There were several villain attacks around this area and traffic is all screwed up. We're going to be stuck here for a while. Don't worry about it too much, I think Mic or Midnight or someone's getting pizza for both hero courses for everyone passing."

"Everyone in 1-B passed too? Awesome!" Kaminari cheered, "And pizza!? Alright!"

Midoriya curled up in his seat, turning towards the window and spotting the bright, blaring lights of car lights, the jarring sounds of several people using the car honk at the same time. He tried to control his breathing, as the exhaustion set in once more, but he couldn't afford to fall asleep again. He didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want anyone to know what he was thinking, what he was feeling, because all they would do is hurt him.

"It's okay." Shinsou muttered, gently patting the smaller boy on the back. Midoriya's face was stiff, almost like a mask, but it had taken him a few seconds to calm down enough to throw his facade back up. Even though he, and several others, had seen the greenette in hospital beds, or asleep, Midoriya always had a tight guard on his facial expressions, refusing to show more emotions than was necessary.

But in that one moment, Shinsou had seen through that brief moment of weakness; Midoriya was truly scared, terrified. Of what, Shinsou wasn't too sure, but he knew for sure that it was something that Midoriya wasn't going to be willing to share.

Reiko crawled back into Midoriya's lap, rubbing herself against his arm comfortingly, as Ryuto hopped over to Midoriya's arm, chirping as he nuzzled the boy's neck. Shinsou carefully reached out, gently wrapping an arm around the smaller boy and pulling him closer. Midoriya just looked upset and distressed as he clenched his fists even tighter, forcing himself to not make a sound as he shoved all his memories to the back of his mind.

He forced himself to focus on the warmth of the body of the person next to him, one of the only people that he really trusted enough among all his classmates. It wasn't too surprising, he had saved him when he was nine; just like Kota, Shinsou, at least, had been through some of the same pain that he had gone through. Midoriya had kept tabs on Shinsou for a while, since Aizawa had saved him from his former household. He just wanted to make sure that he really did save Shinsou, and didn't accidentally throw him into an even worse life. It wasn't that he didn't trust Aizawa, or Yamada; he just needed the confirmation that he really did do something right.

Out of most of the heroes that Midoriya had interacted with, the greenette had to admit that after Nezu, he did like Aizawa and Yamada. The Erasure Hero didn't care for media fame, and while Yamada did have a radio show, he did talk about realy problems like quirk discrimination, and whenever people called the radio show to talk, Yamada would always do his best to help everyone. Sure, seeing Yamada in school, and not out on patrols, had been rather jarring; the Voice Hero didn't have a damned inside voice. Plus, the prospect of learning that he did have a quirk, that possibly prevented him from dying, and by extension, meaning that Aizawa could quite literally kill him, had been too much for the boy to handle at the time.

Midoriya unconsciously leaned against Shinsou's shoulder, and closed his eyes, not even reacting as the taller boy gently pat him on the head, running his fingers through his fluffy green curls. He didn't deserve to live, he should have died, he wanted to die, to escape from himself. But he didn't want to die, he wanted to live, he wanted to be himself.

He did like head pats, though. His parents used to pat him on the head whenever he -

Midoriya mentally shook his head, driving the thoughts away. He didn't really know what he wanted anymore. He didn't want to think anymore.

Shinsou just let the smaller boy lean against him, as he gazed out of the window, watching as the police officers and other heroes outside tried to sort out the massive traffic problem due to road closures. It took them quite a bit of time to finally get on the highway, and by that time, most of his classmates had also quietened down, either staring at their phones or fast asleep.

The lavender haired boy gave a small yawn, as he closed his eyes. He was pretty tired too, running all over the place, and the fact that he didn't sleep well due to his insomnia probably didn't help either.

* * *

"Hagakure, Mina... that's enough." Iida quietly admonished, chopping his forearms about with his elbows pinned to his side, not quite sure how to stop Hagakure and Ashido from taking pictures, "You shouldn't take pictures of people without their permission!"

"Oh shush." Ashido giggled, snapping another picture, "They're cute."

"Revelry in the dark..." Tokoyami muttered, "I don't think Midoriya would be too happy about that."

"It's not like we're going to post them on Instagram or anything; we're just going to show it to them when they wake up, and embarrass them." Hagakure reasoned.

"Fucking extras... noisy pieces of shit." Bakugou growled, shoving his hand in his pockets and walking off the bus, with Kirishima following after him, chattering away about something he had seen on the news. Kaminari and Sero had also been taking pictures, but they had pocketed their phones the second Iida had spoken up.

"Get out of the bus. Now. The bus needs to be parked, and you guys need to clean up. Ashido, Hagakure, please stop taking pictures of Shinsou and Midoriya." Aizawa sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. His class was so damned noisy. They were lucky that they had just finished an exam and had been unfortunately involved in a villain attack, or he'd be much more harsh on them.

His words finally managed to get the duo to stop filling their phone memories with images, and it didn't take too long for Iida to finally manage to usher everyone else off the bus. Todoroki was waiting as he stared at his phone, as Uraraka shoved Shinsou's arm gently, "Hey, wake up. We're back at UA."

Shinsou opened his eyes, slightly dazed from having just woken up, and attempted to rub his eyes, only to realise that his arm was being pinned down by something. He turned to the side, only to find that Midoriya was still leaning on him, sleeping. Shinsou could feel his face heat up, and Uraraka just snickered. Reiko looked amused at his expense, while Ryuto was still perched on Midoriya's arm, snoozing away.

"Don't laugh." Shinsou muttered, gently using his other hand to shake Midoriya awake. The smaller boy woke up, and almost immediately looked up, rubbed his eyes, careful not to wake the smaller bird up in the process. He tried to stifle a yawn, but failed, opening his mouth and revealing his teeth in the process.

Uraraka and Iida froze, blinking at how cute the smaller boy was being, as their brains tried to put this image of Midoriya together with the information that Aizawa had told them. This was an infamous vigilante who was able to take down villains twice his size in the blink of an eye? Of course, they had seen Midroiya's abilities first hand, but still, Midoriya was more like an adorable little kitten.

Midoriya realised that he had fallen asleep on Shinsou, again, and immediately sat up straight, hastily using his remaining hand to apologise to Shinsou in JSL.

"Don't worry about it." Shinsou muttered, trying to will the redness of his face away, as Iida spoke up, "Come on, we're back in UA, let's get off the bus before Aizawa-sensei yells at us."

Iida marched off the bus, with Shinsou right behind him. Midoriya was cradelling the sleeping bird with one arm as Reiko hitched a ride on his shoulder, and Uraraka and Todoroki were the last ones off the bus.

"I got it on video." Todoroki said, and Uraraka nearly squealed, "Give it to me. I told you Izuku's yawn was adorable."

Midoriya entered the common room, and promptly made a beeline for the black bean bag. He sat down, and promptly curled up protectively around Ryuto, as Reiko hopped to the ground and stared at the computer game that Ashido and Kaminari had set up. Yaoyorozu and Ojiro had already gone to 1-B's side of the building to check up on them, and Sato had gone back to his room to take a quick shower, and bake a cake to celebrate their passing of the licence exam.

"Well... I guess it's better than him falling asleep in the shower... am I right?" Sero laughed, as he reached for the remote, only for Iida to frown, "No. You should all shower before coming to play! We've been fighting."

"There's pizza later, though." Kaminari pointed out, "The smell's going to get in our hair and then we'll have to shower again. After dinner, we promise, we'll shower before coming back to continue the game."

"For once... he's smart." Jiro rolled her eyes, originally wanting to head up to her room to shower, but had changed her mind after Kaminari's statement, realising that he was actually correct.

"You wound me!" Kaminari whined, and Jiro just sighed.

Iida didn't really have any arguments to counter Kaminari, and he just sighed as the Bakuquad, minus Bakugou, practically threw themselves on the couch to start playing. It didn't really help that 1-B had decided to pop over, with Awase dragging Kaibara and Kamakiri over to the couch to join in the game.

Monoma's insults about 1-A were going unheard as Iida looked at Shinsou and Todoroki, "So... what are we going to do now?"

"We'll just... watch... I guess?" Shinsou replied, "Not much else we can do."

* * *

"There's pizza! Everyone passed, and you guys did awesome in the licence exams, congratulations!" Yamada grinned, bursting into the common room, with Kayama and Kan helping with the pizza, "I heard from Vlad King that everyone's hanging out in the 1-A dorms, so we're just bringing everything here! Have fun!"

"Food!" Kaminari lit up, immediately rushing for the table as the teachers placed the food down. Yaoyorozu, Kendo, Shishida and Iida were doing their best to control the hungry, rowdy students. They managed to help serve the pizza to everyone else without anyone getting hurt, and everyone was content with munching on their dinner as Iida counted the slices of pizza left. There were quite a few that remained, hopefully enough for everyone that needed seconds, or possibly thirds, but there was a lone plate remaining on the table. They had taken out exactly forty one plates, so there should be no reason for there to be one left. Maybe one of the students had decided to just grab the pizza without a plate, but that would leave crumbs all over the place.

Iida was about to count how many students were holding plates when Shinsou spoke up, "Uh... Izuku's gone."

"He's gone?" Awase scratched his head, "I swore I saw him sleeping in that bean bag in the corner."

"Yeah... he was?" Sero replied, "But he just disappeared."

"I'll go check his room." Shinsou muttered, putting his plate down on the common room table before walking down the hallway, and climbed up the stairs.

"But even if he's in his room, how did he just... up and leave? There's forty of us, how did _none_ of us see him?" Kamakiri asked, "He would have to get up from the beanbag, go behind the couch, before taking the hallway down to the stairs. That's not a short distance, especially since so many of us, and no one saw him?"

Uraraka shrugged, "It happens sometimes. None of us know how he does it, but it's pretty amazing."

"I'm telling you, there's some sort of secret passage in the walls." Todoroki muttered.

* * *

Shinsou gently knocked on Midoriya's door, and pushed it open. Midoriya was sitting on the balcony, staring at the trees below, and Shinsou closed the door behind him.

"Izuku? There's food downstairs. I know you just woke up from a nap but... you hungry?" Shinsou asked, and after a minute or two, Midoriya shook his head. Shinsou walked over to the balcony, and sat down beside the boy. Reiko was grooming herself as Ryuto drank some water out of the small bowl that Midoriya had set out for him.

Midoriya just looked away, before admitting, "I... I don't... really... like pizza."

"You don't like pizza?" Shinsou asked, confused.

He didn't know why he was telling this to Shinsou. He was revealing one big weakness that could be used against him. Maybe the teachers would find him too troublesome to keep around if he didn't like the food that all the others liked, and they would kick him out. Or maybe -

"I mean...sure... people don't like certain types of food. I don't like those spicy drumsticks. Burns my tongue." Shinsou continued, "Any reason why you don't like it?"

"... It... makes me sick..."

Midoriya couldn't really give a reason _why_ it made him sick. It was too personal, but luckily for him, Shinsou didn't pry and just shrugged, "That's valid. I'm sure we can grab something else for you to eat."

Midoriya shook his head, "I'm... fine. I'll just...eat instant noodles... later."

Shinsou frowned slightly, "That can't be very healthy, especially after what happened today."

Midoriya just turned away from him. He's had enough of talking, and just signed, _"It's fine."_

"If you say so." Shinsou muttered, sensing that Midoriya was tired and stressed and the interaction was just stressing him out more, "But if you ever want anything other than instant noodles, I'm sure Dad or Pops would be willing to just order something else."

Midoriya let out a small grunt of acknowledgement, and Shinsou stood up, "Well... take care of yourself... okay?"

The green haired boy watched out of the corner of his eye as Shinsou left the room, leaving him alone with his own thoughts. He used to like katsudon and pizza; katsudon because his mother always cooked it whenever he used to be upset, and it would always cheer him up, and pizza because his father was convinced that he could cook pizza with his fire breathing quirk instead of an oven. Midoriya couldn't even remember how many times his dad had burnt the pizza beyond recognition, or just outright disintegrated it. There was even an entire afternoon where Hisashi had bought a huge stack of frozen pizza, and attempted to defrost and cook them instantly.

The mere memory of that afternoon just made Midoriya sick, just like the smell of freshly cooked pizza that had wafted in through the open windows, alerting Midoriya to the teacher's presence and giving him a chance to escape to the safety of his room before anyone forced him to eat it.

Midoriya took a deep breath, before heading back into his room, plopping himself down on his bed.

He really didn't want to think anymore.


	73. Chapter 73 - There was no way

Midoriya left his room, with Reiko and Ryuto tucked in his hood as he trudged towards the main UA building. His body was aching all over, and he was tired. He had just taken a shower, ready to leave his room to check if the nauseating smell of pizza had left the common room and that his classmates were done eating. Nezu had texted him, telling him that he wanted to talk to him in his office, and that he didn't need to alert the teachers about him leaving the dorms as they were already informed of the meeting. Midoriya didn't really think too much about it, and snuck out of his window, trying to not go near the common room, before making his way to Nezu's office.

It didn't take him too long to do so, given how many times he had been to the principal's office, and he placed Reiko and Ryuto on the ground, before knocking on the door. He heard the sound of footsteps, and the door swung open. Much to his surprise, Nezu promptly wrapped his arms around Midoriya, though the principal was so short that he only reached up to Midoriya's waist.

"You're alright. I was so worried when I heard the news about the attack from the Hero Commission." Nezu breathed a sigh of relief, before gently leading the boy into his office. Nezu let the smaller boy sit on the couch in his office, and Midoriya noticed a plastic bowl with steam coming out of it, sitting on the short table that was located by the couch. He looked at it curiously, as Reiko and Ryuto leapt up onto the couch beside her, the cat gently nuzzling the larger bird, before curling up around him. Ryuto settled down, and let out a content chirp as Nezu patted him on the head.

Midoriya leaned over slightly, seeing that the bowl contained some plain soup, noodles and vegetables. It did smell nice, and he hadn't eaten his dinner yet, and he glanced at Nezu curiously, wondering why the animal principal had noodles in his office. It was pretty late, after all, and he assumed that Nezu would have already eaten dinner. Maybe he was working late?

"Eat." Nezu nodded his head towards the bowl, "I didn't think that you would eat dinner, given how many people there were crowded in your dorms."

Midoriya blanched, and quickly shook his head, protesting, "I can't... It's your food... I-"

"Don't worry about it, Izuku." Nezu calmly patted his arm, "I've already eaten; I'm not really hungry at the moment. Just eat it. You deserve it, especially after everything that happened today."

Midoriya paused, but with a bit more encouragement from Nezu, the greenette picked up the metal chopsticks that were with the bowl, and started eating the noodles. He picked up that pace when he realised that, one, the food was actually delicious, despite the meal being relatively simple, and two, he was actually pretty hungry, though on most days, he usually did his best to ignore his stomach.

The office was filled with silence, with the only sound being from Midoriya eating, before Nezu spoke up again, "I was so worried when I heard that there were four members of the League attacking the students, and I knew that you would do your best to protect everyone."

Midoriya looked away from Nezu guiltily, and Nezu sighed, gently patting Midoriya's leg, "I'm not mad. On the contrary, I'm proud that you trusted yourself, and decided to take matters into your own hands because you felt that you could handle it. I care about you, Izuku, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who was worried about your wellbeing while you fought the League."

Nezu paused, before continuing, "I'm just glad that you're okay, Izuku. Recovery Girl already informed me about the injuries you got from the villains... and while they're pretty bad, I'm just relieved that it's not as serious as the last two times you ended up in the hospital."

Midoriya froze, and he slowed his eating down, trying to process what Nezu was talking about. He was almost done with the noodles anyways. He knew that Nezu did care about him, and accepted it, as much as he found it hard to believe. Even though his injuries were healed, they were still aching, and Shuzenji had already told him that if the pain was too unbearable, he should go find her the next day. But he wasn't about to bother her, nor Nezu, about that. Shuzenji was probably busy, and he didn't want Nezu to worry more than he had to.

"I'm fine... Recovery Girl already healed them up." Midoriya replied, placing the empty bowl back on the table, and was about to stand up to find a sink to wash the chopsticks in when Nezu stopped him.

"Ah, just leave it there, Izuku." Nezu quickly spoke up, "Don't worry about it. I have other stuff to clear anyways, it won't be too much of a trouble."

"If... you say so.." Midoriya reluctantly left the chopsticks on the bowl, and Nezu looked at his watch, "It's late right now... and I'm sure that you're tired after everything that happened today. You should go back and rest."

"Alright... goodnight, Nezu..." The green haired boy merely nodded, and Nezu wrapped his paws around Midoriya's neck, giving him another hug, before Midoriya left the office, heading back towards the 1-A dorms.

Nezu stretched, and hopped off the couch, going to one of the cupboards by the door, rummaging around inside, before procuring a bowl of instant noodles. He just had his dinner delivered to his office when Aizawa informed him that Midoriya had, apparently, not eaten anything at all, and while he didn't like lying to Midoriya, he knew that it would be the only way to get his little pup to eat anything other than instant noodles.

Nezu just picked up the chopsticks and the empty bowl that Midoriya had eaten from, before moving towards the staffroom to get some warm water for his instant noodles, before disposing of the empty bowl and washing the chopsticks.

* * *

Midoriya trudged back into his room, and flung himself on his bed., before noticing that there was an envelope on his desk. Midoriya sat up, and walked over to his table, picking it up, looking at it curiously. He went back to his bed, and gently peeled open the envelope, noticing that there was a small, plastic card, as well as a sheet of paper. He was about to look at the contents of the paper when there was a knock on the door.

The green haired boy looked up, and Shinsou carefully opened the door, "Hey... Izuku... There was supposed to be a movie night again with 1-B, since there aren't any classes tomorrow... and they were wondering if you wanted to join us? Somehow, everyone is downstairs comparing scores and their hero licenses, though... Oh, yeah, Dad left your license and feedback in that envelope, since you were exhausted after the exam."

Midoriya looked away briefly, before nodding, grabbing the open envelope and following Shinsou out of his room. Luckily, it seems that his classmates had already cleared away the pizza, and the nauseating smell of it had already dissipated. The greenette was glad that no one brought up the fact that he didn't join them for dinner, and settled into the bean bag in the corner of the common room, before opening the envelope and taking out the piece of paper, noticing that there was a score, as well as some comments.

Overall, he seemed to do pretty well, getting ninety five points in total. There were some comments, stating that he did a good job surveying the environment and not acting rashly, trying to save people and fighting villains despite having a broken leg, and even coming up with a plan to take out the mock villain in the exam, which was something that only the students in their arena managed to do.

He apparently only lost marks due to a lack of enthusiasm, which was mostly noted by the members of the HUC that he had saved, though they really didn't take away too many points since Midoriya had still done his part. Midoriya didn't really care too much about that; as long as he got the job done, it didn't matter how he was feeling. Enthusiasm would only cloud a person's judgement, and result in them making rash decisions. Plus, how on earth could he be enthusiastic about saving people who weren't really in danger, and were just acting and pretending to be injured?

"Hey, Midoriya!" Sero grinned, as Awase, Ashido and Kaminari chattered excitedly behind him, "How much did you get? I got eighty four!"

Midoriya just looked up, opting to remain silent, and just passed the black haired boy the paper with his score on it. Sero gleefully took the piece of paper, and glanced over it, "Woah, you got ninety five? That's even higher than Yaoyorozu!"

"Someone got a higher score than Yaomomo!?" Hagakure yelled, "Who!?"

Uraraka had to literally restrain the invisible girl before she tackled Sero to look at the paper he was looking at, and Iida calmly took the paper from Sero, comparing it to Yaoyorozu's paper. Kendo and Yaoyorozu peered over Iida's arm, examining Midoriya's report, and the orange haired girl gaped, "Woah. You didn't make any mistakes except... lack of enthusiasm?"

"Uh... he seemed pretty enthusiastic to me." Jiro commented, confused, as Todoroki muttered, "Maybe they just didn't want someone getting full marks."

Reiko purred lightly, rubbing Midoriya's cheek; her human was really getting uncomfortable as Kamakiri, Shishida and Kaibara also tried to take a look at the paper curiously. Shinsou hastily pushed the other students away gently to give Midoriya space, and luckily, Iida also subtly moved away so that they weren't so close to the green haired boy.

Ryuto stuck his head into the envelope, and couldn't get it off his head, before starting to nibble curiously on the plastic card inside. Midoriya hastily fished the envelope off the hawk, before gently patting his head in an attempt to get Ryuto to release the card before he accidentally injured himself on the plastic. The greenette tucked the card in his pocket; he didn't want anyone to notice it and start questioning him about his hero name. He was already tired enough of all the fussing over his score; it was just a score, and they all passed. Was it even _that_ important?

Luckily for him, the rest of the hero course students were also pretty tired from the Hero Licence Exam, and were impatient to start the movie so that they could go to bed earlier. That was more than enough to convince them to give Midoriya back the report of his performance while the others grabbed their snacks from the kitchen.

Kendo and Koda had shifted over the other bean bags from around the common room, and Shoji and Shishida even brought over more bean bags from the 1-B dorms in order to create more space for everyone, since the first time the two classes had a movie night together, it had been a bit crammed with only the couches and mattresses. Seeing as the students were also using the bean bags, Midoriya grabbed the black bean bag and also dragged it to the middle of the common room so that he could see the screen.

Shinsou scratched his head as he surveyed the area. He had gone to grab some water from the kitchen while his classmates sorted out the seating arrangements, and had come back to the common room, only to find that there wasn't anywhere to sit. There wasn't any more space on the couch nor on the mattresses, since instead of sitting, some people were lying down, and all the bean bags were taken up.

"Ok..." Shinsou muttered, trying to figure out where to sit, since Tokage had already switched off the lights and Ashido had started the movie... whatever it was. Shinsou wasn't even sure what movie was being played.

Midoriya spotted the purple haired boy out of the corner of his eye, and he glanced at him, not really sure what the other boy was looking for until he realised that there wasn't anywhere for him to sit. Midoriya was tired, and would much rather sleep in his room than stay downstairs and watch the movie, but he wasn't too sure if Shinsou wanted to watch the movie or not. The bean bags were rather large, and there were people who were sharing bean bags, like Uraraka and Asui, or Bakugou and Kirishima (Midoriya had no idea how the red head managed to convince the explosive blonde to actually do that).

If it were anyone else, Midoriya would be far too terrified and uncomfortable to even _think_ about it, but he did trust the taller boy, at least, enough to share his seat with him. At the very least, he knew that Shinsou wouldn't push him out of his seat, like his classmates in elementary school did every time they were short on chairs. He let out a small growl, almost indiscernible, quiet enough to not bother anyone else who was watching the movie, but loud enough to get Shinsou's attention.

The lavender haired boy heard the growl, and turned, seeing the shorter boy looking at him. Midoriya nodded his head slightly, beckoning Shinsou over to him, and the taller boy just looked down at the smaller boy, confused. He crouched down, "Are you okay, Izuku? Do you need anything?"

Midoriya didn't say anything, and merely shifted to the side so that there was more than enough space for Shinsou to sit down in it if he wanted to. Shinsou just looked at Midoriya oddly, not really sure what the other boy was doing until Midoriya nodded his head at the empty space next to him.

"I can... sit here?" Shinsou asked softly, and Midoriya nodded.

Shinsou let out a small smile, and gently settled down next to the green haired boy, "Thanks, Izuku."

Midoriya just gave the other boy a small grunt in acknowledgement, wrapping his arms around Reiko and Ryuto, before turning towards the screen, actually somewhat curious about what his classmates had planned to watch.

* * *

The students had spent their one free day resting. Since they didn't have any homework, the Bakusquad literally spent the entire day playing video games, though there was way too much screaming and explosions from the common room for anyone to even do anything. Ashido was apparently recording them playing some horror game in Virtual Reality, and somehow, Midoriya managed to sleep through the entire thing while sleeping in the bean bag despite all the screaming and yelling. He didn't wake up for breakfast or lunch, and the only reason he had eaten a bit for dinner was because Uraraka, Iida, and Shinsou bugged him enough, before he promptly went back to sleep; Iida had gotten up for his daily morning run, only to find Midoriya already sleeping in the common room, curled up in the bean bag.

Then it was back to school, starting with assembly in the morning.

Nezu had just given a speech about the importance of sleeping to one's fur and hair quality, before stating that disturbances in lifestyle weren't very healthy, and that the increasing threat of chaos due to villain attacks were affecting people's lifestyles, stressing the importance of U.A. students' future place in the society, as well as the importance of internships for the students in the Hero program, who would have to go out and fight these threats. Inui had tried to say something to the students, but only managed to get some growls into the microphone before Kan took over, and reminded the students that while it was necessary to work hard, they should also take time to relax, as moderation was important.

It had taken the teachers some time to dismiss the students back to their classrooms, and Aizawa sighed, "Alright, we'll be continuing regular lessons starting today. A lot of unprecedented things happened, but you'll need to switch gears to focus on your duties as students. We'll be staying in the classroom today, but this semester, your training will be even harsher than before."

"I'm sorry, can I ask a question?" Asui raised her hand, "Can you tell us what the "Hero Work Studies" that came up earlier during the assembly was about?"

"Oh yeah... the principal didn't mention anything about it." Sero muttered, as Tokoyami nodded, "I was wondering as well."

"He said it was something many of the upperclassmen are engaged in..." Yaoyorozu added, and Aizawa sighed, "I was planning to talk about those at a later date, but I guess telling you guys now is more logical. To put it simply, they are hero activities outside of school. Like the internships you did under heroes before, only closer to the real thing."

"Wait, then why did we work so hard for the Sports Festival?!" Uraraka exclaimed, as Iida mused, "That's true... if we have work studies, then even those who didn't get scouted at the Sports Festival would have paths open up for them..."

"The Hero Works Studies use the scouting from the Sports Festival as connections. This isn't part of a class, but an activity done at the discretion of the students, so those who weren't scouted at the Sports Festival would have a hard time arranging one to begin with. And in case you have forgotten, one of your didn't even have an internship after the Sports Festival." Aizawa replied.

"Oh yeah... Midoriya transferred in after the internships had concluded..." Kaminari spoke up, as Aizawa sighed, "Yes. Originally, individual agencies recruited on their own, but there were many complications with trying to get UA students to join, so it ended up being like this. Now that you have your provisional licenses, you can assist in more real ways for longer periods of time. There aren't many cases where first years have received their provisional licenses, and with the increased activity of the villains, we are currently seriously thinking about your participation."

"Even after... the villain attack during the exam?" Mineta timidly asked, and Aizawa nodded, "Especially after that. That attack has shown that to get to the heroes, villains aren't above attacking students as well, and for the safety of yourselves as well as others, the earlier you get experience, the better. We'll have you hear more about what it's like tomorrow. Now, you have your next lesson with Present Mic."

Midoriya just grabbed his worksheets to prepare for the English lesson. They were probably going to get the second or third years to talk to them about the hero work studies, most likely, the Big Three from UA's current third year cohort. He should get some research done, just so that he wouldn't be jumping in blindly.

* * *

"Is there any reason why 1-B is taking today's slot with the Big Three?" Yagi asked, "Young Mirio did seem very interested in meeting Young Midoriya..."

"Apparently, Nighteye wanted to see how Togata was doing, but he was caught up with something and couldn't make it." Nezu shrugged, "I do know that you were interested in seeing the possible effects of Izuku's theory about One for All, but this also involves Nighteye. I'm afraid you'll just have to wait for tomorrow, Toshinori."

"That is true..." Yagi muttered, and Nezu cut in again, "And we should also have Aizawa, since we don't really know what One for All is capable of. The quirk may get out of hand, and we'll need Aizawa should that happen. Do you know what quirks might possibly be contained within One for All?"

"Well... I know my master's quirk is Float... and I think she mentioned something about one of the users before her having some whip-like quirk, though I'm not sure how accurate it is... I don't think that previous users of One for All had thought of this possibility, or it would be clearly documented somewhere." Yagi replied, and Nezu nodded, "Alright, at least it's a start. We should focus on those first."

* * *

"In your seats, everyone." Aizawa ordered, as Kaminari, Sero, Ashido and Kirishima scrambled for their seats.

"Now, we'll go into more detail about the work studies. But anyways, it hasn't been decided yet whether first years will be sent to work with pros. We'll be deciding that at a meeting, but if we do it, we'll also have to think about how to handle the media. But we still decided that you should know what's going on to decide if you even want to participate in these activities in the first place." Aizawa turned to the door, "Please, come in. We'll have people who experienced it first hand tell you about how these are different from the internships. Listen carefully."

The door slid open, revealing a blonde with scarred arms, a girl with long periwinkle hair that was mostly straight, with curls near the ends, and a pale boy with messy indigo hair.

"These are the three third years at UA who stand at the top of all UA students, also known as the Big Three."

"The Big Three?" Sato muttered, as Kaminari gawked, "The top of all UA students!?"

"The crown among the splendid UA students..." Iida gaped as Yaoyorozu stared at the third years in awe, "The ones closest to pro heroes among us..."

The only one who didn't seem very surprised was Midoriya; he was completely apathetic to the three students.

Midoriya knew the basics about the Big Three. In the previous year's Sports Festival, none of them ranked very well, though Togata's clothes had fallen off on live television due to his quirk.

Togata's Permeation quirk allows him to phase his body through physical matter, Hado's Wave Motion quirk allows her to convert her energy into as blast waves, while Amajiki's Manifest quirk allows him to manifest traits of any food they've eaten while it's still in his body. Nothing too special, but any quirk can be extremely powerful and versatile if used properly and creatively. Togata had been given One for All. But besides that, Midoriya seriously doubted that they would become the Big Three if they didn't master their quirks properly.

"Okay, can you please introduce yourselves briefly?" Aizawa asked, "Let's start with Amajiki."

The indigo haired boy gave a very intense stare, though it didn't seem to affect the students too much; they had seen a very enraged Midoriya very literally kick Muscular's butt before, and this was nowhere as intense as the greenette had been.

"It's no good." Amajiki muttered, "Mirio, Hado, even if I look out on them imagining they are potatoes, everything other than their heads remain human. I can't see them as anything but human. What should I do... I can't say anything... my mind's blank... I can't..."

Amajiki turned around and faced the wall, "I want to go home."

"Uh... you are the top of UA's hero course, right?" Ojiro sweatdropped, as Hado grinned, "Oh, listen, Amajiki! That's called having the heart of a flea, even though you're human! It's so strange!"

Midoriya was starting to hate Hado. That comment about having the heart of a flea was just plain mean.

"This is the flea, Amajiki Tamaki! And I am Nejire Hado! We were asked to talk to you guys about work studies. But wait -"

"Hey, hey, why are you wearing a mask? Are you sick? Trying to look cool?" She asked Shoji, who tried to reply, "It's because in the past -"

She didn't even let him finish before moving on to Todoroki, "Oh my! you must be Todoroki! How did you get burned right there?"

Todoroki didn't even get a chance to reply before Hado continued, "Ashido, if your horns grow off, do new ones grow in? Can you move them? Well? Mineta, are those balls of yours hair? How do you get a haircut? Asui, you're a tree frog, not a toad, right? There's so much I want to know about all of you! It's so strange! Hey, hey, Ojiro, can you support your whole body with your tail? Hey, hey, tell me, I want to know! Oh, Midoriya! How is it like being quirkless!? Why are you so expressionless?! You should smile a bit more! I'm sure you'll look much cuter! Oh, also, why do you wear a collar? Is this your cat? It's so cute! What's it's name? And a bird as well?"

Midoriya really just wanted her to shut up. Ryuto was just confused by the blue haired girl, while Reiko smacked Hado's hand away as she tried to pet the feline, but Hado merely laughed it off.

"Isn't this lacking rationality?" Clearly, Midoriya wasn't the only one who was getting rather annoyed by Hado; Aizawa's eyes were practically glowing red.

"Don't worry, Eraser Head!" Togata laughed nervously, "I'm going last to wrap things up, right?"

He turned to the class, interupting Hado, "The future's going to be?"

There was silence.

"Grim!" Togata ad libbed, "That's what you are supposed to say, right? All right, my call and response was a huge fail!"

Shinsou sweatdropped, as Togata proceeded to laugh at himself. This was just like Yamada and the silence to his "yeah"s.

"All three of them are weird..." Sato muttered, "Even though they're called the Big Three, it's like..."

"You can't feel it in their personalities." Tokoyami replied, "But maybe it's like with Midoriya; unless they're fighting, they won't show it."

"Well, you guys look like you're not sure what's going on, right? We're third years who suddenly appeared to explain work studies that aren't even required. That's confusing, right?" Togata thought to himself for a few seconds, before continuing, "You guys got your provisional liceses as first years, right? This year's first years are really... energetic, right? Besides, it looked like my jokes didn't work earlier, right?"

"Mirio?" Amajiki asked, as Togata punched the air with his fist, "Why don't you all fight me at once?"

"Eh?! Fight you!?"

"It's the most rational to have you all experience our experience firsthand, right?" Togata laughed, rubbing his nose, and Aizawa sighed, "Do whatever you want... but the students can't wear their hero costumes."

* * *

It didn't take them too long to move to Gym Gamma. Luckily, it was the last period of the day, so they didn't have to worry about missing their next lesson.

"Um... are you serious?" Sero asked, but Togata just stretched and replied, "Totally serious!"

"Mirio, you probably shouldn't." Amajiki muttered, his pressing his head against the wall, "For work studies, it would've been enough for us to say "This is how it was and I learnt a lot from it." Not everyone is filled to the brim with ambition. We can't end up with kids who are unable to recover after this."

"What does he mean by "unable to recover"?" Kirishima asked, and Hado, who was messing with Ashido's horns, merely replied, "Oh, listen! Did you know that in the past, there was a student who got so frustrated that they quit being a hero, and that caused a lot of problems! Did you know that? It's tough, isn't it, Togata? If you don't think things through properly, this'll be rough. Really rough."

"Please stop." Ashido whined.

"Wait, there's a handicap, but we're fought the pros before." Tokoyami spoke up.

"And villains, too." Kirishima grinned, "Do we look like such weak small fry to you that you need to worry about us?"

"Right! I like that spirit! You can come at me anytime, from anywhere. Who's first?" Togata exclaimed.

"Uh... Aizawa-sensei... Midoriya isn't here..." Ojiro noted, and Shinsou replied, "Izuku just wanted to get something. He said he'd be here soon."

True enough, after another minute, Midoriya entered Gym Gamma, holding a case that the students normally used for their hero costumes

"Midoriya... I thought I said no hero costumes." Aizawa sighed, but Midoriya just ignored him and walked directly over to Togata, as Kirishima started charging. However, Midoriya grabbed the redhead by the back of his shirt and yanked him backwards, stopping him in his tracks, before passing Togata the case.

"Eh... this is the casing for my hero costume?" Togata scratched his head in confusion, opening the case to check that it really was his.

Midoriya didn't reply, and merely signed, _"I don't want you to end up turning naked in front of everyone because of your quirk."_

Hado and Togata blinked in confusion; they did know sign language, but they were surprised that Midoriya _actually_ knew what Togata's quirk was, at least, enough to be wary of it. Reiko leapt off Midoriya's shoulder, and walked over to Aizawa, with Ryuto flying after her. Hado was about to run after them, yelling, "So cute!", but Reiko just gave her a very threatening growl for a feline of her size, stopping her in her tracks.

"Wait, what do you mean, naked?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya merely signed back, _"His quirk is Permeation. It gives him the ability to phase parts of himself, or his entire body through any kinds of physical matter, which includes all of his clothes. As far as I know, his hero costume is specifically designed so it phases along with him, so I asked the principal if I could retrieve his hero costume."_

Aizawa resisted the urge to facepalm. Of course, the problem child would know about Togata's quirk, and given the teen's relationship to Nezu, he wasn't surprised that the principal allowed Midoriya to grab the older student's hero costume.

"This is a good chance for all of you. Make sure you get the most of this experience." Aizawa spoke up, as Togata quickly changed into his hero costume, "That's good! You're energetic!"

Bakugou grinned, explosions popping off his palms, "The one at the top of UA! If we're going to spar, this is the best I could ask for!"

"The close combat team should surround him at once!" Sato yelled, as Kirishima grinned, "All right! Well then, thanks for showing us this kindness!

The only one who didn't get ready for a fight was Midoriya. Of course, Shinsou had translated the third year's quirk to his classmates, but they were just jumping into it headfirst without a strategy. Sure, there wasn't really anything they could do, since there wasn't any time to brainstorm, and while there was rubble, there weren't any solid walls that would provide Togata with an obvious advantage. Midoriya was at least seventy percent sure that the older teen could phase through the floor, and while he had dealt with villains with phasing quirks before, Togata was part of the Big Three, which meant that he would also have some tricks up his sleeve.

Ojiro had leapt in first, aiming his tail at Togata's face, only for his appendage to just slip through. Togata didn't even react as tape, lasers and acid flew at him, phasing through and hitting the rubble behind him, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Wait!" Iida yelled, but he was too late; the dust had dissipated, and Togata was gone.

In a split second, Togata appeared behind Jiro, "I'll start with the long distance fighters!"

Jiro screamed in fear as Shoji turned around, "He warped?"

"His power isn't just slipping through things?" Sato asked, as he charged at Togata.

"What kind of strong quirk is that!?" Kirishima growled.

Midoriya narrowed his eyes. Togata had permeated through the ground, that was for sure, but the speed at which he had gotten from one side of the arena to the other was ridiculous. It was almost like he teleported. Sure, Togata had One for All, and could theoretically boost his speed, but the greenette seriously doubted that Togata would use it against a bunch of first years. Permeation wasn't a strong quirk on its own; something else was at play, something that only Togata was aware of and could utilise fully, and Midoriya wanted to find out what it was.

Not to mention that his classmates were being idiots and attacking headfirst, leaving themselves open to all sorts of attacks. Twenty filmy wooden shields wouldn't do anything against a missile. In a state of panic, against an opponent who was strong and skilled, emotions did nothing but cloud their judgement, resulting in them not thinking straight and doing stupid things.

Dark Shadow attempted to grab Togata, but the older teen merely slipped back into the ground again, and reappeared right in front of Tokoyami, punching him in the gut. He disappeared again, reappearing right behind Sero and Mineta in the gut and taking them out instantly.

Togata had disappeared once more as Asui lashed her tongue out at him. Aoyama and Ashido fired off their lasers and acid respectively, but it did nothing to slow Togata, and they were taken out by powerful hits to the gut.

Yaoyorozu created a shield as Jiro tried to listen out for the third year, and Kaminari prepared himself to fire off his electricity, but Togata easily appeared in their blind spots and dug his fist into their guts, even phasing through Yaoyorozu's shields for good measure. Before anyone could react, he quickly took Bakugou and Shoji out, and grabbed Jiro's earlobes, tying them around her and Kaminari.

"Power!" Togata shouted, striking a pose, as the students, save for Midoriya, gaped at the blonde's strength.

"Togata Mirio..." Aizawa spoke up, "As far as I know, he's the man closest to being number one, including the pros."

"He got more than half of them in an instant..." Todoroki muttered.

"That's it for long distance fighters!" Togata grinned proudly, "All that's left are those who focus on close combat! And Todoroki, since his quirk can be used in both ways, but whatever!"

"I have no idea what he just did..." Kirishima admitted, as Uraraka gaped, "He's strong enough to be able to slip through things, but he could warp too?"

Midoriya narrowed his eyes. Togata was attacking them directly, and in order to hit them, Togata had to be impermeable, so theoretically, they should be able to hit him in that state with a counter. If Togata could phase through the ground, that meant that he had activated his quirk through his entire body. Togata still had mass, as he didn't start floating away and immediately sunk into the ground, meaning that gravity was taking effect. But how on earth could he shoot out of the ground? If he was completely permeable, then he would have nothing to jump or push off of. He would have to become impermeable in order to get any leverage at all, but then his body would overlap with the ground and -

"Doesn't that make him unrivalled?" Ojiro asked, worried, as Togata grinned, "Aww, don't say that!"

"There has to be some sort of trick here." Todoroki muttered, "It isn't like he can have two quirks."

Togata nearly snorted at the irony of that. Sure, he was only using Permeation and not One for All, but still, it was funny. Amajiki glanced at Midoriya, not sure what the greenette was up to. The boy was just standing there, staring at Togata, hands in his pockets.

"Then come and try to figure it out!" Togata grinned, charging at the students, and slipped into the ground.

* * *

"Mirio's doing well." Sasaki muttered, watching from the upper level of Gym Gamma.

Nezu just smirked, "Don't get too cocky just yet, Nighteye. Izuku still hasn't bared his fangs yet."

Sasaki grinned, "Oh? With the rate Mirio's going, he's going to take out all of your students."

Nezu laughed, "All Togata's doing is delaying the inevitable. The longer a fight drags on, the better Izuku gets."

"If you say so." Sasaki smiled, "As far as I've heard, he has a unique ability to quickly analyze quirks and pick them apart. He was easily able to analyze the League's quirks from battle, but they didn't use their quirks creatively, and were relatively straight forwards fighters. But Mirio has mastered his quirk, using it in creative and unique ways, as well as utilising his surroundings. I am curious to see just how good your pup is in that regard."

Nezu let out a shit eating grin, "Trust me. When it comes to creative and unique fighting styles and using his surroundings, Izuku is one step ahead."

* * *

"He went under!" Sato yelled, and Midoriya, who was standing at the back of the group, let out a growl.

"Behind!" Shinsou yelled, whirling around, as Togata popped out of the ground and tried to attack the greenette. But much to the older boy's surprise, Midoriya easily dodged his attack despite Togata attacking from behind.

"He's attacking us from behind." Shinsou yelled, as Togata slipped into the ground again, whirling around as the older boy popped out right in front of him. Shinsou rushed forwards, aiming to punch Togata, but the older didn't seem fazed at all.

"You predicted I would come up here, huh?" Togata grinned, "But here's an ultimate move! Blinder Touch Eyeball Crush!"

Shinsou closed his eyes as Togata pretended to poke him in the eyes, and delivered a punch right to his stomach.

"Most people try to launch a counter attack like that, right? Of course, I'll train to go after those guys too!"

Iida tried to give Shinsou back up, but Togata had disappeared once again, before reappearing and punching Iida in the gut. Kirishima hardened his arms and tried to figure out where Togata would reappear next, but Togata still managed to hit him in the stomach. In a split second, he took out Todoroki, Koda, Sato, Ojiro, Uraraka and Hagakure, and the only one left was Midoriya, the only one who managed to dodge a single attack by Togata.

"You know... about Togata... hey, hey, listen to me. Togata's gotten stronger, hasn't he?" Hado grinned, and Amajiki muttered, "Mirio's been strong ever since we were kids. It's just... he should learn to hold back."

"I mean... one of them's still standing." Hado pointed out, and Amajiki turned around slightly, catching a glimpse of the greenette who was still standing, still as a statue, as the rest of his peers were lying on the ground, either unconscious or clutching their stomachs in pain.

"So... there's one left." Togata grinned, "I've heard a lot about you, Midoriya! Let's see what your analysis skills can do, okay?"

Midoriya raised his head, and took a step forwards, before he charged at Togata, aiming a kick at the taller boy, only for his foot to just phase through. Togata promptly disappeared into the ground again, and Midoriya started running, keeping a mental count in his head, before pushing all his forwards momentum upwards and jumped.

_The time frame at which he disappears and reappears is rather constant... he would just have to take advantage of that small period of time where Togata is underground and can't see where he is._

Togata popped out of the ground, surprised that he couldn't see any green, before Midoriya started falling. He aimed a kick at the older boy, but Togata managed to notice it in time and slipped back into the ground, popping out a fair distance away. But Midoriya just wanted to test something, and Togata's actions proved that he was correct.

_If he phases through everything... that probably means that sound, light and air passes through him as well. He can't breathe, he can't hear, he can't see anything. His senses are completely negated. That means his quirk has a time limit, which is about two to three minutes, assuming he doesn't have special training to hold his breath, which is doubtful._

Togata phased into the ground again, and reappeared right in front of Midoriya, attempting to poke him in the eyes, but unlike most people, who moved away from the attack, Midoriya leaned forwards, attempting to bite Togata, before the older boy shifted his stance in midair and used his other fist to punch Midoriya's stomach. Midoriya raised his leg, using it to block Togata's attack, and Togata slipped into the ground again.

Midoriya growled, and stood still, trying to figure out where Togata would pop up from. If Togata couldn't breathe while using his quirk, then he could use that to his advantage. It was harder, since Togata could chose to only make parts of his body permeable, but as long as Togata kept his chest permeable, then he wouldn't be able to breathe.

Togata burst out of the ground again, right underneath Midoriya, but much to his surprise, Midoriya remained in place, letting the taller boy phase right through him. Togata moved away, but Midoriya just followed, ensuring that some part of his body was constantly overlapping with Togata's upper body. Togata turned his fist impermeable, and tried to hit Midoriya, but Midoriya managed to block the attack with his leg. Togata made his fist phase through Midoriya's leg, turning it impermeable once he made contact with the boy's stomach, but the strength from the punch was already greatly reduced due to the lack of momentum, and Midoriya was able to tank the punch easily.

Seeing as he had no way of actually hurting Midoriya, Togata was forced to slip into the ground again. Midoriya mentally calculated the angle that Togata would pop out of the ground, and promptly moved, changing his position. Togata popped out of the ground again, only to realise that he was, once again, forced to phase through Midoriya due to his momentum, and had no other choice than to retreat back into the ground. Midoriya just repeatedly moved so that Togata was forced to overlap his mass with him, not even giving the taller boy a chance to take a breath.

Hado watched the fight nervously; despite being quirkless, Midoriya was somehow able to come up with a way to prevent Togata from attacking. Hearing that Hado was no longer being noisy, Amajiki also turned around to watch the fight, surprised that Midoriya was able to give Togata a run for his money. The rumours about the boy from the pro heroes were right; Midoriya was a terrifying opponent to go against. Not only did he know about Togata's quirk, but he was starting to figure out how Togata used his quirk, and was quickly finding ways to turn his quirk against the older boy.

After a few rounds, Togata was honestly starting to get a bit worried. Midoriya was somehow able to predict where he was going to pop up, and wasn't giving him any chances to attack. That wasn't the main problem; the real problem was that between phasing through the ground and being forced to overlap with Midoriya up on the surface, Togata had been holding his breath for a long as he could, and he was running out of oxygen. He had spent the last year training with Sasaki to master his quirk and apply them in creative ways in order to initiate surprise attacks, but he hadn't really had time to train himself to hold his breath for so long.

With all the time Midoriya spent chasing the taller boy around, some of the students managed to recover enough from Togata's punches to their guts to sit up and watch.

Togata finally couldn't take it anymore, and popped out of the ground, forcing himself to turn permeable as he overlapped with Midoriya, repelling himself backwards as Midoriya held his ground. He tried to take a deep breath, but in that split second, Midoriya jumped in, swinging his foot at the out of breath Togata. His foot made solid contact with Togata's chest, as Togata was desperate for air, and the greenette harshly kicked the older boy into the ground, cracking the ground beneath the blonde as his back made contact with the ground.

Midoriya was about to attack again while Togata was vulnerable, but Aizawa looked at his watch and called out,"That's enough for today. I don't want anyone going to Recovery Girl today."

* * *

"That's smart." Sasaki muttered, "By forcing Mirio to continuously phase through him, Midoriya managed to turn his quirk against him. Mirio still has a lot to learn. I'm going to train him in holding his breath."

"Told you so. When it comes to using people's quirks against them, Izuku is the best." Nezu proudly smirked.

"True. I'm not surprised; he was a former vigilante, wasn't he? He must have developed those skills in order to take down more tricky villains." Sasaki spoke up, as Nezu replied, "Yeah. But he's also done his research on Togata. You saw him, he specifically asked for Togata's hero costume so that he wouldn't flash anyone by accident."

Sasaki nearly laughed, and settled for an amused smirk, "Yeah, that happened a lot during training. You had no idea how much Bubble Girl was screaming when he used his quirk by accident while out of costume."

"That must have been hilarious by your standards." Nezu chuckled, before looking down at the green haired boy proudly.

"I've honestly never seen you so proud of anyone before." Sasaki smiled, watching where Nezu was looking, "Your boy really means that much to you."

"Of course." Nezu grinned, "Come on. You wanted to work with Togata on One for All, didn't you."

* * *

"Anyways, you kind of get it, right?" Togata grinned.

"We just got punched in the stomach without really knowing what was going on..." Shinsou groaned, clutching his stomach in pain. That was _definitely _going to leave a bruise.

"Did you think my quirk was strong?" Togata asked.

"It was too strong!" Sero complained.

"That's not fair! Think about me too! I can't even use my quirk!" Hagakure whined.

"You can slip through things and warp! Are you a hybrid like Todoroki!?" Ashido asked.

"I'm not a hybrid." Todoroki muttered.

"In the end, Midoriya was the only one who could even do anything!" Kaminari sighed, and Togata smiled, "Nope! I only have one quirk!"

_Lies. You have two quirks, but you only used one._

"I know what his quirk is!" Hado grinned, "Hey, hey, can I say it? Can I? Can I? His quirk is Permeation!"

"It's Mirio's turn now..." Amajiki muttered.

"That's right! My quirk is Permeation! What you guys called a warp was an application of that!" Togata started, as Hado pouted and tugged at Togata's uniform. "Sorry about that." Togata sheepishly apologised to Hado.

"How exactly do you warp?" Shinsou scratched his head; he was actually genuinely curious. Sure, his quirk was nothing like Togata's, but if Togata could use his quirk to warp, then surely he could find another way to apply his quirk too, right?

Togata hummed, before pointing at Midoriya, "You! You seemed to have some idea of what's going on, you explain it."

Midoriya nearly flinched as all the attention was on him, and he instantly froze up. He tried to force himself to say something, just so that he could get the attention off himm but he couldn't even open his mouth. He just settled for signing, with Shinsou translating for him.

_"He activates his quirk through his entire body and is able to slip through the ground. When he releases his quirk, his mass is unable to overlap with the mass of the ground, so he's most likely getting repelled, which results in the high speed at which he seems to move at. As he's always running or making some kind of movement before going back underground, he calculates the angle where the ground is repelling him in order to attack and move around, so it seems like he's warping."_

Togata's jaw almost dropped. He knew that Midoriya had figured out _something_ about his quirk, but he didn't think that the boy was that accurate.

"... it's like a buggy game..." Ashido muttered.

"So he can avoid all attacks and move wherever you like in an instant. It's a very strong quirk..."

"Nope! I made it a strong quirk!" Togata grinned.

"But Midoriya managed to hit him..." Kirishima scratched his head, before turning to Midoriya, "How on earth did you do that?"

_"When he activates his quirk throughout his entire body, he phases through everything, including light, sound and air. He can't breathe when his quirk is activated, nor can he see or hear. When you stay still, he can predict where to attack and adjust his movements and angles, so that moving around can stop that since he can't see your new position or hear your movements. Also, as he has to hold his breath, by constantly forcing him to be phasing through something at all times, he runs out of air and is forced to become impermeable in order to breathe."_

"That's correct! While my quirk is activated, my lungs can't take in oxygen. Even if I breathe it in, it would just go through my body. In the same way, vibrations go through my eardrums and light passes through my retinas. I pass through everything, as so, I can't feel anything." Togata admitted, "I'll just fall since I have mass. That's it. Even if I want to go through a wall, I activate my quirk everywhere but in one leg, then I release in the other leg and land on it, activate it on my other leg and go through. Even for simple actions like that, there's a bunch of steps involved."

"If that were me, I'd mess that up if I'm in a hurry..." Kaminari muttered, "I don't think I would even be able to move if I couldn't feel anything."

"That's right! As expected, I was always behind! In no time, I'd drop to dead last. I dropped my clothes too! In order to get to the top with this quirk, I couldn't just stay behind!"

Togata poked himself in the forehead, "Predictions! I had to think faster than those around me! Sometimes I had to be tricky! Above all, I had to be able to predict what would happen! And what made those predictions possible was experience! I built my predictions on what I knew! Some of you already have this kind of experience, but you can't just be reliant on those people in order to fight; you need to be able to build up those skills by yourself, so that you can protect yourself and others!"

Togata proudly continued, "It ended up being kind of long, but that's why I wanted to fight you all! I wanted to show you through experience instead of just words. In our work studies, we're not guests; we're treated as one of the sidekicks and as pros! That's really scary! Pros will sometimes end up watching people die, but those scary and painful things that you'll go through, all of them are first-rate experiences you wouldn't be able to have at school! I changed the experience I got during my work study into power, and took the top spot! That's why I think it's something you should do even if you're scared, first years!"

Some of the students started clapping, and Kaminari commented, "True... I did feel more like a guest during the internships."

"They didn't really let us do anything too dangerous." Jiro replied.

"So that means that's not how it'll be during the work studies, huh?" Sero muttered, as Iida spoke up, "Now that we've gotten our provisional licenses, we'll be treated like pros once we're on the scene. We have to be prepared for that!"

"Right! We can to UA because we wanted to be pros!" Hagakure exclaimed.

"We'll be going back now. Say thank you." Aizawa ordered, and everyone bowed and thanked the third years, before Aizawa ordered everyone to go back to the classroom to grab their things, before heading back to the dorms.

"Hey, was there any point in us being there?" Hado asked, "Do you know?"

"I'm glad I didn't have to do anything... let's be thankful to Mirio." Amajiki muttered.

"Hey, want to go out for ice cream?" Hado asked, going back to pester Ashido, "We can bring the first years too! Some of them are so cute!"

"I'm staying here. There's still something I need to do." Togata grinned, "You can bring the first years, though. I think some of them are curious."

"Right. There's that too." Aizawa sighed, "Midoriya, stay back as well. The rest of you, get back to the classroom."

Midoriya looked up at the mention of his name, and noticed that Yagi had also entered the gym; it was probably something regarding One for All, which meant that Sasaki was probably going to come as well, given that Togata was interning under that hero.

"Eh?" Uraraka protested, "But Izuku didn't do anything wrong!"

"I didn't say he did anything wrong." Aizawa groaned, "We just need him for something."

"Then can we stay and accompany him?" Iida asked, but Aizawa shook his head, "No. Go back to class, and don't loiter around here. If I find any of you still here in two minutes, I'll give you detention, or put you on house arrest."

Hearing that Aizawa wasn't going to budge at all, the students sighed, and Midoriya signed, _"Don't worry. I'll be fine."_

"Right! We'll take care of him!" Togata grinned, ruffling Midoriya's hair, but the green haired boy didn't look too happy about that. Shinsou promptly yanked Midoriya away from Togata, before patting the greenette on the back, "If you need anything, just call us, alright?"

Midoriya wasn't going to call anyone if he needed help, but he just nodded to placate the taller boy, before Aizawa got fed up and chased the students out of the gym.

"Ah, Izuku. Good work!" Nezu grinned, emerging from another door from the other side of the gym, with a taller man with green hair with yellow highlights, as well as glasses, following behind him.

"Sir!" Togata exclaimed, "You saw everything... I... I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry about it, Mirio." Sasaki smiled, "You did well."

"This is Sir Nighteye, the one that Togata interns under." Nezu nodded, and Sasaki stuck out his hand. Midoriya shook his hand, albeit hesitantly; at least, with Nezu around, he knew that the pro hero wouldn't try anything.

_"This is about his quirk, right? The quirk that he got from All Might?"_


	74. Chapter 74 - Yesterday is nothing

Togata blinked.

"Wait, you know about that?!" Togata asked, and Midoriya nodded.

"I didn't use it just down, I swear. I only used Permeation." Togata tried to defend himself, and Midoriya just sighed.

"Well, at the very least, we can skip the introductions and get right to the point." Sasaki pushed his glasses upwards, "Mirio, it may be possible that besides from One for All, you may manifest other quirks as well."

"Eh?" Togata blinked, trying to process his mentor's words, "You mean... besides from super strength?"

"Yes." Sasaki nodded, "All Might already told you how One for All was created and passed down, didn't he?"

Togata nodded, "All for One's little brother gaining a stockpiling quirk, right?"

Yagi sighed, "Yes. That one. We have a theory that, due to the nature of the One for All, a power stockpiling quirk combined with a quirk that allowed the quirk to be given to someone, as the quirk was passed down from user to user, the quirks of the six other previous users of One for All may also be accessible."

The third year hummed, trying to process this information, "So I may manifest other quirks?"

"In simple terms, yes." Nezu nodded, "As you know, there are eight users before you, one including All for One's brother. You already know that All Might was formerly quirkless before gaining One for All, however, we only have information on two out of the six remaining possible quirks. Shimura Nana had a Float quirk, allowing her to suspend herself in mid-air, and something about a whip quirk. We have much less information about the second one, though."

"Well... that does make sense..." Togata blinked, and turned to Midoriya, "Uh... not to be rude... but are you sure we should be talking about that in front of... well... him?"

"Of course." Yagi rubbed his arm, "Young Midoriya already knows that I'm quirkless. And he was originally the one that came up with the idea that not just power, but quirks themselves can also be stockpiled."

"Woah! I didn't know my kouhai was so awesome." Togata grinned, patting Midoriya on the back, and the frustrated greenette was doing his best not to swat the older boy's hand away.

"Uh... Togata, you might want to stop patting Midoriya." Aizawa sweatdropped at the obliviousness of the third year, but luckily, Togata didn't question Aizawa's statement and retracted his hand. Sasaki nearly wanted to laugh at Midoriya's reaction; sure, the kid was almost impossible to read, but there was just something about him that Sasaki just found hilarious.

"So... assuming that it is possible..." Togata spoke up, "What should I do? Try to force it out? Or wait until something happens."

"I would think that just trying to see if you can access any of the quirks is a good start." Sasaki pushed his glasses up, "If we wait, the quirks may pop up at an undue time, and could end up being more of a hindrance than help. But if you can't bring out any other quirks, that is also fine. We don't really expect anything as of now, we just thought you should know about it so you'll know what to do and how to handle it in case it does appear."

"Alright." Togata nodded energetically, and punched the air, "Where do we start?"

Midoriya just stood in his spot, not moving a single inch as he watched Yagi, Sasaki and Togata talking. He wasn't needed here, to the world, he was a quirkless, useless child. Aizawa had no connection to this One for All problem either, but given what could happen, his presence was necessary in case One for All went berserk. But why on earth was he still requested to be here?

Midoriya glanced at Nezu, and the principal caught his gaze and cleared his throat, "Well, since you were the one that came up with this theory of multiple quirks, it was only fit to let you see how we were going to test it. Also, Nighteye here wanted to meet you."

Sasaki glanced at the boy, putting a bit of pressure behind his gaze, but Midoriya didn't even seem to notice it at all, just looking at him with those emotionless green orbs. Sasaki folded his arms, and nodded, satisfied, "I was interested in your analytical skills. I read the essay you had given to All Might, and although there are some aspects of your analysis that are incorrect, it is very accurate, given how little information there is about All Might and One for All. I'm sure you've heard about the Hero Work Studies, right?"

Midoriya nodded, not really sure what was going on, and Sasaki continued, "Regardless of whether there will still be work studies for the first years, I would still like to offer you a paid internship at my agency."

The greenette blinked in confusion, signing, _"But I can't accept it if the first years aren't allowed to participate."_

Sasaki nodded, "I am aware of that. However, I would like to make use of your analysis skills as soon as possible. If the first years aren't allowed to participate, you won't be allowed to go out with pros and sidekicks. However, I can still assign you to do analysis for me, and get either Mirio, or my sidekicks, to come pick them up from UA. You won't be in any danger at all, which is the risk of the regular Hero Work Studies, but you'll still be paid for your work."

Midoriya nodded; that did seem to make sense, and he was pretty sure that was the only reason why Nezu agreed to this proposition.

"In the event that first years are allowed to participate in the Hero Work Studies, you can still work at my agency, going on patrols, fighting villains and helping out in case of emergencies. If you participate in both the normal Hero Work Studies, as well as the analysis work I ask of you, you will be paid accordingly." Sasaki finished, "Do you agree to my proposition?"

Midoriya thought about it for a minute. He was curious about the Hero Work Studies, and Sasaki was as good a pro as any other, and while his quirk allowed him to see the future, if he wasn't a good fighter, he wouldn't be any good.

Also, not to mention he was curious as to how accurate his future sight was.

Reiko seemed satisfied that her human was considering it, and Ryuto flew up to Togata, inspecting the blonde curiously. Togata grinned, and poked at Ryuto's beak gently, and the hawk tried to nibble on his finger. Suddenly, his beak passed through Togata's finger, and Ryuto gave an alarmed squawk, thinking he had bitten it off and started looking around anxiously for the broken finger.

Togata just laughed, and showed Ryuto that he was actually okay. Sasaki gave a small chuckle; honestly, seeing the child try to reason it out in his head was pretty funny, and that prank Togata played on Ryuto was definately hilarious.

Midoriya finally nodded, and Sasaki grinned, "Alright. Once the school has made their decision regarding the Hero Work Studies, you'll have to come over to my agency manually for you to get the form signed, and Mirio can bring you over. Also, for any patrols, you are allowed to bring your cat and bird... I'm afraid I don't know theit names."

"That's awesome!" Togata cheered, "Don't worry, I can bring him over to the agency and show him around!"

Sasaki laughed, "Alright. But for now, Midoriya, stick around and watch. Maybe you'll find something new about One for All. Mirio, let's get to work."

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

"About the Hero Work Studies that are like a more serious version of the internships, where you got to where pro heroes work and help them... we talked about them at our faculty meeting yesterday, and almost all the teachers, including the principal thought that you shouldn't do them."

"EH!?"

"After we had that meeting with the third years about it?" Kirishima asked.

"But thinking about why we ended up in the dorms... I suppose it does make sense..." Kaminari sighed.

"However, some people, especially the hero commission, think that we won't be able to raise strong heroes with our current policies, so we came to the decision that first years will only be allowed to go to agencies with a good track record of accepting work study students.

"I wonder if Gunhead's place will work..." Uraraka muttered, as Asui spoke up, "Maybe I'll try contacting Selkie..."

Midoriya decided that he should keep quiet about the offer from Sasaki. He had a feeling if he told everyone about it at this point in time, they wouldn't be too happy that he has an advantage.

"Uh... Aizawa-sensei..." Iida stood up, "As we all went on internships, and had a few offers from the Sports Festival, I don't doubt that we'll be able to find agencies for the work studies. However... what about Izuku?"

"Oh yeah!" Uraraka added, "He didn't participate in the internships, and due to being in general education at the time, he also didn't get any offers. I think he's perfectly capable of talking down villains and working with pros, but you mentioned the other day that we have to use our own contacts. Will he still be able to participate?"

Aizawa nearly snorted, "Out of everyone, he's the one you should be the least worried about. Even though he never participated in the internships, his performance in the Sports Festival definately got a few heroes curious enough."

Koda shot him a thumbs up, and Shinsou turned backwards, grinning, "That's awesome, isn't it, Izuku?"

Okay. Maybe he'll tell Iida, Uraraka, Koda, Shinsou and Todoroki. Anyways, Sasaki had already set him the first assignment for analysis. He'll have to get that ready for when he'll accompany Togata to Sasaki's agency.

* * *

Midoriya had already written up the analysis that Sasaki had asked of him, and had printed it out neatly, placing it in a folder so that it wouldn't get crumpled. His Hero Work Studies form was also placed neatly in another file, and he headed to the train station, Reiko and Ryuto tucked safely in his bag.

He was early to the meeting point, and it took a few more minutes for Togata to arrive, grinning cheerily.

"Midoriya! You're early! Come on, I'll show you around the agency!"

It took them roughly an hour by train to get to Nighteye Agency, Togata constantly talking about something as Midoriya nodded his head at opportune times so that he didn't hurt Togata's feelings.

They finally reached Nighteye Agency, and Togata pushed open the glass doors, grinning, "Welcome to Nighteye Agency!"

A man wearing a black tuxedo and a centipede-looking scarf was talking to the receptionist, and Togata waved cheerily, "Centipeder! Good morning!"

The man turned around, noticing the blonde third year, and Midoriya noticed that he also had the face of a centipede. Moashi grinned, "Hello, Mirio. And who's this?"

"Midoriya Izuku! Sir got him for the Hero Work Studies!" Togata grinned, as Midoriya hesitantly shook Moashi's hand.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck." Moashi smiled, and Midoriya nodded out of courtesy.

"Come on, let's go. Let's not keep Sir waiting!" Togata dragged Midoriya to the stairs, "Bye, Centipeder!"

* * *

"Sir, the perp's moving - uh... you're dull today too, aren't you?" Awata spoke up, looking at Sasaki, who was staring at his computer.

"Report energetically in one breath." Sasaki ordered.

"Yes, sir. The young master of the villain group we're investigating, Overhaul, is on the move. Let's see, the site where the contract occurred was already empty, but there appears to be evidence of blood being wiped up. Based on the massive destruction of the building, we can assume there's some kind of fighting there. It is most likely the League of Villains -"

"Bubble Girl." Sasaki looked up, his glasses glinting, "I think there is no future for a society with no energy or humour."

"Huh?" Awata flinched, "Uh.. wait... the report was so long and I didn't want to mess it up..."

Sasaki stopped right in front of her, and Awata tensed up, trying not to grimace, already knowing the horrors that were to come, "Wait... no... please stop..."

He pushed Awata into his tickle machine, forcing her to laugh repeatedly, as the door was pushed open, "I'm here with Midoriya!"

Sasaki looked up, noticing Togata and Midoriya, and walked calmly to his desk, as Midoriya gazed at the laughing Awata in confusion.

"Don't worry about it. She probably couldn't make him laugh." Togata chuckled, leading Midoriya to the desk.

"Do you have the form with you?" Sasaki asked. Midoriya nodded, carefully taking out the Hero Work Studies form, and passed it to Sasaki. The pro hero glanced at it briefly, before seeming satisfied, and stamped it.

"Alright. That should be enough. Turn that in to your teacher as soon as possible." Sasaki said, and Midoriya nodded, as Togata started to help Awata out of the tickle machine restraints.

Midoriya fished out another folder from his bag, and Awata stared at it, confused. Midoriya passed it to Sasaki, who was equally confused, and the man flipped open the file, inspecting its contents. Reiko and Ryuto peeked out of his bag, and Awata spotted them, peering at the two animals in confusion. Awata bent down to get at eye level with Reiko, and the feline curiously stuck her paw out, poking Awata on the nose.

"It's so cute!", Awata squealed, and Sasaki chuckled under his breath.

"Midoriya, I gave you this analysis assignment two days ago, and I said you had a week to do it... though I do have to say, this is very well done." Sasaki admitted, flipping through the contents of the file which was about a hundred pages thick.

_"I already had quite a bit of information on that hero, and all I had to do was write it up. Since I was meeting you today, I figured I'd just finish and give it to you."_

"That's not a bit." Awata pointed out, noticing how thick the report was, and Sasaki put it down, satisfied with its content, "Anyways, if I have another assignment, I'll contact you directly, alright?"

Midoriya nodded, and Sasaki said, "Alright, you're dismissed. Get back to UA safely, okay?"

The green haired boy nodded, and Togata's face lit up, intent on showing Midoriya the vending machine, and led the boy out. Awata glanced at Sasaki curiously, "He's the first person I've met who you've let off the hook for not making you laugh."

Sasaki let out an amused chuckle, "Remember that video that circulated around the office?" The mere memory of it just made him laugh.

Awata hummed for a second, before she grinned, "That one with Endeavor flaring up over a report or something? That was hilarious!"

Sasaki nodded, "He was the one that wrote the report."

Awata's eyes widened, suddenly gaining a newfound respect for Midoriya, and grinned, "That's so cool."

* * *

"You found a place to do your work study at? That's great, Izuku!" Uraraka grinned.

"Congrats, Izuku!" Iida nodded, smiling, "I can't be idle either!"

"But man, you're really amazing, Midoriya!" Sero grinned, "I mean, you'll be at Sir Nighteye's agency! Were you recommended by Togata-senpai?"

"Nope!" Togata grinned, "Sir already had a slight interest in Midoriya since the Sports Festival, but what really caught his attention was the essay he gave to All Might."

"Oh, yeah. Sir Nighteye was All Might's sidekick, right?" Sato pointed out, and Togata nodded.

"The school said that Gunhead hasn't had enough interns, so I can't go there..." Urarka groaned, and Asui nodded, "Same here... I wanted to go to Selkie's, but..."

Kirishima sighed, "Fourth Kind doesn't even take work studies..."

"I mean, the threshold's been set pretty high." Sero pointed out, and Kaminari added, "Yeah. We're pretty limited. We can only ask pros with good track records who'll also take work study students..."

"It can't be helped." Ojiro admitted, "Unlike the internships, we'll be directly involved, so if anything happens -"

"It becomes a problem of who's responsible on the pro's side." Aizawa interrupted, "Pros who accept students even after knowing the risks are the real thing."

He turned to the bird headed boy, "Tokoyami, you've gotten an invitation for a work study from one of those real pros. It's from Hawks, who works in Kyushu."

"Hawks?!" Kaminari yelped.

"Ranked third in the hero rankings?" Sero interjected, "Wow! Good job!"

"Actually, second, you know... since All Might's kinda... you know..." Asui spoke up, and Shinsou noticed how Midoriya clenched his fist at that statement.

"What will you do, Tokoyami?" Aizawa asked, and Tokoyami nodded, "I respectfully accept."

"Very well." Aizawa lazily replied, "I'll give you the work study paperwork later. Let me know when you figure out when you'll be going to Kyushu. I'll authorize your absences for those days."

"Isn't that great, Tokoyami?" Shoji asked, and Tokoyami nodded, "I'm most humbly pleased."

"Also, Kirishima, Amajiki from the Big Three wants to see you." Aizawa added.

Everyone turned to Kirishima, who pointed to himself in confusion, "He wants to see me?"

"Also, Hado wants to talk to Uraraka and Asui. Go see them tomorrow or something and hear them out. That's all." Aizawa finished, and walked out of the dorms.

"Amajiki-senpai... I wonder what he wants..." Kirishima mumbled, as Asui responded, "You think it's about the work studies?"

"No way! If so, I'm getting my hopes up!" Uraraka nearly shrieked.

"I can't wait until tomorrow!" Kirishima stood up, "I'm going to the third years' dorm right now!"

"Ochaco, let's go too!" Asui stood up, and Uraraka agreed, going to follow Kirishima.

"Everyone's going to our dorms! Power!" Togata laughed, catching up to the three first years, "Come on, I'll lead you there! But you'll have to find your way back though!"

A few seconds after they had left, Kaminari scratched his head, "Uraraka and the others sure are lucky."

Sero grinned, "Anyways, let's do our best too!"

Midoriya just ran his fingers through Reiko's fur, as Ryuto napped in his hood.

* * *

"Today, we'll be doing patrols and surveillance. We'll split into two groups with me and Bubble Girl, and Mirio and Midoriya." Sasaki stated.

Midoriya looked a bit confused at the word "surveillance", and Awata explained, "Nighteye Agency is currently working on a secret investigation."

"The Eight Precepts of Death is a small designated villain group. It's young head, in other words, the number two, Chisaki, has started showing strange actions. His plague mask is his trademark." Sasaki showed Midoriya a picture, but the greenette had already frozen up at the mention of that name.

"Midoriya? Are you alright?" Togata asked, and Midoriya nodded, signing, _"The Yakuza were being gathered up again, right?"_

Awata blinked, "Midoriya... how do you know about that?"

_"It's been noticeable for the past two years. It's odd behaviour for people who are trying to fly under the radar."_

Awata accepted his explanation, "Anyways, he's made contact with the League of Villains. The details are unclear, though."

"But we haven't been able to get any proof that he's planning anything criminal. Because of that, The Eight Precepts of Death is a gray close to black, and we cannot treat them like villains. What we're after is their trail. Be careful not to let them suspect anything. Midoriya, given your past experiences with the League, I apologise that your first assignment for the Hero Work Studies has something to do with the League, but I'm certain that you'll be able to do it."


	75. Chapter 75 - If you're near or far

"Oh, heroes! It's the quirkless boy who was in the UA Sports Festival, and was involved in the Kamino Incident!"

"He may be quirkless, I didn't expect him to be so cute!"

"I admit, it's pretty brave of him to be fighting villains without a quirk..."

Togata looked at the pedestrians, who were making comments either about Midoriya's quirklessness, or his involvement in the Kamino Incident. He was initially worried that the attention may be too much for the green haired boy to handle, but aside from the random comments about him being cute, Midoriya seemed to be handling it just fine.

"Oh, right. You never really did go on an internship." Togata muttered, trying to lighten the mood, "Sir and Bubble Girl are the ones actually watching the target today. We're just on patrol! I'll teach you a bunch of stuff, so just stick with me, okay?"

Midoriya just blinked at how energetic Togata was.

"Now that I think about it, we haven't told each other our hero names, huh?" Togata spoke up, and Midoriya stopped walking.

"I'm Lemillion! I don't have to save everyone, but a million people... that's what I want to do, so that's why I chose Lemillion! Once we put on our costumes and go out into the streets, we're heroes. Don't let your guard down."

Midoriya didn't exactly agree with that, _"You don't need a costume or a name to be a hero."_

"I mean, with the provisional licenses, sure." Togata shrugged, "But we don't just save people's lives. We need the costumes to show other people that we're here, and that everyone will be safe! I know you don't really like attention, but don't worry about it too much."

Midoriya didn't want to argue with Togata anymore, and they were about to continue walking, when suddenly, Midoriya caught the sound of tiny footsteps, hurried and soft, like someone was running away from someone without wearing any shoes.

"Are you okay?" Togata asked, and Midoriya nodded, turning towards the alleyway they had been standing by. He could hear the sound of panting, like someone was out of breath, and he carefully walked down the alley, looking out for anything.

Much to his surprise, a small girl with bluish-white, messy hair and a horn ran out from around the corner, running right into him. She fell backwards from the impact, but he quickly caught the girl by the shoulders before she fell. She sank to the floor, shaking, and Midoriya crouched down to get at eye level with her.

He seriously doubted that this girl knew sign language, much like Kota, so he quietly asked, "Are you okay? Can you stand?"

"Now, you know... you can't go around causing trouble for the heroes."

A voice rang out from the alleyway, and the girl flinched. A man walked out, a bird mask on his face and wearing a green jacket with some purple fluff, and the girl turned around slightly, trembling with fear.

Midoriya bit back a growl as Chisaki came into view. He could tell the signs of abuse when he saw it; the girl was clearly terrified of the Yakuza, and her arms and legs were wrapped with bandages.

"I'm sorry about my daughter, hero. She likes to play around a lot, and keeps getting hurt. I don't know what to do with her..." Chisaki put up a fake smile to try and placate the heroes, but Midoriya had been living a life with lies constantly being thrown in his face, and could easily tell that the older man didn't mean what he was saying.

Midoriya decided that Chisaki was the least of his worries. Sure, he had a dangerous quirk, but out in the open, the Yakuza couldn't do anything to them, or they would be able to apprehend him immediately. He quickly inspected the girl, making sure she didn't have any major injuries that had to be treated right away.

Reiko and Ryuto had been following Midoriya around on foot, and Togata quickly pulled Midoriya's hood over his head, wanting to try and keep Midoriya's identity a secret, "Your hood fell off again, silly. Don't tell me you're wearing an oversized hoodie."

Togata gave a fake chuckle, and turned to Chisaki, "We're very sorry too, for bumping into her."

The older boy casually put himself between Midoriya and Chisaski, blocking the greenette from view. Midoriya had been excellent in keeping up an uncaring, emotionless facade, but he was worried about the girl. He wanted to just take Eri away from Chisaki, but even he knew that neither he, nor Togata, would be able to take down Yakuza with a quirk like Overhaul. It was just too powerful, and with all his experience, Overhaul was a terrifying quirk. He wouldn't even have time to take out his knife before Chisaki could turn the very ground against him, and one small mistake could turn him into a splatter of blood. He doubted that even with his quirk, he would be able to recover from that.

"What a lovely mask, You must have really good taste! Maybe I should get one, do you think it'll go with my costume?" Togata complimented, and Chisaki chuckled, "I doubt it, hero. But don't worry about the mask; I'm just sensitive to filth. It's my first time seeing you two heroes. Are you new?"

Midoriya quietly whispered into the girl's ear, "Are you alright?"

The girl didn't answer at all, and instead, tightened her grip on Midoriya's hoodie, still trembling.

Togata kept up his facade, and sheepishly scratched his head, "Right! We're new, and we're not exactly sure how to go about with this hero thing. We're pretty nervous, but I'm sure that given time, it'll go away naturally. Now, stand up, partner. Let's head towards a future we haven't seen yet!"

"Please... don't go..." The girl whimpered, almost crying, and Midoriya gently wrapped his arms around her, careful not to let Chisaki see him from behind Togata. For such a small child to be trembling like this without making a sound... it wasn't normal... and Midoriya recognized it.

He looked into her red eyes, and saw himself; scared of everyone, terrified that they were going to hurt them, but trying to do their best to placate everyone so that no one would get hurt. He gently pressed his hands against the girl's arms, feeling the subtle tension of scars beneath her bandages.

"What's your name?" He quietly asked, and Eri clutched Midoriya's hoodie even tighter, "E... Eri..."

"I'm Izuku. But you can't tell him that, okay?" Midoriya whispered, "Don't worry. You won't have to go back to him again. Just this once. Go back, and wait for me."

Eri looked up, stunned, and Midoriya gently wiped her tears away, "I'll get you out of there, I promise."

She didn't know why, but she wanted to trust Midoriya. He understood, he knew her pain, he was promising to get her away from Chisaki, and even though that seemed like a pipe dream, she wanted to believe that Midoriya would help her. If all she had to do was wait... she could endure it.

"What agency do you belong to?" Chisaki asked, noticing that the boy behind Togata was hugging Eri, and subtly started to peel off his gloves. Midoriya and Eri noticed the small movement, and the girl tensed up as Togata immediately put up his hands to steer the attention back to him, cheerily replying, "We're students! We're still so new that it would be presumptuous to identify with an agency! After all... who would want to hire such nervous students right off the bat? We're just trying to gain some experience in different places for our internships; experience always helps, no matter if it's mundane!"

"Anyways, we planned to finish patrolling this division by lunch! Come on, let's go!" Togata grinned, and Midoriya released Eri, the girl wiping her tears away, and walked back to Chisaki.

Chisaki frowned, "You're done with your tantrum already?"

Eri nodded, and Midoriya could see her tensing up, already prepared for what was to come.

_"It's fine. I just told her that parents know what's best for their children, and that she should listen to you. We're just students; we don't know how to care for children anyways." _Midoriya signed, forcing Chisaki's attention off Eri, and the Yakuza raised his eyebrow at Midoriya's signing.

"Ah, he's just shy around adults, and finds it hard to talk. He likes kids, though." Togata smiled, and Chisaki seemed satisfied with that answer, and turned around, "Sorry for the trouble. Well, do your best at work, we'll be on our way."

Chisaki eyed Midoriya weirdly. He was quirkless, sure, but he didn't seem too powerful. He should be able to handle it; he was going to achieve his goal of getting rid of Quirks and returning the world to the way it was, and one pathetic quirkless hero-in-training wasn't going to stop him.

Midoriya wanted to chase after them, and get Eri out of Chisaki's grasp right there and then, but he wasn't familiar enough with the Yakuza to make that decision; maybe the rest of the Eight Precepts of Death would just retaliate and hurt everyone else.

The green haired boy clenched his fists tightly. Sasaki was on this case, and he'd better do something about it. Otherwise, he was going to bust Eri out of Chisaki's hold all on his own, and no one was going to stop him.

* * *

"Man, even though they're weak, this is what you'd expect from the surviving yakuza, huh... the walls are high and there aren't many windows. They live in a nice house." Awata commented, as her phone started ringing.

"It's been a week and a half since we started watching them. There are less people going in and out than usual." Sasaki muttered, as Awata gasped, "What?"

Sasaki turned around in confusion, as Awata shakily raised her phone, "It's Lemillion... he says that they came into contact with Chisaki."

It took them some time to coordinate, and they finally met up at a crosswalk.

"Sorry, it was an accident... I never thought we'd run into him like running into a transfer student at a crossroads..." Togata apologized, as Sasaki raised his hand, stopping him, "No, this was my fault. We could have avoided this if I'd used Foresight on you two beforehand."

"Anyways, I'm just glad you're alright." Awata sighed in relief, "If you'd acted carelessly and made him suspicious, you might've been in danger."

Sasaki spoke up, "The other day, as a band of robbers was escaping, there was a truck accident that involved some people. The people involved were Chisaki and the others from the Yakuza, but there were zero casualties. Those from the band of robbers felt intense pain and passed out, but for some reason, were uninjured, and even chronic ailments like rheumatism and cavities were completely gone. They thought this was due to Chisaki's quirk, but because they caught the villains and no one was injured, there was nothing to accuse him of.

"But they said that all the money that was stolen burned up, and nothing was left. The police found no sign of a crime in that regard, but either way, it seems suspicious, so the Nighteye Agency started watching them. We don't know what they're thinking, but we do know that they act when they must." Awata added.

Togata raised his hand, "Oh, right... Sir... I guess this is a lucky break, but we got some new intel. Chisaki has a daughter."

"A daughter?" Sasaki asked in confusion, and Togata nodded, "I don't know her name, but her arms and legs were wrapped in bandages. I don't know anything about her; she was clinging to him the entire time."

He gestured to Midoriya, who just looked calm, and absolutely pissed off at the same time, but made no move at all. Sasaki sighed, "At least you didn't rush after them. Haste makes waste; if you rush to chase after them, they'll be more likely to escape. Currently, we're also requesting other agencies to team up with us. Anyways, first, we must predict what our opponent will do, and after analyzing it, arrange for the most complete preparations possible. Truly wise villains hide in the shadows, and knowing that, sometimes, things will take time. The two of you should go back to UA today. Bubble Girl, let's go."

"Yes, sir!" Awata responded, following after the green and yellow haired man, as Togata sighed, "Come on, let's go."

Midoriya growled under his breath, but he agreed with what Sasaki had said. That's exactly what he had done with Shinsou when he was nine; getting help from experienced people. He needed more information, and if he wanted to save Eri, he needed a way to counter Chisaki's quirk; he was clearly using it to hurt her, and Midoriya wouldn't stand for that.

* * *

"The villain groups are fighting each other! There are two with gigantification quirks! Espa Way's caught up in the fight! Send heroes immediately!" A police officer yelled, as Hado zipped through the air, using her quirk to propel herself forwards, and grinned, "Full charge, output level thirty. Spiraling Surge; Nejire Wave!"

Two bright yellow blasts of energy burst out of her palms, blasting the two villains into the ground, "Hey, why are you fighting? Is it because your quirks are the same? That's so weird!"

She whirled around, "Do it now, you two!"

Uraraka burst into the scene, as Asui rode on a piece of floating rock. Uraraka quickly released her quirk, and Asui batted all the rubble towards the villains with her tongue.

"Meteor Fafrotskies!"

They managed to take out the villains, and Nado grinned, "That was great! Yeah, that was really great! Were you nervous?"

"Whew... I was able to do what I was supposed to do..." Uraraka sighed in relief, and Asui grinned, "Kero, I was calmer than I thought I'd be!"

"As expected of those recommended by Nejire, you're both great at this! Nejire, you've also fixed the timing for your attack!" Tatsuma smiled, and Uraraka and Asui bowed, "Thank you for taking us on."

"Of course." Tatsuma grinned, and Hado quickly interjected, "Hey, Ryukyu, those two couldn't go to the heroes from their internships! Did you know that the first years can only go to agencies with a good track record of accepting work study students? Did I tell you?"

"Even if you're still students, now that you're here for a work study, you're a legitimate part of our forces! You two seem like you'll be able to play an active role in that matter."

"That matter?" Uraraka asked in confusion, and Tatsuma replied, "A request to team up from All Might's former sidekick, Nighteye."

"Oh, that's where Izuku went for his work study..." Uraraka mumbled, and Hado interjected again, "Oh, team up means for hero agencies to work together! You knew that, right?"

"What's the request to team up about?" Asui asked, and Tatsuma's eyes glinted, "The investigation and siege of a designated villain group, The Eight Precepts of Death. It's a big job that might lead to the League of Villains. I know you had some past experiences with the League... but given how you and some of your peers acted, I have no doubt that you'll be able to handle it."

* * *

"Those punks and hoodlums keep getting into so many fights these days! I'm starving!" Toyomitsu commented, popping another takoyaki ball into his mouth, before turning to Kirishima, "Yeah, the hero agencies around here have been wanting a fighting type. Red Riot, you're perfect!"

"I look forward to working with you!" Kirishima grinned, "Fourth Kind wasn't taking work study students, so I'm grateful to you for taking me on!"

"If only Mirio had been free." Amajiki muttered, remembering as Kirishima practically pestered him in front of his peers, "You kept coming at me. It was scary."

"If Tamaki could only do something about his weak mind, he'd be perfect!" Toyomitsu continued talking, and Amajiki mumbled, covering his face, "That pressure leads me to even lower lows... It's always like this... This man scouted me in order to torment me! It's power harassment! I want to go home!"

"Maybe he's trying to encourage you! That's how it sounds to me, anyway!" Kirishima spoke up, as a store owner called out to Toyomitsu, "Fat Gum! Eat our food!"

"I will tomorrow!" Toyomitsu replied, waving, as Amajiki sighed, "I can't be cheerful and positive like you or Mirio."

"I feel the same sometimes. There are lots of times I can't do anything when everyone else is frantic. That gap in ability and experience between my classmates and I had gotten larger, so I want to at least close that gap and stand next to them." Kirishima grinned, and Amajiki sighed again, "That's called being positive, first year."

"It's a fight! Somebody, help! You're not going to wait, you moron!? They're selling stuff on my turf without permission!"

"Speak of the devil!" Toyomitsu growled, trying to find the source of the sound.

"Damn it! Stop following me! Just when I thought I'd start pitching in and helping, too! Let's split up for now!" The villain yelled, only for them to run directly into Toyomitsu, "I won't let you!"

Toyomitsu quickly grabbed onto the villains, forcing them to sink into his body fat, but one of the villains managed to escape with his quirk.

"What are you doing anyways!? Your quirk is the same as Edgeshot's?"

The villain laughed, thinking he had gotten away from Toyomitsu, only for Amajiki to turn his arms into octopus tentacles, and grabbed onto the villain, "What's with this octopus?!"

"That's mean..." Amajiki muttered, dejected, as Kirishima tried to encourage him, "No, wait! That's not an insult! He's talking about how it looks!"

Amajiki just formed clam shells on his other hand, knocking the villain to the ground, before turning his feet into talons, as the villain mumbled, "I didn't get... an octopus..."

"Clams are handy. They're good for offense and defense. That's why I eat some every day." Amajiki commented, "I didn't need the wings...I wonder if I did okay..."

"It was amazing! You were so fast and so good at using your quirk!" Kirishima complimented, as Toyomitsu grinned, "Our Suneater's skills have long been as good as a pro's! He just needs to work on his mental weakness, right?"

"Good job, Suneater!"

"You're so cool!"

Amajiki froze up under all the attention, as a man from the crowd raised up a gun. Toyomitsu immediately noticed it, "Everyone, get down!"

Amajiki quickly shifted his body to shield Kirishima from the bullet, as the villain yelled, "Run away!"

"Suneater! Red Riot!"

The villain fired again, and Kirishima activated his quirk to protect Amajiki as the bullet zipped towards him, bouncing off his head.

Kirishima growled, "I'll capture him!"

"What's with this piece of junk!?" The villain growled, as the crowd screamed and ran away, and Amajiki muttered, "It hurts less than I thought it would..."

"Suneater-senpai, are you alright?" Kirishima asked, "You're so cool!"

"I'll chase after him!" Kirishima immediately ran after the villain, as Amajiki spoke up, "I'll catch him with my octopus..."

He tried to activate his quirk, but his fingers didn't transform.

"Wait, you!" Kirishima yelled, as Toyomitsu tried to stop him, "Wait! Don't go running into things! If you're not careful, it'll come back to bite you!"

He turned to Amajiki, "Suneater, if you're unhurt, I'll leave this place to you. Other heroes will be here soon, so work with them!"

"I'm not hurt, but my quirk won't activate!" Amajiki yelled, starting to panic, as Toyomitsu turned around, "Is Eraser here or something?"

"Don't worry about me." Amajiki replied, "Go after Red Riot! He's still chasing one of them!"

"Got it! The police would be here soon!" Toyomitsu yelled, running after Kirishima, "I'll leave it to you!"

True to his word, the police arrived, restraining the downed villains.

"Thanks to you... we were saved. These guys are part of a team selling illegal drugs and items, so we've been waiting for a chance like this." A police officer thanked Amajiki, who muttered, "So my quirk couldn't activate because of one of those items?"

"Die, stupid scum." The restrained villain spat, as Amajiki turned away, depressed from the insult.

"Anyway, please leave the rest to us." The officer sweatdropped.

* * *

"Don't come near me! Stop chasing me!" The villain yelled, running down an alleyway as Kirishima chased after him, "Then don't run away! At least finish saving your friends!"

"What are you even getting angry about?!"

"Running away scared after shooting someone isn't manly!" Kirishima yelled, as the villain found himself at a dead end.

"Prepare yourself!" Kirishima growled, as the villain turned around, "You're too loud!"

Metal blades erupted out of the villain's arm, but Kirishima's hardened skin easily took the attack, and the redhead bashed his hardened fist into the villain's face, knocking him out, "Red Counter! That wasn't my full power! Come quietly, gun maniac!"

"Huh? You're crying?" Kirishima softened when he realized that the villain was crying, "It's not fair... All I've got is a quirk that lets me pop out blades less than ten centimeters long... that's about as long as a box cutter... it's not fair! I want to save my bros, fool! But I'm scared! You should be praising me for getting the courage to shoot!"

"No way... Besides, if you're going to cry about being scared, then don't do bad stuff to begin with... Come on, can you stand?" Kirishima tried to help the villain up.

"I wanted... to become strong... If I hung out with strong guys... then I could get stronger too..." The villain muttered, as Kirishima sighed, "I understand how you feel, I have a friend who doesn't even have a quirk, and he's still super manly and badass, but -"

"If I followed my bros, then I could get a hold of power... for a guy who can become a hero to say he understands without thinking... Don't say that!" The villain stabbed a red vial into his neck, injecting himself with something, before he started screeching in pain.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Kirishima asked, not really sure what was going on, "What did you give yourself?! Hey, are you okay?!"

Suddenly, metal blades erupted from the villain's body, and Kirishima barely managed to avoid getting impaled with his quirk, "What's this?! What's going on?!"

The blades kept on extending, until they dug right into the walls of the buildings surrounding them, leaving deep gouges in the concrete.

_He suddenly powered up?_ Kirishima thought to himself, _I've seen this before on the news, but this is scarier in person... a drug that boosts your quirk... If this ends up on a main road, it won't end with just a tragedy. I need to end this here!_

"Everyone, get back!" Kirishima ordered the people, who just happened to be in the alleyway, "Get somewhere that this guy's blades can't reach!"

Blades burst out of the villain's skin, and Kirishima was doing his best to try and defend the pedestrians, as the blades sliced past his hardened skin, chipping bits and pieces of it off.

Kirishima tried to force the blades away, as the villain laughed, retracting his blades, "I can't get close then! You're too full of yourself, huh, kid? It's because you're playing at justice so proudly! My bros said that the age of heroes will crumble soon, you know!? They said it'll be the age of those like us that live in the shadows next! Man, I feel like I'm on such a high! Move, kid! I feel like I could save my bros now, like you told me to earlier!"

Another wave of blades burst out of the villain, and Kirishima growled, pouring all his energy into hardening his skin, making it even harder and tougher than before. He ran at the villain, his newly hardened skin snapping all the blades to bits, "After all that intensive training to improve my quirk, this is the highest hardness level I can achieve right now! Red Riot Unbreakable!"

His skin creaked as he moved, charging at the villain as blades burst out of the villain's stomach, colliding with Kirishima's hardened skin. Kirishima growled, forcing himself forwards, enduring the barrage of blades, before snapping them all with his hand. All the blades shattered as Kirishima bulldozed his way past all the metal splinters, and punched the villain in the gut, "Ultimate move! Red Gun Turret!"

"He's young... but he's got guts..." A man complimented, "Wow..."

"Hey!" Kirishima yelled, and the villain started crying again, "Don't come near me!"

_He's back to the crying state he was in before the drug..._ Kirishima sweatdropped, _Did its effect wear off?_

"I just wanted to get stronger..." The villain inched away from Kirishima, "Please... let me go! I'm just a pitiful man who wanted some power!"

"I can't. You shot Suneater-senpai..." Kirishima's heart softened, "I really do understand how you feel, but -"

In that moment, blades burst out of the villain's back, blasting the villain forwards, past Kirishima.

"Again?! I'm so stupid!" Kirishima growled, breaking the blades with his quirk, but it was too late; the villain already had enough forward momentum to blast himself out of the alleyway.

Suddenly, Toyomitsu jumped out from behind the corner, sucking the villain into his body fat, "Sorry I'm late! When you're squaring off, the villain can win by killing! On the other hand, there's only one way for us to win: capture without casualties! Remember this when you leave, Red Riot! The key to fighting villains is how fast can you make them lose the will to fight!"

_I gave it everything I had, and just barely held my own, but he was done in an instant!_ Kirishima smiled at Toyomitsu in awe, "Thanks for your help!"

A man who happened to be in the alleyway complimented, "Thanks, young one! You were amazing!"

"You were trying to keep him from pointing the blades at us, weren't you?"

"I can tell after watching heroes for so long! Most people would get scared of a blade guy like that! You really saved us!"

"What a spectacular debut!" Toyomitsu grinned proudly, "Completely different from my first job! You really helped us out today! You'll be an amazing hero someday! I'm sure of it!"

Kirishima felt pride bubbling up within him, and he smiled, "Thank you!"

"Young man, what's your hero name?"

"What are you called?"

Kirishima turned around to face the civilians, "I'm Red Riot!"

"Red Riot, huh? I won't be forgetting that!"

"Thank you, Red Riot!"

"Thank you!" Kirishima bowed at the praise, _I've also gotten a little stronger._

But it wasn't enough. He needed to get strong. Maybe he should ask Midoriya for some advice on how to deal with blades; he could only hold his ultimate hardened form for forty seconds, maximum, and right now, he needed more options. Plus, the villain kept making him pity him, lowering his guard and tricking him. He needed to figure out a way to get past that. Not to mention that drug that the villain used to boost his quirk... Midoriya was a former vigilante, maybe he knew something about it.

* * *

"His quirk powered up, huh? That drug's banned in Japan, right? Based on how short the effects lasted, it must've been an inferior version made in Asia. The ones made in the US last at least an hour or two." Toyomitsu stated.

"You know a lot about it! Wow!" Kirishima gushed.

"In the past, I'd work with the coppers and catch guys like that all day." Toyomitsu replied, as an officer ran up to them, "Fat Gum! About the gun that guy fired, it's been broken into pieces by someone's quirk. Also, this isn't a normal gun. Anyway, I'll investigate and report back."

"Thanks for going out of your way to let me know." Toyomitsu thanked the officer, as Kirishima asked, "Are you all right?"

Amajiki pulled his hood down, "It sucks."

"To make it so that you can't use your quirk... what a terrible way to treat a hero!" Kirishima growled, as Amajiki mumbled, "More importantly, you defended me. Just like Mirio, you're a person who shines brightly, like the sun."

"If you're going to say that, then you're like the sun too, for introducing me to this place!"

"Just like that. You're amazing, you know." Amajiki muttered, as Toyomitsu patted the boy on the back, "Why don't we have them take a look at you at the hospital? There's something I want to investigate there, too. Why don't we stop by the agency first, and then go?"

"Okay." Amajiki muttered, as Kirishima yelled, "Yes, sir!"

_I understand drugs that boosts a person's quirk. They were originally proposed to help those with weak quirks. But drugs that completely prevent someone from using their quirk?! I've never heard of them. I've got a bad feeling about this..._ Toyomitsu thought.

Kirishima was proud that he was able to defend those civilians, but what had happened to Amajiki's quirk kept niggling his mind. Maybe he should ask Midoriya about that as well.


	76. Chapter 76 - Wherever you are

Kirishima sunk into his seat, sighing, as Kaminari shoved his phone into the redhead's face, "Your name! Your hero name is in the news online! Wow! "Newcomer Sidekick Red Riot Burst onto the Scene! From his first day, he takes responsibility for the citizens and fights a villain by himself!" That's what it says!"

"Tsu and Uraraka. you're amazing! Your names are here! Let's see, "New Sidekicks at Ryukyu Agency! Two there for a work study!"

"Wow, that makes me happy! There it is!" Uraraka beamed, as Asui mused, "I wonder where they took the picture from..."

"That's amazing! Maybe you already have some fans like Mt Lady!" Ashido screeched, as Hagakure spoke up, "I'm so jealous!"

"It's true..." Jiro muttered, scrolling down, "The article says "And they're cute! A great achievement, taking control of a big incident in an instant; their abilities are real"."

"Even if they only have provisional licenses, once they start working in town, they're heroes just the same. Remarkable service." Iida complimented, "However, a student's duty is to study! You can't doze off in class!"

"Right. Iida! We're prepared!" Kirishima grinned, "Right!?"

"Yeah!" Uraraka replied, before turning to Midoriya, "You also had your first day of work experience yesterday, didn't you, Izuku? How was it?"

She got no reply from the green haired boy, who was sitting in his seat, clenching his fists tightly as he stared at the notebook on his table.

"Uh... Izuku? Are you alright?" Kaminari asked, and Midoriya turned slightly to face the electric boy. His hair cast a shadow over his eyes that were as cold and hard as emeralds, making his gaze all the more terrifying, and if looks could kill, Kaminari would have dropped dead there and then. Luckily, Midoriya didn't have a quirk that was capable of that, but his gaze still managed to get Kaminari to flinch and back off.

"Jeez... are you okay?" Kaminari stuttered out, as Midoriya gave him a growl to back off, before staring back at his notebook. Reiko also seemed rather frustrated, sitting in a corner of the classroom with Ryuto, scratching at the walls.

Kirishima remembered that he was going to ask Midoriya a couple of questions, but seeing how off Midoriya was at the moment, maybe he should wait for another time to ask him about it. Midoriya was clearly pissed off about something, and even though he fended off a villain on drugs just the previous day, he did _not_ want to risk setting off a pissed off Midoriya.

* * *

Midoriya had another patrol with Togata in the afternoon, in the same area as the day that they had encountered Eri, but on the opposite side of the city. Sasaki said that since they met Chisaki, they should do something to pretend that they weren't bothered about him. By giving off the facade that they were satisfied with that district, and had moved on to a new place to patrol, that should be enough for Chisaki to leave them alone.

They had decided to patrol through a shopping mall, where he had encountered a few of his old classmates. With Togata by his side, and in such an open area, they really couldn't do anything, and just kept throwing insults at him.

That was until there was a robbery at a nearby jewelry store, and the villains had decided to hold Midoriya's former bullies hostage. Togata managed to distract the villains, and Midoriya being Midoriya, he had gone to take the villains down.

Midoriya had to fend off four villains at the same time while Togata chased after some of the others, but despite being outnumbered, it wasn't too difficult; his opponents had rather decent quirks, but they were absolutely shit in using them. Midoriya dispatched them without too much trouble, and lucky for him, Togata was familiar enough with that area, and knew his way around the mall, so they managed to get out without being harassed by _too_ many people.

However, they still managed to make it into the news, but Sasaki had mentioned that it was more likely for Chisaki to see it, and would probably leave them alone, before dismissing them back to UA.

* * *

Chronostasis flipped off the news, "Those were the ones you saw yesterday, sir?"

Chisaki nodded, as he reclined back into his chair. He had already killed the keeper that had allowed Eri to escape, but something about the meeting with the two heroes-in-training had bothered him. He wasn't too sure what it was, until he watched the news.

"That green haired boy... he's the quirkless one, right?" Chisaki asked, just wanting to confirm it, and Chronostasis nodded.

"Find that video of the Sports Festival." Chisaki ordered, and Chronostasis immediately complied. Chisaki's eyes were glued to the screen, and once the series of videos finished, he sank back into his chair.

"He's the one. The biggest threat to our plan." Chisaki growled, and Chronostasis frowned from behind his mask, "Sir, I don't understand. Yes, he's a good fighter, and Shigaraki did warn us about him, but he's merely a quirkless child, and while he may be able to take on some of the weaker members, all of the Eight Bullets will be able to take him out easily."

"Not that. If they do find out about this place, we can take him out." Chisaki replied, "Pretty much everyone in Japan is aware of the quirkless child involved in the Kamino Incident. Quirks are a plague on humanity, infecting them the syndromes of heroism and villainy. We aim to get rid of Quirks, and being the only ones with the power to control who can and can't have quirk, the Yakuza will rise to power. However, these do not yet realize that even while quirkless, that child can stand toe to toe with most other quirked heroes. I don't know how either, but if his presence gets too large, people may start to lose their faith in the value of quirks, and with it, our rise to power."

"That makes sense, but that's highly unlikely. With heroism and villainy on everyone's mind, there's no way that they'll believe that the quirkless can stand up to the quirked population. That's why the rate of quirkless suicides, compared to the number of quirkless children born, have been increasing." Chronostasis said, "You're just overthinking it."

Chisaki didn't admit it verbally, but maybe he was overthinking it. But either way, Midoriya was a threat to them, mostly because of his immunity to the quirk destroying bullets. He'll find a way to deal with it, though. The quirkless population were powerless, practically worthless, it shouldn't be too hard to kill one quirkless kid.

* * *

Reiko grabbed a USB drive with her teeth and plugged into Midoriya's laptop, as Midoriya rummaged through his hard drives. He grabbed one, and pulled it out, before connecting it to his laptop, allowing him to access the files. He did have some information about the Eight Precepts of Death; it wasn't much, and it was from a long time ago, but it was a start.

He opened up a few more files, and started to sort them out. Chisaki Kai was the current leader, and his quirk, Overhaul, gives him the ability to disassemble matter. Midoriya didn't know where his quirk factor was located, but he did know that Chisaki could use it from his hands; Eri had been even more terrified when he was about to take off his gloves. Sure, he could use it on Eri, but Chisaki was germaphobic, and wouldn't expose himself to blood for no reason. Plus, if he did use it on Eri, then Eri would be dead, so it may be something else.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was _terrified_ of Chisaki's quirk. When he was younger, he had been unfortunate enough to chance upon Chisaki killing another person, and one touch was all the Yakuza needed to turn his opponent into a splatter of blood. One mistake, and that's it. That quirk still occasionally haunted him in his nightmares.

The only other member that he knew about was Chronostasis, but he only knew that he could slow people down with his quirk. He didn't know how his quirk was used, or the amount of time the effects lasted for. Heck, he only knew that the man wore a black plague mask with a gold trim, which could have changed from the first time Midoriya had seen the man several years ago.

Midoriya groaned in frustration, only to hear a knock on the door.

_"Izuku, it's time for dinner."_

It was Iida, but Midoriya was in no mood to join the rest of his noisy classmates, and just ripped a piece of paper out of one of his notebooks. He scribbled, "Not hungry" on it, and slipped it under the door, before turning back to his laptop.

He needed more information. Maybe he could find something regarding that compound that belonged to the Eight Precepts of Death. Who cared about food at this point in time?

* * *

Iida sighed, as he read the paper, and walked back down the common room.

"He's not joining us?" Uraraka asked, as she tucked into her rice, and Iida shook his head.

"He just came back from his work studies this afternoon, but he's been off all day." Kaminari sighed, "Maybe something happened during it. I mean, besides from kicking some villains' asses at that mall, but I don't think that would be the cause of it. Though somehow we still don't know his hero name..."

"But a student's duty is to study!" Iida argued, "He needs to eat if he wants to keep up with school, and to continue with his work studies!"

"Dude, did you even _see_ him in training today?" Sero asked, "He practically murdered those three punching bags! And they were brand new. He is _pissed_, and I don't want to die yet."

"Izuku won't kill you. You know that." Shinsou replied, and Sero groaned, "Do you remember what he did to Muscular? That was brutal!"

"He was angry at Muscular, though." Iida sighed, "He's not angry at us... at least... I don't think he is..."

"I'll go check on him later." Shinsou muttered worriedly, "Hopefully, it's not too serious."

Ashido grinned; her suspicions were confirmed, Shinsou _definitely _liked Midoriya.

* * *

There was another knock on his door, this time from Shinsou, _"Hey, Izuku, you alright? You didn't eat anything."_

Midoriya just stared at his laptop, trying to concentrate.

_"Can I come in?"_

Midoriya groaned, and slammed his laptop shut, before begrudgingly opening his door for the lavender haired boy. Maybe they'd just stop harassing him if he did so, he was busy trying to figure out how to save Eri from those damned Yakuza.

Shinsou walked into his room, closing the door behind him, before turning to face the frustrated boy, "Izuku... are you alright?"

Midoriya just growled and nodded, before walking out into the balcony. He just wanted everyone to get away and leave him alone so he could work in peace; if he wanted to save Eri, he needed more information. All the information he had now just wasn't enough for him to work out a feasible plan.

If they weren't living in the dorms, he could have just snuck out and done his own investigating, but given that they needed their key cards to get in and out of their rooms, the dorms, and the main gate of the school, it would be very difficult for him to do his own research. He could hack through the school's security system, but he didn't want to fuck up the security too badly; Nezu and Maijima would probably have to end up fixing it, and he didn't want to give them any more work.

After all, he was also trying to fix up that old design of a support item that he made ages ago. He didn't want to use it, it was based off his father's quirk, and he didn't deserve to use something like that, given that his parents' deaths were his fault, but if he wanted to save Eri, he was going to need every edge he could get.

The night air was cooling, slightly helpful in helping him control his temper, and Midoriya took a deep breath.

"If you're bothered about something, you can always tell us. I know it may be confidential, but sometimes, you just need to vent, and you'll feel better." Shinsou muttered, walking out to the balcony. Midoriya let out a small, frustrated growl, and leaned against the railing, feeling the chill of the metal railing against his arms. He rested his head on his arms, dejected, as Reiko purred, rubbing herself against his leg comfortingly.

Shinsou raised his hand, patting the smaller boy on the back gently, "At least, you should eat something. Starving yourself isn't going to help save anyone. Even instant noodles are better than nothing."

With that, Midoriya begrudgingly let the taller boy drag him downstairs. If it would just get them all off his back, then he'd just put up with it.

* * *

"Midoriya! Morning!" Kirishima greeted, "Going to your work study today, too? What a coincidence! For the past week, you usually attend lessons in the day and go over in the afternoon, and mine's usually at night! I was told I didn't need the costume today, though, so it's weird."

Midoriya nodded. He was also told that he didn't need his hero costume this time, and while that was odd, he didn't bother questioning it. He was too tired to be bothered about it.

"Oh! Morning! You two going in today?" Uraraka smiled, Asui right beside her, and Kirishima nodded. Asui replied, "What a coincidence! We are, too!"

It took them some time to walk out of the school gates, as Reiko purred, nestled down in Midoriya's bag. There were two heroes walking down the street, and they spotted the four students, "Are you going to the station? If you want, we can accompany you."

"Oh! If that's alright with you!" Uraraka replied, as Asui and Kirishima thanked them. Midoriya remained silent, but bowed as well.

"There are a lot of heroes." Kirishima muttered, as they slowly walked to the train station. Midoriya quickly tapped his card against the reader, letting himself into the station; when Nezu realized that Midoriya did not have a train card, the principal had quickly gotten him a card and filled it up with enough money for him to take the train, and despite Midoriya trying to pay the principal back, Nezu had just outrightly refused.

"Kirishima, aren't you in Kansai?" Uraraka asked, and Kirishima scratched his head, "Yeah, but we're meeting in a different place today."

"Us too, kero." Asui added.

The four students found it weird that they were taking the same train, and when Midoriya got off at his stop, Kirishima, Uraraka, and Asui followed behind.

"We're all going to the same stop? That is a coincidence." Kirishima exclaimed.

They found that they were also going in the same direction, until they bumped into Amajiki, Hado, and Togata.

"Eh, the Big Three are also all here?" Kirishima asked, confused, "What is this?"

The seven students walked in silence, until they reached a building. "Uh... are we all going to the same place?" Uraraka asked, and Kirishima nodded, "It seems so."

Togata pushed open the doors, only for them to find a multitude of heroes inside.

"Aizawa-sensei?" Uraraka asked, "Ah, Ryukyu!"

Midoriya eyed Tatsuma and Toyomitsu; he knew that Uraraka, Asui, and Kirishima were interning under them, but that didn't mean he trusted them. He also noticed Kesagiriman, Mr. Brave and Rock Lock, as well as a multitude of other heroes.

This better be about the Eight Precepts of Death, or Midoriya was going to lose his temper. His movements were limited, given that he was living in the dorms, but he had spent the week compiling information about that damned Yakuza group, sieving through all his information that he had gathered years ago, to searching on the internet. When it came to someone else's safety, there was only so much time Midoriya was going to tolerate wasting. Who knew what else Chisaki could be doing to Eri?

"Hey, hey, what's this? What are we going to do?" Hado asked, before running over to Tatsuma, "Hey, Ryukyu, you said it was a meeting, I know, but what about?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Tatsuma chuckled, as Uraraka, Midoriya and Asui walked up to the Erasure Hero, "Aizawa-sensei! Why are you here?"

"I was called out suddenly. I also roughly heard what's going on." He tiredly replied, as Tatsuma called out to Uraraka and Asui, "Girls, I told you before, didn't I?"

She turned to Sasaki, "Nighteye, let's get started."


	77. Chapter 77 - I will find you

Sasaki nodded, "Thanks to the information we received from you all, the investigation has moved forward substantially. We will now have a conference to share what information we have acquired regarding what the small organization, the Eight Precepts of Death, is planning."

_At least this wasn't going to be a complete waste of time._

"I'm completely in the dark about this..." Kirishima muttered, "Precepts? What's that?"

"They might be thinking of doing something bad, so this is a time for us to discuss it together. You two are also very much involved." Toyomitsu replied.

"Well then, let us begin." Awata started, before looking at her tablet, "Those from the NIghteye Agency have been conducting an independent investigation into the designated villain group kown as the Eight Precepts of Death for about two weeks."

"What prompted this?"

"An accident involving a gang of thieves called the Reservoir Dogs." Awata replied.

"I heard about that."

She continued, "The police wrote it off as an accident, but there were a number of points that didn't make sense, so we began tailing them."

Moashi started speaking, "I, Centipeder, conducted a follow-up investigation. In my investigation, I found that, in the past year, the members of the Eight Precepts of Death have increased contact with those outside of their organization and other groups involved with shady business, moving with the aim of expanding their organization and increasing their funds. And soon after beginning the investigation, he was in contact with a member of the League of Villains, Bubaigawara, villain name: Twice, a few days after the Provisional Hero License Exam. They were wary of being tailed, and I was unable to follow them, but with the help of the police, I was able to confirm that an altercation had occurred between the two organizations."

"Since the League was involved, they also reached out to Tsukauchi and I." Torino spoke up.

"Where is Tsukauchi?" Kesagiriman asked, and Torino replied, "There were other eyewitness reports to look into, so he went to check them out. I didn't think it would end up like this."

"Please continue." Sasaki said, and Awata spoke up again, "So after all this happened, we put out a request for help on the HN -"

"You can skip that part." Moashi sweatdropped, "I believe that they do know about that."

"Right!" Awata replied.

"HN?" Uraraka asked, and before anyone could reply, Midoriya had already flipped his notebook open to a new page and wrote a few words on it, before showing it to Uraraka across the table,_ "Hero Network. It's an online service that only pros can access."_

"Smart boy." Tatsuma chuckled, as Hado added, "You can see reports of what all the heroes in the country are working on, and request help from heroes with helpful quirks!"

"Even if they're from UA, why are there kids here?" Rock Lock asked, "We'll never get anywhere with them here. The sun will set before we even get to the actual -"

Rock Lock completely froze up, as a menacing aura burst out from right beside him. He turned only to find two glowing green eyes staring right back at him, looking right into his soul.

_"Go on, insult them, Takagi Ken."_ Midoriya signed under the table, and the hero froze up even more, if that was even possible, _"Maybe I'll make your life miserable. Go on."_

Midoriya held his gaze with Rock Lock for a few more tense seconds, before finally looking away, growling threateningly. Rock Lock let out a sigh in relief, muttering, "Scary..."

He was already on edge for long enough, and was not going to tolerate anyone insulting his friend.

Sasaki wanted to laugh at how easily Midoriya intimidated a pro hero, but it was probably not a good time to do so. Luckily, Toyomitsu stood up, putting all the attention on him, and gestured to Kirishima and Amajiki, "Don't say that! These two have super important information!"

"Us?" Kirishima asked, completely confused, as Amajiki shrunk down, "I can't take this..."

"Anyways, I think I'm meeting a lot of you for the first time, so I'm Fat Gum. Nice to meet you!" Toyomitsu introduced himself, and Asui and Uraraka smiled, already liking the hero that Kirishima was interning under, "He's so round and cute!"

Toyomitsu heard their comment, and gave them some candy.

"We suspect that one of the Eight Precepts's main sources of income is unauthorized drugs, so I requested help from some heroes who are well-versed in those matters." Sasaki continued, and Toyomitsu replied, "I crushed tons of guys like that back in the day. And then, at Red Riot's debut fight the other day, a type I'd never seen before was shot into Tamaki; a drug that destroys quirks."

"Tamaki, are you okay!?" Togata worriedly asked, and Amajiki replied, transforming his hand into a hoof, "Yeah, I recovered after I slept. Look at this cow hoof."

"So you had beef bowl for breakfast?" Togata asked.

"I feel better knowing that you can recover from it. So it's not gone for good?" Rock Lock sighed, still being wary of the green haired boy that was seated right next to him.

"Well, then, that's great!" Togata grinned, wrapping his arm around Midoriya, "We have a secret weapon right here!"

"Eh.. that's true...Midoriya's quirkless, that drug's useless against someone with no quirk!" Kirishima exclaimed.

Torino and Aizawa tensed up slightly, and turned to each other. They were the only ones, besides from Midoriya, who were aware that he had a quirk, and while Midoriya probably didn't give a shit whether he lost it or not, the only reason Midoriya survived the attack against UA, and the Kamino Incident, was because of his quirk. But then again... the quirk was probably the reason why it was so hard for Midoriya to recover. They really couldn't weigh the pros against the cons.

"No. We will hear from Eraser Head on the matter." Sasaki said, snapping Aizawa out of his thoughts, "It seems to be a little different from my Erasure, since I don't attack the Quirk itself directly. The quirk is an extra part with a special function added to a basic human body. Those "extra parts" are lumped together as quirk genes. I can only stop those genes temporarily, but I cannot directly inflict damage on them."

"Right after Tamaki was shot, we had the hospital take a look at him, and his quirk genes were damaged. Thankfully, they healed on their own, and he's back to normal now." Toyomitsu finished.

"What about the analysis on what was shot into him?" Sasaki asked, and Toyomitsu replied, "There was nothing wrong with the rest of his body. It was only his quirk that received any damage. The guy who shot him isn't saying anything either. The gun's in pieces, but thanks to Kirishima's brave actions that led to one bouncing off his body, we were able to get one still filled with the drug."

Kirishima was wondering why Toyomitsu was looking at him, before he realized what the hero was talking about, "Me? That surprised me! It came out of the blue!"_ This is so hard to follow... I don't get it..._

"Good job, Kirishima!" Uraraka complimented, as Hado smiled, "Hardening, right? I know about that! It was the perfect match-up!"

"And after analyzing the contents, we discovered something that made me sick. Human blood and cells were inside." Toyomitsu snapped.

"What?" Uraraka was sick to her stomach, as Asui mumbled, "It's like we're talking about a different world."

But Midoriya wasn't listening anymore; he could hear his heart pounding. Given Eri's age, theoretically, she would be the youngest person to be part of the Eight Precepts, and perhaps one of the latest people to be introduced to them. Given that these quirk destroying bullets are also rather new, and the Eight Precepts participate in the selling of illegal drugs-

_Human blood._

That practically cemented it. As far as he knew, Trigger, which was a drug that strengthens a person's Quirk, was a normal drug, just chemicals. But the quirk destroying bullets had human blood inside.

_Eri's _blood.

They were using Eri as a freaking _experiment_, using _her_ blood to make these bullets. Chisaki was draining her of her blood, hurting her, maybe torturing her, to make bullets. And given what Chisaki's quirk, Overhaul, can do... he could practically tear her apart and put her back together again, all just so that he could use her to make bullets.

And he told her to go back to him. To the person that hurt her. What kind of hero did something like that!?

_A useless, pathetic one, Deku._

"In other words, that effect came from a person. Someone's quirk?" Tatsuma confirmed, "A quirk that destroys quirks..."

"Hmm... I'm not sure I'm really following this." One of the other heroes muttered, confused, "How is this related to the Eight Precepts?"

"The man that Kirishima captured used an illegal drug on himself, and the distribution for things like that is complex. It's gotten smaller these days, but various people and organizations sell them wholesale until they finally reach the end-user. There's no proof that the Eight Precepts handled these goods, but they did interact with one of the intermediaries."

"That's it?"

"The other day, when Ryukyu's team broke up a fight between two villain groups, controlling one of the groups was the intermediary dealer organization." Sasaki stated, and Tatsuma took over, "One of the two that turned giant had been given an inferior drug that didn't last very long."

"There have been a rush of gang-related crimes recently, and most can be connected to the Eight Precepts if you tried hard enough." Sasaki concluded, but one of the heroes interjected, "It sounds like you're trying very hard to make the Eight Precepts guilty. Don't you have something that implicates them more obviously?"

"The young head, Chisaki's quirk is Overhaul. His power lets him disassemble and restore things. A quirk that lets him break things and then fix them, and a bullet that can break down quirks. Chisaki has a daughter, according to Midoriya, who had the most contact with her, her name is Eri. There are no records or details about her birth, but when Mirio and Midoriya encountered her, around a week ago, she had a large number of bandages wrapped around her arms and legs." Sasaki continued.

Midoriya froze up, his mind working together to piece everything together as his heart clenched, a pit forming in his stomach. He was aware that Overhaul could disassemble matter, but he had no idea that it was also capable of reassembling it as well. It was very possible that Chisaki was using his quirk, turning Eri into a splatter of blood, and then reassembling her back to life. He was practically killing her, and putting her back together, before killing her again.

The very thought made him sick to his stomach, and Midoriya was _very_ glad he hadn't eaten much the past week, despite the pestering of his peers.

"Don't tell me something so horrific..." Tatsuma growled, and Torino sighed, "It's a society of superhumans. If you can dream it, you can do it."

"Uh... what?" Kirishima wasn't too sure what was going on, but he was sure that he didn't like it, "What's going on?"

Uraraka and Asui were also equally confused, as Rock Lock grumbled, before pointing to Midoriya, "Are you sure we need these other kids? I mean, at least he seems to know what's going on, but the others? I'm just going to say this once; we're wondering if this Chisaki bastard is turning his daughter's body into bullets and selling them."

"No way..." Uraraka muttered, and turned to Midoriya, who just looked absolutely calm and sick at the same time, with a bright flame of rage burning in his eyes. He must have come to that conclusion on his own just moments prior, and everything just snapped in place.

This was why Midoriya had been off the entire week. There was someone out there getting hurt, and he had been helpless to stop it. He knew about Eri, he knew she was getting abused, and he wanted to help her.

_But he couldn't._

"We don't know if he's actually selling the bullets. At their current stage, their efficacy is still too uncertain. However, if they're at the test stage, and he's using them as samples to gather more to his cause... There is no hard evidence, but he's been gathering people and funds across the nation. If the completed drug would be able to completely destroy someone's quirk, I'm sure they'll have many ideas for crimes using this."

"Just imagining it makes my blood boil!" Toyomitsu snapped, "Let's go find him right now!"

"Wouldn't this have been resolved already if those two had just taken the child." Rock Lock grumbled, but Midoriya didn't put up a fight. He couldn't defend himself when he was the one in the wrong.

He knew there had been a time when Chisaki came into power, becoming the new leader of the Yakuza, but had mainly dismissed it since he didn't know too much about the yakuza in general, and didn't think they were too much of a problem as compared to criminals who wreaked havoc every day. He didn't want to deal with a dangerous quirk like Overhaul with his lack of experience, and just opted to ignore it.

He could have stopped this, before it even began. He could have saved Eri from all this pain years ago, but he didn't.

If he had just decided to bust into the hideout on his own, maybe he could have gotten Eri out of there and spare her a few more days of pain, but no, he wanted to make a plan and wait for a good time to sneak in.

_You useless, worthless Deku. This is your fault._

"I take full responsibility for what happened. Please do not blame them." Sasaki was quick to defend Togata and Midoriya, "Even though they didn't know the full story, they acted to save the girl. I'm sure that Midoriya was willing to risk taking her then, but they thought ahead and acted to try again when the odds were better. Neither of them are suited to take down a man with a dangerous quirk like Chisaki's, let alone defending a girl from him. The ones most frustrated here right now are those two."

"We will definitely take Eri back next time and protect her!" Togata stood up, growling.

"That's right. That is our goal."

"It's fine for the kids to show off, but if it's what we think, that girl's the crux that the young head would want to hide, right?" Rock Lock spoke up, "She got out because of some kind of trouble. On top of that, some kid heroes saw her. You think he'll just keep her at home? I wouldn't, if I were him. Even if we push our way in, it won't matter if she's not in there. Have you already identified where she is?"

"He's right. How about it, Nighteye?" Tatsuma asked.

"That's the real issue. Since we don't know how far their plans have gotten, we have one chance to strike when it counts. To that end, we have found groups with connections to the Eight Precepts, or land owned by them, and made as thorough a list as possible. I would like you all to investigate each place, and narrow the list down to possible locations."

"So that's why you asked minor heroes like us. These heroes were chosen as they know those areas. For someone who was All Might's former sidekick, you sure are careful."

"While we're taking our time, that little girl, Eri, is probably crying!" Toyomitsu growled, but Sasaki calmly replied, "We cannot become All Might. That's why we must put together our analysis and predictions and try to make the possibility of saving her as close to 100% as we can."

"We can't rush. If we make a big fuss about this and don't get her back, this could result in something bigger." Torino butt in.

"You're thinking too much! If you keep saying stuff like that, you won't be able to do anything!" Toyomitsu snapped, and Aizawa raised his hand, "Um...can I ask a question? I don't know how your quirk works exactly, Nighteye, but if you can predict the future, then why don't you just use Foresight to see our futures? If we continue like this, it seems a bit illogical."

"I... can't do that." Sasaki admitted, "Foresight requires a twenty-four hour interval between activations. In other words, I can only use it on one person for one hour each day. In addition, it's played in my mind like a flashback. Please think of it as the ability to watch a film of someone else's life for one hour after activation. However, the film is from the perspective of that person. All I can see is that person's actions, and a little of their surroundings."

"Well... that should be enough to let you find out a lot, though. What do you mean by saying you can't do that?" Aizawa responded, and Sasaki pushed his glasses up, "What if in that person's near future, death... just a merciless death was waiting? My quirk should be used only after we have already drawn out the highest possibility of success, when it can be used to ensure our victory. It shouldn't be used haphazardly when there are so many uncertainties."

"But death is information too! We could put together a plan to avoid it!" Rock Lock countered, as Sasaki tried to argue, "It isn't the same as fortune-telling. I have no conclusive evidence that it can be avoided."

"Nighteye, I don't get it. Use it on me! I'll show you that I can avoid it!" Rock Lock growled.

"No." Sasaki snapped, filling the room with silence.

Midoriya hissed, and just stuck his hand in his pocket, pulling out a thumb drive. This wasn't getting anywhere, with all the arguing, so he might as well do something to speed up the process. He stood up, gaining everyone's attention, but he didn't care that everyone was staring at him, and walked over to Awata. He passed her the thumb drive, and she plugged it into her tablet, displaying a multitude of files on the screen which ranged from blueprints to building schematics. There were also two word documents regarding the quirks of the members of the Yakuza, which were Chisaki's and Chronostasis.

_"They're most likely keeping her in their stronghold, which is the residence of the head of the Eight Precepts. All the locations on the map have very poor security, and they're not large enough to hide a child, as well as the machinery to take Eri's blood.__"_

Midoriya noticed that almost everyone was gaping at the screen, including Sasaki, and signed, _"What?"_

"Midoriya... how on earth did you get so much information?" Sasaki asked, blinking at the screen. Even with all the research they had done, they didn't have nearly as much information as Midoriya had on that thumbdrive.

_"Internet."_ Midoriya blankly signed back, _"Most of the hideouts and buildings are rather old and abandoned, as building new ones would just grab everyone's attention. Most of the blueprints of buildings we currently have are public records, including the ones for their hideout."_

Aizawa tried his best not to sigh. Problem child was back at it again.

"Ah... was this what you were locking yourself in your room for and working on all week, kero?" Asui asked, and Midoriya nodded.

"Okay... go on..." Toyomitsu said, still stunned, trying to process the information on the screen.

_"I also dug up a few videos of fights from the Eight Precepts of Death from the internet; they're a few years old, and there's not much data on them, but I tried to do as much as an analysis on them as possible."_

Aizawa was pretty certain that _some_ of that information came from the boy's own investigations back when he was a vigilante. He never left the school, except with Togata, for his internships, and at night, the teachers all took turns on security to ensure that none of the students snuck out. Plus, Midoriya's lights were on almost all night long, and it was very unlikely that the boy had snuck out on his own. Also, there wasn't that much data, not as much as the boy usually had in regards to his classmates and other heroes, so it was likely that the boy was just limited to videos and reports on the internet, as well as public records.

"Centipeder, why didn't we search the public records and the internet?" Awata turned to the other pro, and Moashi shrugged, "They're Yakuza. If they're trying to lay low, why would they have anything on the public records or on the internet?"

_"Given how long ago the compound was built, it would be suspicious if the blueprints weren't on public records. And given that they needed to build everything into the building, all the details are in the schematics. Plus, the videos are posted by people who were lucky enough to chance upon the fights and weren't involved. They're pretty old, and have gone mostly ignored by most people, who care more about flashy heroes. Took me quite a bit of digging to even find this much; there just isn't that much data on the yakuza."_

"That's a lot, though?" Rock Lock sweatdropped, before pointing at the screen, "But residence of the head of the Eight Precepts? That looks like an office."

Midoriya took the tablet from Awata, bringing up the schematics of the entire compound, before giving it back to her, _"It's d__isguised as several separate business office buildings, but is actually a huge interconnected compound. __They appear to be different buildings, but once you know that they're all connected together, it's easy to see how the schematics fit together."_

Midoriya zoomed into the blueprints first floor for the residence, giving the tablet back to Awata once again and signing, _"If you look at it closely, there's hidden passageway that leads to some stairs, most likely a basement of some sort, that's located behind the only section of the hallway that intrudes into the wall. If you overlay it with the building schematics, the switch to that passageway is located on that wall, somewhere near the end of the main hallway, on the right wall. The switch is most likely hidden under some ornaments, maybe with another password as well, so people don't hit it by accident. With all that security in place, I believe that it's most likely that they're keeping Eri here."_

"You're a kid. You have a provisional license, that's it." One of the minor pro heroes spoke up, "Why should we trust any information that you provide?"

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, and was about to reply when Sasaki narrowed his eyes, defending the boy, "Midoriya has exceptional skills when it comes to information gathering and analysis. He did this all on his own, without anyone's prompting, and without proper resources."

Tatsuma sighed, speaking up, "At least, we have a solid lead to follow. Let's do this. There's a girl in trouble. That's the most important thing. While I choose to trust Midoriya's analysis, I suggest that we still check out those locations, just as a precaution. We might find something that would help."

"Confirm the girl's whereabouts, and take her into our protection with the most accurate information we can get as quickly as possible. I'm counting on all of your help." Sasaki finished.

* * *

In the lobby, all the seven UA students were sitting at a table, as some of the pros discussed how to best proceed so that they could save the girl as soon as possible. Togata sighed, "If only we had just taken her with force back then..."

Midoriya just clenched his fists, as Kirishima hissed, "This is so frustrating..."

"Izuku... it's not your fault." Uraraka reached out, patting Midoriya's clenched fist from across the table. She knew Midoriya well, not as much as Shinsou, but well enough to know that the first thing Midoriya did was to blame himself, and as his friend, Uraraka wasn't going to tolerate that.

"Mirio, please lift your head." Amajiki tried to coax Togata to lighten up, as Hado smiled, "Hey, I know about this! Togata, even if you regret something and get depressed, nothing will change. Did you know that?"

Togata wiped his nose, "Yeah."

The elevator door opened, and Aizawa walked out. He spotted the students, and sighed at their downcast demeanor, "Is this a wake or something?"

"Kero! Aizawa-sensei!" Asui spoke up, as Aizawa replied, "Call me Eraser Head outside of school. Honestly, I was going to recommend that your work studies be suspended from today onwards."

"What!? Why!? After all this time?!" Kirishima asked, clearly upset.

Aizawa eyed the students, "You heard them say that the League could be involved, right? That changes things, especially after Kamino. But you know, Midoriya, you wanted to go save Eri on you own, didn't you?"

Togata nearly choked, as Aizawa continued, "I admit, I don't understand you that well, Midoriya. But I do know that you're the kind of person who would give up your own life if it meant that you could save someone else. You already knew, or at least, suspected the Yakuza quite some time ago, even before you entered UA. If we didn't have this meeting today, you were planning to go to that hideout, all on your own, and to try and save her, weren't you? Because out of everyone, you're the most frustrated, even more than Togata, because you think that you could have stopped this from even happening in the first place."

Midoriya growled; was he _really_ that obvious?

"You were frustrated all week, and while your schoolwork is still good, you were definitely not paying attention in class. Just so you know, I'm going to watch you." Aizawa stated, "This may break whatever little amount of trust you have in me, but I'd really prefer that you _not_ end up in the hospital for the third time in less than half a year. I'll say this to give you some peace of mind. The hand you missed grabbing onto did not necessarily mean despair for Eri."

Aizawa continued, "If you and Togata tried to take her back then, Chisaki would have killed you both, right in front of her. Neither of you were suited, or prepared to fight him. Despite how much Chisaki hurt her, Eri chose to trust you. She went back to him, believing that you'll come back for her. For now, you need to take care of yourself, and to trust the other heroes to do their part, so that you'll be ready when we give the signal. Given what you've been through, I know it's going to be hard, but you have to, if we're going to do this properly and save Eri. We can't fail again, got it, Problem Child?"

Aizawa stood up, "Face forwards."

"I will follow you for the rest of my life, Eraser Head!" Kirishima shot to his feet, as Aizawa sighed, "That's too long..."

"I'm sorry!"

"Kirishima, you're too loud." Uraraka whispered.

"Mirio..." Amajiki smiled at his friend, as Togata stood up, "Midoriya, next time, we'll definitely save her."

Midoriya didn't respond, and Kirishima patted him on the back.

Aizawa continued, "That said, apart from the Big Three, who are at least as strong as the pros, the rest of you probably won't have big parts to play. Asui, Uraraka, Kirishima, you three aren't here of your own volition. What would you like to do?"

"Eraser Head... after hearing that, I can't say I'm not going to help!" Uraraka stood up, as Asui spoke up, "If you aren't going to say we can't do it, then I would like to help, kero."

"Since the heroes had you participate in the meeting, I think they already recognised your abilities." Amajiki said, "In fact, I saw firsthand how a first year could shine much brighter than me."

"You start going off on that whenever you get the chance." Hado berated, as Kirishima bashed his fists together, "If I can help that girl with my power even a little, then I'll do it, Eraser Head!"

Aizawa nodded, "It's fine as long as you remember, our goal this time is only to rescue the girl, Eri. We won't step in further than that. It is the opinion of the police and Nighteye that the League of Villains and the Eight Precepts of Death aren't in partnership, so the chances are low that the League will be involved in this time's raid. But in case they're wrong and the League ends up involved, then you guys are out."

* * *

Midoriya walked into his room, and the second he closed the door, it felt like his room suddenly became colder. A chill ran down his spine and he wrapped his arms around himself, sinking to the ground, his legs giving way beneath him.

_"The hand you missed grabbing onto did not necessarily mean despair for Eri."_

Reiko and Ryuto popped out of his bag, and tried to comfort him, but Midoriya could only remember that one statement that Aizawa had said, repeating over and over in his head.

"Despair? Despair?!" Midoriya whispered to himself, "I told her to go back to him. He's tearing her apart, he's practically killing her, and _I just told her to go back to him._"

He knew what Chisaki's quirk was capable of. He knew the pain of death, he knew that he should have died many times in the past, either from villains or from suicide, but he couldn't imagine how much pain Eri was in. Chisaki was _actually _killing her, over and over, and all he could do was sit here and wait for the signal for them to raid the hideout.

The only thing he could do was to wait, and he _hated_ that.

_You're just a failure, Deku. You can't even deny it now._

He was angry, at Chisaki, for hurting Eri. He was angry at the heroes, for taking so damned long to do anything.

He was angry at himself, for letting her go, for telling her to go back to the man who made her life a living hell.


	78. Chapter 78 - But they forgot

The students were on standby, but they were forbidden to say anything about the work studies. It had been decided that all of them would be part of the operation to save Eri, but it was easy for the other students to tell that something was off. Not just with Uraraka, Kirishima and Asui, but also with Midoriya. It was startling at how easy it was to see that, given how much Midoriya kept to himself and kept his own thoughts and feelings under wraps.

The boy was _actually_ terrifying, even if he didn't mean to do so. It was obvious he wasn't concentrating in class, if all the scribbling he was doing in the middle of the lesson were an indication of anything, but no one could really complain; Midoriya was still getting full marks for his homework and tests, and it wasn't like he was disrupting the lesson.

1-A and 1-B were having a joint training session, as the gym had to be renovated after Kirishima accidentally used too much strength and broke down a wall, something that Aizawa oddly didn't seem too upset about, but everyone just steered clear of Midoriya. The green haired boy was attacking a punching bag with such ferocity that the chains holding the bag up were creaking.

Not to mention how many times they had to replace the punching bags whenever the chains broke, because otherwise, Midoriya would literally maul all the stuffing out of the downed, broken bag; it had happened once, and Aizawa was pretty sure that most of the students were traumatized by it.

At least, the boy seemed to be resting properly, or, he was trying to. He didn't eat lunch, as usual, but anytime he wasn't eating instant noodles or scribbling in his notebook, he was curled up in the bean bag in the common room, fast asleep. Given how little Midoriya actually slept, some of the teachers were actually worried that someone might have drugged Midoriya in an attempt to get him to sleep, only to find that Midoriya was actually fully awake, opening a gleaming green eye whenever someone got within a meter of his bean bag, even if they were really quiet, like Shirou, or invisible, like Hagakure.

He didn't seem to mind Reiko or Ryuto entering his safe space too much, and Ashido was able to borrow them for ten minutes before they returned back to the greenette's side. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to mind some of the students either. Iida, Uraraka, Shinsou, Koda and Todoroki were a given, since they were his friends, but lately, Asui and Kirishima could just sit down by the window to read, or check their phones, which was right next to Midoriya, and while the first few times they did that, Midoriya had woken up, but lately, Midoriya just ignored them and continued napping.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the four students got a message in the middle of the night, and they all gathered in the common room.

"Did you all get the message?" Kirishima whispered, and Asui nodded, "Yeah. We did."

"Come on. Let's go save Eri." Uraraka nodded, patting Midoriya on the back.

* * *

"It will be a nice day to enjoy the sunshine, but in the evening -" Kaminari switched off the television, as Sero walked up to him, commenting, "Tokoyami's in Kyushu, so it's expected, but the other work study students are absent too, huh?"

"Midoriya has been acting weird lately, hasn't he? I mean, I have never seen him so angry over something with no villains around." Kaminari spoke up.

"Yeah... he was literally glaring at Kirishima when he tried to get him to eat something..." Ojiro sweatdropped.

"It's not just him." Sero sighed, "Kirishima, Uraraka and Tsu also looked like they were brooding over something. Even Reiko and Ryuto seemed rather upset and downcast."

"You think they're after something big?" Kaminari asked, and Ojiro replied, "Even if they were, they'll be with pros. Plus, Midoriya was a vigilante, right? He should have experience with fighting villains."

"That's true..." Sero sighed, relieved, "I guess we don't have to worry about them..."

* * *

"We already checked all the locations. Like Midoriya said, the security's too poor, and there aren't any facilities or machinery to make those quirk destroying bullets. Also, pretty deserted, there are cars and stuff, but there are barely any people and goods that go in and out." Tatsuma reported.

Sasaki nodded, "Also, I have also confirmed that Eri is in their stronghold."

"How were you able to confirm this?" Toyomitsu asked, and Sasaki took out a pink sparkly box with some kind of dolls in it, "A member of the Eight Precepts went to a nearby department store just yesterday, and bought playthings aimed at young girls."

The UA students stared at the box, confused, "Eh?"

"Maybe he just likes things like that." Toyomitsu argued, "There are all types in this world, Nighteye! Why did you buy one too, anyways?!"

"He said something that no one who has that sort of hobby would say. He didn't even know the name of the brand, and specifically said "The ones little girls like". I used that opportunity to approach him with the toy and touch him on the shoulder in order to use Foresight, but I used the excuse that I liked the toy in order to not seem suspicious, and saw Eri inside their stronghold. Of course, I had to buy the toy, seeing that if I didn't, he could immediately tell I was lying."

"You ended up using Foresight anyway!?" Rock Lock scowled, and Sasaki calmly countered, "I believe I said I would use it once we had a proper lead so that we could be sure. Anyways, Midoriya was right; the switch to the secret entrance is located under a vase, but there's also a combination he had to press in order to access it."

"Anyway, this means it's been decided, right?" Toyomitsu asked, and Moashi nodded, "We know for sure when they'll be there thanks to our stakeouts."

"We also worked with the police to get a warrant!" Awata proudly announced, "All that's left is to get in there!"

"Midoriya." Togata spoke up, and the greenette turned to the older boy in confusion. Togata took a deep breath, and started waving his arms around wildly, "Let's do this! We're going to do it! We're going to do it! Alright! Let's go!"

Midoriya just stared at Togata in confusion, not sure how to react, as Togata's wild movements caught pretty much everyone's attention, and Hado started laughing. Reiko and Ryuto popped out of Midoriya's hood, confused at all the ruckus; the green haired boy had been wearing a hoodie over his UA uniform. Ryuto chirped, flapping his wings and trying to mimic Togata's movements, as Reiko rolled her eyes and purred, nuzzled Midoriya's cheek.

"Uh..." Kesagiriman pointed at Ryuto, "The boy has pets?"

Aizawa sighed into his hand, as the students went to the changing rooms to put on their hero costumes, "They have a knack for finding Midoriya. Trust me, they got all the way from UA to Kamino all on their own to find him. Ryuto was the one that helped us find him during that incident. They're just as stubborn as their owner."

"But -"

"No buts." Aizawa growled, "They're coming with us, and unless Midoriya says otherwise, that's final."

"Nighteye, are you sure that's okay?" Mr. Brave asked, and Sasaki merely shrugged, "If the boy believes that they'll be helpful, then so be it. Anyways, let;s go save Eri."

* * *

"Yes. Heroes gathered this early in the morning... the police are also bustling around..."

"Boss, it looks like they've gotten wind of this place." Chronostasis reported, and Chisaki leaned back into his seat, "They're here, huh? Proceed according to plan."

"Including the boy?" Chronostasis asked, and Chisaki nodded.

"Alright, sir." Chronostasis replied, turning to give the grunts more instructions over the phone, and Chisaki turned to Mimic, "Get ready."

"Yes sir."

"Boss, where are you going?" Chronostasis asked, as Chisaki exited the room, "Just taking care of something."

* * *

"After Nighteye used Foresight on the member of the Eight Precepts, we discovered the existence of undocumented underground facilities at the head of the their residence. We were able to confirm that the girl we are trying to rescue is being held in one of the rooms there. Although we were unable to uncover the entire underground layout, the path the man took is the shortest route to the target, and it's the best intel we could have for searching their expansive stronghold. However, if we head there, if they use their quirks freely on us, it would make the search difficult. We have made a list to the best of our knowledge of quirks registered to their members. Please memorize this list. We don't want to give them time to hide, so we want to identify and apprehend all the members as quickly as possible."

The police started handing out papers with the list of quirks, and Kirishima turned to the other students, "Things are moving fast now, huh?"

"You're energetic for how early this is..." Amajiki muttered.

_"Where's Gran Torino?"_ Midoriya signed, looking around, and Sasaki replied, "Apparently, the League, which Tsukauchi is keeping an eye on, is on the move. But we have enough people too, so it shouldn't impede us."

"I'm getting nervous..." Uraraka admitted, and Reiko walked over to Uraraka, letting the brown haired girl pet her.

"From detective work to cooperation with the police, there's so much I don't know..." Asui muttered, as Hado grinned, gently scratching Ryuto's head, "Right! Isn't it mysterious!?"

"Yeah, schools don't really teach you much about things like this. I had a hard time when I just started." Tatsuma smiled, calming the two first years down.

"All the pros are so calm... Is it cause they're used to this?" Kirishima muttered, looking around, as Midoriya stared at the paper, doing his best to commit the extensive list to memory. This was way more information that he could have gathered on his own, and Midoriya was jealous that the police could easily get their hands on so much data.

Suddenly, Midoriya felt a chill down his spine, and he looked up from his paper. Reiko seemed to have felt it too, and she perked up.

Midoriya whirled around, and simultaneously took a step back, as a gunshot was heard and a bullet embedded itself where he had been standing. Midoriya calculated the trajectory of the bullet, quickly deducing the direction from which the bullet came from, and growled, swiftly taking out a knife and flinging it at the figure at the roof of the building. The figure yelped as the knife flew right past him, barely grazing his ear, as Midoriya grabbed a ledge and swiftly pulled himself up. He scaled the wall of the building in a matter of seconds, before snarling, tackling the figure who was stationed on the roof.

"What was that?" Kesagiriman asked, as Aizawa chased after the boy, "Uravity, come with me go."

With Uraraka's quirk, Aizawa and Uraraka quickly made their way to the top of the building, only to find that Midoriya had pinned the man down, his gun a fair distance away, and a broken earpiece lay on the ground. It took Aizawa a few seconds to restrain the man properly, letting Midoriya go retrieve his knife, and with the help of Uraraka, they dragged the man down to the rest of the heroes. Midoriya just opted to jump off the five story building, landing on all fours.

Kesagiriman stared at the broken earpiece in Uraraka's hand, before glancing at Midoriya, "You broke it?"

"I didn't want him to contact anyone about what happened." Midoriya defended himself, and Kesagiriman sighed, patting the boy on the back, noticing how Midoriya tensed up ever so slightly at the contact, "I'm not saying you did wrong, kid. That was a good call."

"To have the ability to dodge a bullet and immediately throw a knife with such accuracy... the kid's good." Mr. Brave admitted, as Kirishima immediately threw himself at Midoriya, "That was so close! I'm so glad you're okay! You're so manly!"

Midoriya easily peeled the redhead off him. He could easily tell that Kirishima was scared; he was tensing up more than usual. If he froze up during a fight...

The greenette patted Kirishima on the shoulder, quietly whispering, "Don't ever hesitate. If you do, you'll regret it, and the pain of doing so will hurt you more than anything."

Kirishima stood there, stunned, as Midoriya walked towards the heroes who were dealing with the yakuza member.

"It seems like Chisaki wanted a head start." Togata commented, before glaring at the man, "And you decided to aim for my kouhai. You want to explain yourself?"

The yakuza member looked like he wanted to say something, but decided to keep his mouth shut, and Aizawa shook him, "Are you going to talk or not?"

The man shook his head, opting to remain quiet, until Midoriya walked up, standing right in front of him. He flinched, and Midoriya glared down at him, baring his teeth, letting out a menacing, intense pressure as he snarled.

The man screamed, "I'm sorry! Have mercy, please! I'll talk! I'll talk! Please don't eat me!"

Aizawa just looked confused at the "Please don't eat me" part, but Midoriya just reeled his terrifying aura as the villain stuttered, "Boss wanted me to shoot him. I'm just following orders!"

Midoriya just let out a small growl; he had been expecting Chisaki to try and take him out first. If he was making quirk destroying bullets, it wasn't too hard to assume that he wanted to control who could and couldn't use quirks, and use that to take control. The only thing he had to fear was quirkless people who had the ability to fight back.

Everything was going according to plan.

"Huh... so Chisaki is actively trying to hunt Midoriya down..." Sasaki muttered, as the police took the yakuza member into custody. Togata quickly wrapped his arms around Midoriya protectively, as Amajiki muttered, "Mirio... I don't think he likes it that much..."

"Sorry!" Togata immediately let go of the boy, and Midoriya just sighed.

"I will move with the Nighteye Agency." Aizawa decided; if the Yakuza were willing to send out a person to take Midoriya down before the heroes raid even started, then Chisaki must really, really hate Midoriya. Given how Midoriya was the only one who's fighting skills weren't dependent on his quirk at all (if Chisaki even knew he had a quirk in the first place), it made sense why he would try to target the boy who was immune to their greatest weapon.

He wasn't going to risk anything happening to his student; at least, Kirishima, Uraraka and Asui weren't being actively targeted.

Midoriya nodded, pulling his hood over his head. He grabbed the metallic mask that was sitting around his neck, pushing it upwards until he covered his mouth.

"Is that a new support item?" Uraraka asked, pointing to his mask, and Midoriya nodded. It was slightly bulky and heavy, but given what it was made for, Midoriya didn't mind too much.

"Heroes!" The police in charge yelled, "Things may get a little violent! If you see even a hint of suspicious behaviour or resistance, please deal with it immediately! We're up against gangsters who have survived until now! Don't let your guard down and carry out your respective tasks!"

Toyomitsu immediately pulled out a bag of dried swordfish for Amajiki, as Rock Lock turned to the UA first years, "Anyways, we don't know your hero names. Care to introduce yourselves?"

Uraraka, Kirishima and Asui quickly told the heroes their hero names, as well as their quirks, and Midoriya just looked away, before signing,_ "Hakryuen."_

"Uh... Fire nightmare dragon shadow?" Rock Lock raised his eyebrow at the name. "Hmm... the kryu part sounds like phoenix... I can get the shadow part... with that black aesthetic... I mean, it doesn't make sense, but it does sound cool. It's long though. I'm just going to call you Kyoi for short."

Midoriya just shrugged. It was just a name, and names didn't mean anything without any action.

Aizawa sighed; he could understand the fire and dragon part, given who Midoriya's father was, but he also didn't really get the nightmare part. Maybe it was because he scared villains so easily; that yakuza member that Midoriya had just taken out seemed terrified of the boy.

* * *

The police were about to ring the doorbell, when a large, muscular man with a black and red mask punched through the door. Aizawa and Midoriya quickly lashed several policemen out of the way, as the yakuza turned to the heroes, "What do you want? Bringing all these people so early in the morning!"

"Wait, did they notice us already?" Rock Lock growled, as Mr. Brave grabbed a clump of his hair to form a sword construct, "Well, they came after the kid; we should have known. Forget about that for now, let's just hold them back!"

"I feel a little more awake now... Jeez..." Katsukame muttered, rearing up to attack, "What do you people want?!"

"Get back!" Tatsuma yelled, fully transitioning into her dragon form, easily towering over everyone else. She grabbed the villain's fist with her claws, before pushing him to the ground, "Anyways, we shouldn't split up our forces here. Ryukyu Agency will take care of him. The rest of you go now, while you have the chance!"

"Let's go support Ryukyu!" Hado spoke up, and Asui and Uraraka both nodded.

"Okay, everyone, get in! Quickly!" Toyomitsu yelled, before running into the compound, Kirishima right on his heels.

"It's the heroes and the police!" The police in charge yelled, holding up the warrant, "We have a warrant to search your premises on suspicion of the manufacture and sale of illegal drugs."

Kesagiriman and a few policemen easily restrained the grunts outside of the household, and the rest of the heroes charged in. Rock Lock growled, "There was that big guy, too... are none of them scared?"

"They sent everyone out to buy time... That's so self destructive!" One of the minor heroes snarled, fending off the yakuza members as more and more of them poured out of the compound.

"Leave them to us! Go on ahead!" Mr. Brave yelled, bashing away more villains, and Sasaki shouted, "We're counting on you!"

"Midoriya, let's go! This time, we'll definitely save her!" Togata growled, and Midoriya nodded.

"Use the shortest route to get to the target! This is an emergency!" Toyomitsu yelled, as they charged into the compound, "Excuse us for not taking off our shoes! They haven't done anything suspicious yet."

"I'm getting kind of worried..." Rock Lock admitted, "We have to keep going now that we've started, though..."

"I wonder... did someone leak information to them?" Amajiki asked, "They're all gathered in one place for some reason..."

"If someone had, I think they'd be avoiding us more smartly. They should all be used to working together with one will..." The police in charge replied.

"They devote their all to their bond with their boss and brothers. They might feel ashamed now, but that makes them put more importance on their old bonds. With all this commotion... and Chisaki and the top brass haven't shown themselves yet, besides from Katsukame... they're probably all in that underground basement, getting ready to hide or flee now." Aizawa spoke up.

"That's not loyalty! Forcing their henchmen to take responsibility and running away isn't manly!" Kirishima snapped, as Sasaki stopped by a small intrusion in the wall. There sat a vase with white flowers, and the Sasaki nodded, "It's here. There's a switch here to open the hidden passage."

Sasaki put the vase of flowers away, before pressing down on the loose wooden boards, "By holding down these wooden floorboards in a specific order, it'll open."

Just as he said that, the entire section of the wall with the intrusion slid to the side, and Awata gaped, "Like a ninja residence!"

"If you hadn't seen it with your Foresight, we wouldn't have known the right combination to press." Moashi muttered. "Be careful of quirks we haven't seen yet."

Suddenly, several yakuza poured out of the secret entrance, "What the hell, bastards!?"

Moashi and Awata were able to deal with them swiftly, "We'll make them stay, so they won't follow you! We'll join you later! Please go on ahead!"

"Let's go!" Sasaki ordered, and ran down the secret hallway, the rest of the heroes and police following suit. They got to the bottom of the staircase, and turned to the right, only to find that it was a dead end.

"Explain yourself, Nighteye!" Rock Lock growled, but Toogata took off his helmet and walked towards the wall, "I'll go take a look." He phased through the wall slightly, and nodded, "It's just been blocked off by a wall; the corridor continues as Sir said. But it's a pretty thick wall."

"Is this even possible with Chisaki's quirk?" Rock Lock asked, but Kirishima activated his quirk, smashing through the wall easily with a hardened fist, "Good luck if he thinks that a wall is going to stop us!"

Togata used a bit of One for All to completely clear out the wall, "Let's go."

Suddenly, the entire hallway rippled, and started shifting about. Even Midoriya was having trouble trying to stay standing up, and he had an excellent sense of balance.

"It's not Chisaki!" The police in charge yelled, "It's different! The only one it could be is the director, Irinaka! His quirk is Mimic, and it lets him go into objects and control them freely from within! He's gone into the concrete that makes up the underground, and turned it into a living maze!"

"But it's on too big a scale!" Rock Lock countered, "He shouldn't be able to enter and control objects bigger than a fridge!"

"If he gets a big enough boost, it's not impossible." Toyomitsu reasoned, "I was being careful about what he'd turn into, but I didn't think that he'd turn into the underground. But this has to be hard on him physically. Eraser, you can't get rid of it?"

"Not if I can't see his body." Aizawa replied.

"If the path keeps getting changed and remade, then they can prepare as many escape routes as they want!" Amajiki muttered, starting to get anxious, but Togata patted him on the shoulder, "We'll be fine. Don't worry. As long as we know the direction of our goal, I can get there!"

Togata started running down the hallway, "Time is of the essence. Those guys know this, too. That's why they're stalling for time! I'm going on ahead!"

Midoriya growled, and followed the older boy, kicking down the wall that Togata had easily phased through. It took him a few kicks to completely knock down the wall, but it didn't deter Midoriya for long, and he chased after Togata.

Suddenly, a huge hole opened up where the rest of the heroes were standing, and they all fell down into the lower level.

* * *

"Hey hey hey! Some government authorities have fallen from the sky! Strange things happen, right?" A man with yellow hair and a black mask snarled. Toyomitsu cracked his knuckles, "It looks like they're ready for a fight. It's about time we showed them the strength of the -"

He was interrupted by Amajiki, "Save the strength of pros for the goal. As for the ones stalling for time... I'll be enough by myself."

"What are you saying! We should work together!" Kirishima yelped, but the man with the black mask just mocked him, taking a sword out, "Yeah, work together! I'll kill you all."

"We can't use our guns against him! Heroes, it's up to you!"

"You figured it out, huh?" Setsuno laughed, "Oh well! It just makes it easier to go wild!"

"We won't let you." Aizawa growled, erasing Setsuno's quirk as he tried to steal the officers' guns. The man with the white face mask, Hojo, aimed his gun at Aizawa, but Toyomitsu moved in to defend the Erasure hero, "Swords and bullets will just sink into my body! It'll be better for you if you give up now!"

"Threats like that just make you sound like you fear for you life!" Setsuno cackled, but Amajiki immediately transformed his fingers into octopus tentacles, and yanked away Setsuno's sword and Hojo's gun. He grabbed the three villains, and flung them to the ground. Amajiki swiftly transitioned from octopus tentacles to a crab claw, easily breaking the gun and sword, "I've looked over the documents with their information. I'll take these guys on! It won't do any good for us to all fight against them. With so many heroes stopped here, we're playing right into their hands. We should save the pros' quirks, especially Eraser's, for later. Also, you still need to get through the wriggling underground. And the police officers and their guns. Fat Gum! If it's me, I can completely shut down all three of them!"

Toyomitsu nodded, "Alright. Let's go. To that door!"

Setsuno tried to stop them, "Hey! Wait!" He tried to steal more weapons, but Aizawa promptly erased his quirk, before turning his attention to Hojo and Tabe, knocking the latter to the ground, "I used my quirk on them. Bind them up before the effect wears off."

Amajiki nodded, and smashed the yakuza into the wall, "Please take care of Mirio. He's definitely going to try too hard, so please help him!"

The police and heroes threw open the door, and raced out, and Amajiki turned his attention back to the yakuza, rearing up for an attack, "Three at once. Sorry, but I'm going to have to put you all to sleep."

Amajiki tried to attack the yakuza, but Setsuno slipped a knife out of his mask, using his teeth to hold the blade, before slicing into the octopus tentacles. "You were surprised and pulled back without thinking, huh?" Setsuno mocked, "I know you're in a hurry, but you can't shrink back. Since you're fighting people who're like trash, You don't know what we have under our masks."

"The quirk of that scruffy man from earlier also stopped working." Hoji muttered, using his crystals to get rid of the tentacles. Amajiki created a shell to try and defend himself, but Setsuno just stole it with his quirk, jeering, "It's a handicap for you guys to not be able to kill us, isn't it? Lucky you! We've thrown away our possessions and our lives. When I was caught by a hero when I tried to jump to my death, I felt so hopeless! We're people who couldn't see the point of living! You can't understand that!"

"The young head picked up that trash and found a new use for it. Even trash has its pride. If someone has expectations for us, then we need to meet them." Hojo snarled, smashed a crystalized fist into Amajiki's face. Amajiki transformed his hands into a fusion of octopus tentacles and crab claws, catching Hojo's hand, but the yakuza just extended his crystals, intent on smashing Amajiki in the face.

Amajiki just took a deep breath, before creating layers of shells over his face to use as a mask, easily snapping the crystals, before manifesting multiple octopus tentacles lined with shells as armour, sweeping the three members of the yakuza away. Hojo was hit in the stomach, and Setsuno was trying to do his best to evade the tentacles, "Is that how it is? Tabe, wake up! It's time to eat!"

Right as he said that, Tabe sprung to life, biting off several of Amajiki's octopus tentacles, "Octopus? Yummy." He proceeded to rip the detached tentacles apart, as Setsuno laughed, "With those teeth and jaws, he can eat anything in an instant! And he has a stomach that digests everything he eats in a second! His stomach will never get full! You two are a great match!"

While Amajiki was distracted with Tabe, Setsuno used his quirk to rip off a part of Amajiki's mask, and the teen barely had time to turn his head to use the other half of the mask that remained to tank Hojo's crystalized fist.

"You can't stop my Crystallize with just that!" Hojo shouted, punching Amajiki away with another fist. Tabe started chomping away at Amajiki's octopus tentacles as Setsuno mocked, "You're the one that wanted to fight three on one, right, Suneater? Did you think that you'd get a complete shutdown just by waving giant octopus arms around?"

Amajiki tried to manifest octopus neurotoxin into his arm for Tabe to eat, but the tentacles were ripped right off Amajiki's arm, stolen by Setsuno's quirk, "It was too big to steal before, but if it's this small, it's not a problem."

Tabe jumped back as Hojo rushed in, punching Amajiki with a fully crystallized arm, not noticing that Amajiki had grabbed one of the broken crystal shards with his mouth, "We're trash, but we have strong bonds as trash."

"You will all be arrested soon..." Amajiki muttered, swallowing the crystal shard; luckily, the shard wasn't too sharp, even if it was difficult to swallow, "Even if you beat me, you have no future..."

"What about it?" Setsuno asked nonchalantly, as Hojo shrugged, "We haven't had a future for a while. One was unable to fit into society and was thrown away. One was betrayed by his lover and made to bear various debts. One was used as a tool by someone obsessed with money, but when it was discovered that the gems he produced were worthless fakes, he was called useless and was beaten half to death. To us, that man said "Come join us. You aren't someone who should rot away in a place like this." Who cares about what happens after this? For the man who gave use worth, I'll kill anyone who stands in his way!"

"Do you really want to be used and thrown away?" Amajiki asked, but Hojo just created another layer of crystals over his arm, "A hero can't understand. Can you take this with your back against the wall?"

Amajiki grit his teeth, before transforming his foot into a talon and kicking a broken shard of crystal at Setsuno's eye. _I'll throw off their teamwork from the start. Larceny only works on things he can see. That's why police can't point their guns at him._

Hojo tried to hit Amajiki with his crystalized arm, but Amajiki just manifested the crystal he had just eaten, using it to block the attack. He used the crystals in tandem with his talons, grabbing Hojo firmly. Tabe tried to avoid Hoji, not willing to eat Hojo, but Amajiki just smashed Hoji's crystalised back into Tabe and Setsuno, knocking them all out.

_You had good teamwork where you trusted each other. I can't understand your circumstances or anger or sadness, but I do understand your strong bonds. You're not just using each other, right? You can't eat your friends._

Amajiki quickly manifested another octopus tentacle filled with neurotoxins, binding the three yakuza members up, and removed their masks, "Octopus poison should be in your bodies now. You won't die, but you probably won't be able to walk very well for a while. Also, I took off your masks, I don't know what's built into them. But that took too long. I need to go -"

Suddenly, Amajiki's legs gave way, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

**End note: Hakryuen is 火悪竜陰, and japanese for phoenix is kyoi (驚異). Yes, I used google translate, so not the most accurate, but hey, I tried.**


	79. Chapter 79 - A dark sunrise

"Fat Gum? You're going to leave him alone like that?! What are you thinking?!" Kirishima yelled, confused, as Rock Lock faced Toyomitsu, "He's from your agency, so I left that decision to you, but frankly speaking, isn't he in trouble?"

Toyomitsu spoke up, "He's stronger than anyone here, but he's weak emotionally. He crushed himself with the pressure to do things perfectly. He climbed up to become part of UA's Big Three under those conditions. Someone like that declared that he could completely shut them down! So all I can do is leave it to him!"

Kirishima sighed, "I wonder if he's alright...I can't help but worry about him..."

"His kouhai doesn't believe in him... well, even if he says that he's okay, he hasn't shown much to support that, so it can't be helped..." Toyomitsu muttered, before shouting, "But once you've left him to guard your back, you'll trust him to do it if you're a man!"

The second Kirishima heard the word _man_, he growled, "I'm sure he'll be fine!"

Rock Lock sweatdropped, "That just makes you seem like someone who's easily swayed."

"I may be worried, but all we can do now is trust him!" Kirishima countered, "We can't waste a second of the time that Suneater got for us! All right!"

"It's strange that the guy who was moving the basement hasn't shown any movement." Aizawa muttered, and Kirishima looked around, "Now that you mention it... nothing's moving.

"If he's not putting obstacles in our way while we're running, then Mimic may not be able to observe and control the entire basement. There's also that police squad that remained above; maybe Mimic's focussing his attention on them." Aizawa replied.

"Are you saying that he's limited in the area he can keep tabs on?" Rock Lock asked, and Aizawa shrugged, "It's just a guess. He went into the basement to control it. If it's not that he has been assimilated into it, but he's moving around inside the walls to see and hear what's going on, then when he's manipulating the basement, it's possible that his body is also close. If an eye or ear from his main body is peeking through to try and block us, then I can see him."

Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and a giant fist erupted from the wall, crashing into Aizawa.

"Eraser!" Kirishima yelped, turning around, as a hole opened up on the wall. Toyomitsu quickly jumped in, pushing Aizawa out of the way, allowing himself to be pushed into the hole, "If we let this guy do what he wants, the time Tamaki got for us will be wasted! Eraser, go get him!"

Toyomitsu rolled to the bottom of the hole, the fat in his body absorbing most of the impact. He pushed himself up, only to find that he was nearly crushing Kirishima beneath him, "Why are you here?!"

"Uh... I also jumped out to try and protect Aizawa-sensei..." Kirishima admitted, "I thought I wouldn't take any damage, but then, I sank into your fat."

Toyomitsu sighed, "Well, I guess it can't be helped. More importantly, brace yourself."

Suddenly, out of the darkness, a tall man ran out, and Kirishima immediately activated his quirk. _Don't blame me if that fist is smashed to pieces!_

Much to Kirishima's surprise, Rappa's punch just knocked him away, sending the redhead flying. Rappa delivered a series of punches at Toyomitsu, but the hero was able to tank them with his fat.

Kirishima crashed into a wall, his hardened skin starting to fall apart from the impact, as Kirishima gazed at his arms in shock.

"You know what I think? It's boring to use guns or blades in a fight." Rappa smirked, "Anyone who has those can win. That's not a real fight. It's better to kill each other using the power living inside you. I wonder if you understand."

Toyomitsu growled, "What do you think you're doing!?" He reared up a punch, but his attack was stopped by a barrier, courtesy of Tengai.

"Huh? A barrier? What is this?" Toyomitsu asked, confused, as Tengai walked out of the shadows calmly, "Fat Gum, and a boy who can harden his body. Both have quirks that are good at defense. Too bad, Rappa."

Rappa just charged in again with a flurry of punches, but Toyomitsu stood his ground and managed to tank them.

_For this much shock to get through even my fat... it's like a bullet... they're not on the quirk list we got... are they from outside; a rush attack of bullets and a barrier? They'll be an annoying pair to fight,_ Toyomitsu thought, as Rappa straightened up, "Good at defense? They didn't get away unscathed. Well, I guess it's good enough that they didn't turn into mincemeat."

"We're a spear and a shield." Tengai said, "In contrast, you two are just two shields. Though... I don't know if that boy can even be called a shield."

"Huh?" Rappa asked, annoyed, "What kind of fight is that?"

Kirishima tried to stand up, hissing in pain, "My arm... cracked? Ow... I couldn't tank all of it..."

_If another barrage like that comes... I won't be able to take it... I thought that I'd gotten stronger... damn it..._

"Don't let go of your Unbreakable!" Toyomitsu yelled encouragingly, "If even your spirit breaks, then you really have lost! When fighting villains, it's a matter of how fast you can make them lose their will to fight! You can't lose your will before them! Let's blow these small fry away and go back to the others!"

_That's right... back then, during the training camp, Midoriya was super manly and refused to give up, even though he was hugely outclassed by Muscular... and still managed to beat him... And Mina... easily saving those two girls when I was too scared to even move... if I can't stand up now, then I have no right to face anyone else!_ Kirishima thought, as he struggled to push himself to his feet.

"They're planning to beat us. Isn't that great, Rappa?" Tengai spoke up, creating another barrier, and Rappa grinned beneath his mask, "You understand? What a great fat guy! Tengai, I'm starting to have fun!"

Rappa knocked on the barrier mockingly, "Get rid of this. Don't use it. It's not like I need a barrier in the first place!"

Tengai calmly shifted into a fighting stance, "Don't wallow in your own desires. Don't forget what Master Overhaul said. This is an excellent matchup. We will win for certain with our teamwork."

Rappa just sighed in indignation, before throwing a barrage of attacks at Tengai, only for the latter to block it with his barriers, "What are you planning to do, you fighting maniac?"

"Overjerk decided that we were a team without even asking." Rappa grumbled, and Tengai calmly replied, "It's not Overjerk. It's Master Overhaul."

"I don't care! As long as I can fight to the death, I don't give a shit." Rappa snapped.

Tengai merely sighed, and removed the barrier separating the two Yakuza from the heroes, "Then do whatever you want, if you think that you can take care of them by yourself."

"You understand? What a great recluse!" Rappa cheered, before rushing at Toyomitsu with another barrage of punches. Toyomitsu was pushed back slightly, but he managed to tank it.

_If I close the distance between us, it'll be impossible to dodge. On top of that, it's such a strong shock that even with my Absorption, I'd get hurt. He'll just eat away at all my defences slowly until I'm done. They were fighting earlier, but I'm sure that if the one called Rappa is in danger, the other one... Tengai? Was that his name? He would put up a barrier. It felt like an iron wall when I punched that. I won't be able to do anything about it with my power. If I don't do anything about him, we can't win. And despite what I said, Kirishima took a lot of damage... I have no choice but to do it. If I don't do it right, I'll die, but if I don't even do it, I'll die for sure!_

Toyomitsu growled, "He called you Rappa, right? It's been a while since any attack's had an effect on me! I was a hardcore martial arts guy back in the day, too! Let's see if you'll stop being able to raise your arm first, or if I'll stop being able to take your hits first! A spear and a shield. Let's have a match to see who's stronger, Rappa!"

"You really are a great, fat guy!" Rappa grinned, "Tengai, what about your barrier?"

"I won't put it up." Tengai sighed.

"Yeah! You guys are all great guys!" Rappa gleefully cheered, before charging at Toyomitsu with a multitude of punches, trying his best to tank the attacks. Oh man... that hurts... He's getting faster and faster... Maybe I won't make it in time?

"Don't disappoint me, fat guy!" Rappa yelled, "Don't pass out on me yet! My shoulder's finally warmed up!"

Rappe delivered another flurry of punches at Toyomitsu, as Kirishima just watched on helplessly from behind.

_What can I do? What can I do right now? Fat Gum's going to die! Don't you have anything else? Don't you have anything left after they break _through _your Hardening? Can't you do anything?_ Kirishima wanted to be helpful, but he knew that he couldn't just jump in blindly, or he'd just be more of a hindrance.

_When you're scared... when your life is on the line... your true colours show. Facing a life or death situation and being able to take a step on top of that... is what makes someone hero material._

But he didn't know what to do. He didn't know what else he could do. Without his hardening... he was useless.

_Useless._

"That boy... is already done for. His eyes are filled with fear." Tengai sighed, turning his attention back to the brawl between Rappa and Toyomitsu.

"You're kidding, right? You can still keep going, can't you?" Rappa tried to encourage Toyomitsu, who was doing his best to keep standing. I bet you thought I was a shield, but that'll be fatal for you. _All the attacks you gave me have been absorbed and sunken into my body. Because I'm using so much energy to sink and _suppress _them, I'm burning up so much fat from my shield. My defense is getting thinner, but the stored-up attacks will become a spear that can punch through any shield! That's how it is, but my shield's been cut down more than I expected... I can't make something equal to what I've stored up..._

"Rappa! He's up to something!" Tengai yelled, "Hurry up and finish him!"

_"Don't ever hesitate. If you do, you'll regret it, and the pain of doing so will hurt you more than anything."_

Midoriya's words echoed in his mind. Midoriya had easily seen through his happy, carefree facade, and had tried to give him advice. Midoriya, who always kept to himself, and never said anything save for several words. Midoriya was right; the pain of being useless, the pain he felt when he saw Toyomitsu tanking all of Rappa's attacks, it hurt much more than the pain of his hardened skin breaking apart and peeling off.

_I've been _through _a lot of scary things up until now. but even more that that, I've always been scared..._

"I want to see it! If you're alive, then show it to me!" Rappa growled, ready to launch one last flurry of attacks, but Kirishima leapt in between them, fully prepared to tank Rappa's attacks.

_I won't regret anything! I will become a hero who can protect! __If it cracks, then harden it again! Bear it! Protect! _

"You were blown away so easily earlier... But you're pretty great too!" Rappa yelled in glee. Kirishima tried to counterattack, but a barrier suddenly appeared between Rappa and Kirishima, deflecting the redhead's hardened fist.

"What's with the barrier?!" Rappa growled, but Tengai merely replied, "Of course I'm putting it up! Things done in vain should just fall in front of my defense."

"It wasn't in vain." Toyomitsu grinned, catching Kirishima with one arm as the teen fell, "Thanks a lot, Rappa! I've become a great spear!"

The pro hero pushed all the stored power into his free arm, and Rappa yelled, "Tengai! Take down the barrier!"

"There's one reason for your defeat! You guys underestimated our greatest, hardest defense!" Toyomitsu growled, as his fist started glowing, and Rappa snarled at Tengai, "It's no use, the barrier's going to break!"

"You guys, and I, as well, underestimated the hero named Red Riot and his chivalrous spirit!" Toyomitsu yelled, smashing through Tengai's barrier and knocking both Rappa and Tengai into the wall.

"In this spear and shield battle, we are the winners." Toyomitsu declared, and Kirishima grinned tiredly, before he closed his eyes, thoroughly exhausted.

"Red? Red Riot? Can you hear me? Red?" Toyomitsu turned his attention to Kirishima, worried for the teen, as the redhead slowly opened his eyes, slightly dizzy, "Who... who are you?"

"It's me! Fat Gum! I'm committed to the result! Figure it out from the context!" Toyomitsu yelped, trying to explain himself, as Kirishima muttered, "I... I'll protect you... I'll... do whatever I can... like... Crimson Riot..."

Tears welled up in Toyomitsu's eyes, "You tried so hard that you ended up like this... You've done enough..."

"Not enough..." Rappa growled, pushing himself up, "It's a battle to the death. I'm... not dead... yet... The barrier's turned into a cushion, huh? Even so... "

Toyomitsu gulped, _He's too tough! I don't have any more fat... and I've used up all my stamina... What should I do?_

"We can at least do first aid in the back room. Treat that kid... no, wait... that man over there." Rappa spoke up, and Toyomitsu blinked at him, stunned, trying to process what Rappa had just said.

"Must be a trap..." Toyomitsu muttered, as Rappa deadpanned, "Do I look like a man who'd set up a trap?"

"Rappa! Don't act on your own!" Tengai groaned, trying to stand up, "It's my job to keep you under control! Follow my instructions!"

"Huh?" Rappa growled, as Tengai walked towards him, "Think about why a beast who only craves violence can even be in this place! What's your duty, Ra-"

Rappa just pushed him to the ground, pinning him down with his foot, "You don't even have the strength to put up a barrier, do you? Then shut up. Although... I've got broken bones, too, and can't lift my arm."

"What do you want to do?" Toyomitsu asked suspiciously, and Rappa replied, "Fight. To the death. I come from the world of MMA. You must have at least heard of it, right? A fight club where you can use your quirks to the fullest. There weren't many who could stand up again after taking my fist, and those who could would always start begging for their lives. YOu understand, right? The pain of not being able to do what you want?! The power that only comes when your life is at stake?! The fight that comes from that! That's why it was great! You guys were really great! Especially the redhead! I like you! Let's have another match! Heal your wounds! I'll kill you properly next time!"

"You're going to be arrested and put into the slammer later, you know. Do you get it? There is no next time. You've lost." Toyomitsu growled, but Rappa just shrugged, "Who cares? If no one died, then it's a draw!"

"It's not a draw. Why are you trying to be sportsmanlike now?" Toyomitsu muttered. Is it the policy of an eccentric? He's so devoted to his urges that you know he has no ulterior motive. Either way, with these wounds, it'll be hard to meet up with Nighteye's group.

Toyomitsu turned to Kirishima, and picked him up gently, "You called yourself pathetic at first, and seeing that, Tamaki introduced you to me. I get it now. Someone who knows their own weakness... I showed you a pathetic side of myself, but right now, you've been acknowledged not just by me, but by the enemy."

"I want to do this again properly... with that man." Rappa grinned, opening the door to the back room.

* * *

They were eating lunch in the cafeteria when Ashido let out an ear piercing yell.

"Are you okay, Mina?" Kaminari asked, turning to the pinkette, as Iida hastily berated, "Mina! We're still in school! We may be eating lunch, but regardless you should not be using your phone!"

"Not important at the moment, Class Rep!" Ashido yelled, shoving her phone in Iida's face, "People were actually digging into Midoriya's background, and posted it on some forums! I thought it was just a rumour; I didn't think it was actually real!"

"Wait... what?" Shinsou asked, as Ashido passed him her phone, replying, "It's true. All sorts of links to old archives and newspaper articles. One of them even managed to get an x-ray or something... but I'm not sure if it's legit or not. Most of it isn't that interesting... but these two links here..."

Shinsou clicked on one of them, confused, before the headlines to the article popped up. The date was from eight years ago, and Shinsou was still pretty confused, until he read the rest of the article, "He... Izuku... he lost his parents? In a fire..?"

"Yeah... apparently..." Ashido's shoulders drooped, "It's really sad."

"Wait... eight years ago?" Todoroki leaned over Shinsou's shoulder, doing the calculations mentally, "That's when we were all seven..."

"He lost his parents... when he was seven..." Iida bit his lip, not even mad that some of the other students had taken out their phones to find the site that Ashido had been on. Koda's expression drooped, as Shinsou clicked out of the article to find the other link.

Todoroki's eyes visibly widened, as Iida openly gaped, "What... he fell off a building?"

"The year says that it's from six years ago... when he was nine." Todoroki muttered, scrolling down to read the rest of the article. Shinsou's eyes trailed to the date, and he clenched his fists. It was only a month after Midoriya, as Void, had saved him. What on earth had happened in that one month!?

"The article said it was an accident... though..." Kaminari spoke up, and Ashido shook her head, "Yeah, but first, he'd have to climb up to the roof of the school, right? Assuming that was even his elementary school..."

"It can't be... suicide... right?" Yaoyorozu asked, horrified, but Shinsou just looked away, "It could have been... Like I said, before we went to Kamino... when you have a quirk that is deemed useless or villainous... or you don't even have a quirk at all... "

Iida thought for a minute, before he turned back to the class, "I think we should ask the principal about this."

Sero raised an eyebrow, "The principal? Why not Aizawa-sensei, when he comes back from... whatever he's doing now?"

"Trust me. The principal would know more about this than all of us. We can just ask Mic-sensei later, when he takes over our homeroom lesson from Aizawa-sensei."

* * *

"Two went ahead... but they can be ignored..." Mimic mused, before turning to the pro heroes, "But those guys need to be stopped. There are only a few minutes left of my boost. In that case, I have to do it. We have fallen into heresy. We can't just stand still."

"Hurry! We need to catch up to Mirio and Midoriya!" Sasaki yelled, when suddenly, the ceiling started dipping down like melted wax. The ground started rippling, and the heroes and police officers turned around. Aizawa hissed, "They're coming nearer."

"It feels like we'll be crushed to death..." Rock Lock growled, as he reached out to touch the wall with his palm, before rotating his hand, locking the wall in place with his quirk, "Deadbolt! Things that I lockdown will get locked in place."

After securing the corridor, Rock Lock nodded, letting the pros and police officers pass through, "This way! The area won't move anymore! Don't complain about how cramped it is. I can't hold that many spots with this Security Max Deadbolt! This is the limit of my powers!"

There was a rumbling behind them, and suddenly, concrete started rushing down towards them.

"He's coming at us again from the places I haven't locked down." Rock Lock growled, running towards the wave of concrete. He leapt forwards, locking the concrete in place with his quirk, and Aizawa yanked the hero back before he collided with the newly formed wall.

Reiko perked up, and growled, before starting to run down the hallway.

"He left his cat here?" Sasaki asked, Rock Lock growled, "It's just a cat! That doesn't matter now! If the Fat team were here... it's go even more smoothly. Or if we had someone with a strength augmenting quirk."

"Or Cementoss. Also, Reiko is a her, not an it, and she can help us." Aizawa muttered, looking around the room, "Anyways, Mimic's probably pinpointing our location and aiming for it specifically. Where is he watching from? Inside the wall?"

Mimic broke down the previously locked down section of cement and tried to smash the heroes again. Rock Lock just locked it down again, with Aizawa reeling him back to avoid the impact.

"It's only going to get worse..." Rock Lock panted, trying to keep his quirk up, "We can't keep doing this."

Suddenly, the wave of concrete receded, leaving the heroes and police in a large misshapen corridor, and an officer yelped, "It opened up? What are they planning this time?"

Reiko looked around, before jumping backwards as two slabs of concrete fell from the ceiling, separating Rock Lock, Aizawa and Reiko, and Sasaki and the police.

"Why separate us now?!" Aizawa growled,

"Hey, everyone! You okay?" Rock Lock asked, and Sasaki mused, "The wall isn't that thick."

"Did they change methods because they weren't able to crush us to death?" An officer asked.

"It makes it easier for us to move, though..." Another officer replied.

"There will be more than enough to make up for it, I'm sure." Sasaki spoke up, "Be careful. It's coming. The next move."

"Be quiet. Whose fault is that?" Rock Lock snarked, as Toga dropped down from the ceiling. Rock Lock was barely able to react in time as Toga stabbed her knife at him, with the blade impaling his hand. He immediately locked the knife down as Toga tried to yank it out of his hand, causing her to crash into the hero.

"This is theLeague of Villains!?" Rock Lock growled, punching Toga in the stomach, only for Toga to melt away into brown goop.

The real Toga grinned, and dropped down from the ceiling, wrapping her legs around Rock Lock's waist as she covered the hero's mouth with her hand, "Shh... you're wrong. Right now, I'm Toga from the organized crime group that's obsolete, and should be a protected species. We're the bad guys."

She dug her knife into Rock Lock's back.

"Rock Lock! What's wrong?" Aizawa yelled, before he kicked the wall down. Luckily, the wall wasn't too thick, and he easily broke through, only to find that there was a downed Rock Lock on the ground, bleeding from the back, with another Rock Lock couched on the ground.

"A fake suddenly appeared and attacked me!" Rock Lock turned around, but Reiko just snarkled and leapt at the pro hero, attempting to claw his eyes out. She didn't like Rock Lock, but she knew which one was real, and which was fake.

Sasaki had also kicked down the thin concrete wall separating them, and he passed through the small chamber that Aizawa had been, only to find Reiko mauling the pro hero. He and the police had heard what Rock Lock had said, and were utterly confused.

"Uh... why is the cat attacking Rock Lock?" An officer asked.

They were even more confused when Aizawa attacked the Rock Lock that Reiko had been attacking, letting the feline fall back. "Wait! Eraser! Rock Lock said that one was the fake!" A police officer pointed at the bleeding Rock Lock on the ground, but Aizawa merely replied, "I trust the cat."

He activated his quirk, and Toga's disguise peeled off, just as she tried to slash at him with her knife.

"Toga Himiko!" An officer screamed, as Aizawa narrowly avoided the knife.

"Toga! Yeah, it's me, Toga!" The villain cheerfully replied, as she shot towards the police, "Hey, where's Izu-kun? I thought he was here with you? Oh, yeah, Chisaki sent someone out to shoot him! Is he dead? Is he bleeding?"

Aizawa quickly grabbed onto her with his capture weapon, yanking her backwards, "That's it for you, Toga Himiko!"

Toga just pouted, and turned around, grabbing onto Aizawa's capture weapon. She used the capture weapon as leverage to flip around. She tried to stab a knife into Aizawa's back, only for Reiko to leap in, scratching Toga's hand as she snatched the knife right out of the villain's hands with her teeth.

"Eraser!" Sasaki growled, as Aizawa hastily took a knife out and slashed at Toga, only for him to only hit her cheek. Aizawa turned around and kicked Toga into the wall, growling.

"This teamwork... the League and the Eight Precepts have a framework for cooperation set up." Aizawa mused, as Reiko flicked her tail and brought the knife she had taken from Toga to the Erasure hero.

"Thanks, Reiko." Aizawa patted the feline on the head, as he went to check up on Rock Lock. The hero was still conscious, and had been watching the fight, and he muttered, "Did... cat... knife...?"

"Told you that Reiko could help us." Aizawa snarkily replied, as Reiko patted Rock Lock on the head smugly, before turning her attention to the corner of the room.

Suddenly, the walls disappeared, and a hole opened up, letting Bubaigawara and Rappa into the corridor. Sasaki stepped in front of Aizawa and Rock Lock, as Reiko peered at Rappa curiously.

"I'm getting excited!" Bubaigawara cheered, before peering down at the heroes, "Man, I was wondering what kind of hero we'd get. Sure, the eraser guy and locking one are cool, but this guy? He's like a normal businessman. And a cat?! Don't underestimate the yakuza, bastard! Get them, Big Bro Rappa!"

Rappa sent a flurry of punches towards Sasaki, but the pro merely pushed his glasses up and dropped to the ground, sweeping Rappa off his feet. Rappa did manage to slice off a small portion of Sasaki's suit, and the hero asked, "You grazed me?"

"You're pretty strong." Rappa complimented, but Sasaki just threw three stamp-shaped seals at Rappa, knocking the yakuza into the wall and destroying the clone.

"He melted! That yakuza's useless!" Bubaigawara yelled.

"What just happened?" An officer asked, and Sasaki took out two more seals, "These are battle support items, high-density personal seals. They weigh about five kilograms each. They go with my businessman appearance and are quite humorous items, don't you think? "Make a prediction and move first." Perhaps because I have seen the futures of so many, I'm able to do that a little faster than others during close combat. But I didn't predict this. I didn't think that the famous League of Villains would support mere yakuza."

Sasaki threw the two seals at Bubaigawara, slicing a part of his mask off, causing the villain to panic and run off, "Ouch! Damn it, you bastard!"

Sasaki tried to chase after him, but a wall dropped down from the ceiling, separating Bubaigawara from Sasaki. Bubaigawara yelled, "The wall's too fast! If you were a little later, I would have been done in, slowpoke yakuza! We're helping you, so you should do your best too!"

Bubaigawara fell to his knees, attempting to pull his broken mask over his face as he tried to pull himself together, "Because of you, my mask is... this is bad... It's bad... I'm going to split... All right! I'm going to tear apart! No I won't! I need to wrap it up... or I'm going to split into two..."

Toga popped out of nowhere, and took out a pink handkerchief, tying it around the portion of Bubaigawara's mask that had torn, pouting, "Once you've wrapped up, you become one, right? We're doing all this to help them, too! Those organized crime guys are just meanies!"

"Date me, Toga." Bubaigawara was close to crying.

"It's sad, isn't it?" Toga patted Bubaigawara's cheek, "You feel the most responsible for Big Sis Magne's death, don't you? Even so, you're bearing it and helping them like it was decided. It's so sad, isn't it, Jin? If the group you're helping is hopeless, then you won't get rewarded."

Behind the mask, Bubaigawara smirked. If Shigaraki was trusting them to deal with the Yakuza, why not get the heroes to do all the dirty work for them?

"This is why the yakuza are dying out!" Bubaigawara mocked, and Toga grinned cheekily, "They really are hopeless! I'm sure it's because your real leader is a bedridden old man!"

Mimic snapped, and screamed, and the ground started rippling again.

"What's going on!?" Aizawa growled, as Bubaigawara cheered, "Big Bro Irinaka sure gets mad easily!

"Wimpy guys are the most short-tempered!" Toga jeered, as a huge hole opened up beneath the two villains, "If you get mad, your warnings become half-hearted!"

"Crush! And kill them all!" Mimic growled, "I won't forgive those who make fools out of us! Crush the mall to death!"

"That yell..." Aizawa looked up at the ceiling, as one of the police officers helped Rock Lock up.

"Something big moved with the voice." Sasaki nodded, looking around, "It's probably Mimic. But the sound's echoing around too much. "

"This is bad... we'll be crushed!" The officer in charge growled.

"Wimpy guys always want to hide how weak they are! They want to make themselves look strong, so they look down on others from above! Organized crime guys are really lame, don't you think!?" Toga continued to mock Mimic, prompting the yakuza to scream out in anger.

Reiko perked up at the sound, looking towards a hole in the wall, and tried to make her way towards it. Sasaki immediately noticed where she was heading, and noticed the wall out of the corner of his eye.

"Eraser!" Sasaki yelled, jumping onto a tendril of concrete that had erupted from the ground and throwing a few more seals towards the hole. They only broke off a small portion of the concrete, but it was more than enough for Aizawa to activate his quirk on Mimic. The floor stopped shifting around, as the concrete crumbled, causing Mimic to fall to the ground.

"Sorry, yakuza! I think we'll do what we want after all!" Bubaigawara yelled, "Bye!"

"Bastards!" Mimic yelled, but Sasaki just threw another seal at his neck, knocking the yakuza out. Aizawa easily caught Mimic with his capture weapon, before looking up to where Bubaigawara and Toga had been standing, "We've been used, it seems."

"That did put an end to the maze." Sasaki muttered, "Come on. We need to go find Mirio and Midoriya."

"It's nice that the living maze is gone now..." The officer in charge said, "But it's hard to tell where we are now."

"I know what direction Eri's room is in." Sasaki spoke up, and the officer turned to the restrained Mimic, "Irinaka! Put the walls back in order! Hurry!"

Mimic was panting from exertion, and the officer growled, "Hey!"

"The drugs probably wore off." Aizawa sighed, "Fat Gum's guess was right. Irinaka doesn't have enough power to do that anymore."

"But there's still Toga and Twice... The League of Villains must be hiding somewhere!"

"Toga... Twice..." Mimic growled, struggling against his restraints, and unknown to the heroes, he slipped another smaller red vial out of his pocket, "I won't forgive you! You traitors!"

"Where are the other League members?" Sasaki asked, and Mimic spat, "The hell if I know! I'll definitely find them all! I'll break open the skulls of all those League bastards!"

"Those two were the only ones." Sasaki deduced, and the rest of the police surveyed the area, "There's no sign of the League coming to attack us... but it's hard to believe they're on our side just because they betrayed Irinaka."

"The League of Villains is wanted by police across the country. As police officers, we cannot just ignore them." The officer in charge raised his gun, as Rock Lock groaned, "What are you standing around talking for!? Ignore them and move forward! Leave the League to the police! What's our top priority!?"

Suddenly, a screech echoed down the hallway, and the faint flapping of wings could be heard. Reiko perked up at the noise, as the heroes and police all tensed up, ready for a threat.

Ryuto flew down the hallway, and stopped when he was right in front of Aizawa. He hovered in midair, and the Erasure hero could easily see that there was a gun and a red box in the hawk's talons.

Aizawa stretched out his hand, and Ryuto deposited the box and gun in his hand, before flying over to perch on Sasaki's shoulder. The Erasure hero examined the gun, before deeming it an ordinary gun, and passed it to the police.

He opened the red box, seeing some dart-like bullets inside, and Aizawa bit his lip; one bullet was missing.

"The bullets." Sasaki took a look at the box, before passing them over to the police, "We need to find them, now."

"Just go! Either way, someone has to stay behind to restrain Irinaka. Thanks to that Toga girl, it'll be hard for me to jump around now." Rock Lock tilted his head towards the corridor, "If you get it, then hurry up and move your legs! We've gotten this far, and we're almost there! Don't waste the time that everyone's worked hard to get!"

Aizawa nodded, and headed down the hallway that Ryuto had flown in from, with Sasaki, Reiko, and the police behind him.


	80. Chapter 80 - Black hole in the sky

"Excuse me, but can I ask you some questions?" Togata asked, having finally caught up to Chisaki and Chronostasis, with Eri in his grasp. When Togata had realized that Midoriya was chasing after him, he switched between One for All and Permeation, easily slipping through the walls while creating holes that were large enough for Midoriya to use. Sure, it was more tiring than just outrightly permeating through the wall, but he couldn't just leave Midoriya behind. Plus, Midoriya's sharp mind would no doubt be useful when trying to save Eri from Chisaki.

Midoriya was panting slightly, but he climbed through the hole that Togata had just made, allowing him to catch up to the head of the yakuza. Eri's eyes widened when she saw Midoriya behind Togata, but she bit her lip, not wanting to make a sound.

"You two shouldn't have been able to get here so quickly, but you did knock down the walls..." Chisaki muttered in disdain, staring at Midoriya, clearly disturbed by the boy's presence. Togata growled, "We're here to rescue that girl."

"Now that you know the situation, you two are putting on your hero masks, huh?" Chisaki muttered, "You were pretending not to see, weren't you? The girl doesn't want you to rescue her. To her, you two aren't heroes."

"That's why we're here." Togata replied, determined, but Chisaki just sighed, "I'm not getting through to you. Let me make this simpler. I'm telling you to die."

Togata and Midoriya charged towards Chisaki, when suddenly, it felt like the entire room was shifting. Togata lost his balance and fell over, but Midoriya managed to catch himself in time.

The greenette looked around the room, noticing a skinny man with a fluffy vest drinking sake as he clung to the ceiling. The man cackled as he slurred, "Are you sloshed...? Your legs look... shaky. Mine are, too! That's why I'm... walking up here! Don't get... close... to me! You'll catch... my drunkenness..."

_Sakaki Deidoro. Quirk: Sloshed. It makes people lose their sense of balance._ Midoriya thought; he remembered this guy's quirk from the paper from earlier, but he really didn't think he'd be too much of a problem. Having fought villains before while being drugged, either from villains' quirks of his foster family playing tricks on him, really came in handy.

Either way, it was disgusting how the sake was just dripping to the ground, and Midoriya stepped away from the growing puddle on the ground.

"Eri's right over there... we can't let a guy like this take us down..." Togata muttered.

Suddenly, Togata activated his quirk, as a bullet shot right through him. Midoriya swerved to the side as a bullet flew right past his neck, noticing a man in a black cape and a black plague mask walking out of the shadows.

"The green haired one is quirkless, so, what's your quirk?" The man asked Togata. The blonde was about to answer, when Midoriya's hand shot out, covering Togata's mouth and preventing him from speaking. Togata didn't know why, but he felt compelled, or forced, to answer, and would have probably blurted out the truth about One for All and Permeation if Midoriya hadn't stopped him in time.

"Huh. That kid knows my quirk." Nemoto muttered, "You must have some kind of strength enhancing quirk if you can just smash your way through the walls."

"You missed. Are you drunk?" Sakaki grumbled, throwing his bottle at Nemoto, only for the latter to swat it away, "That would be you."

"Me?" Sakaki asked, confused, as Nemoto replied, "You should just be quiet and support the extraordinary me."

"Tch... they're trying to force me to talk..." Togata growled, "But you aren't the type to stand in the front lines."

"Hence, I am different from the other dispensable pawns." Nemoto smugly replied, "In the Eight Precepts, I'm the only one who's been allowed to get close to the young boss' ambition."

Nemoto fired off two more shots, but the bullets just slipped through Togata. Nemoto turned his head, confused, "The bullets went through him?"

He fired off two more bullets at Midoriya, but Midoriya was easily able to deflect them by observing where he was pointing the barrel of the gun.

"How can it be called ambition if he's using his own daughter!?" Togata snapped, Nemoto cocked his head in confusion, "Hmm? Oh, in order for things to proceed smoothly, emotions are unnecessary. You may not understand that, but you, the green haired one, you understand that well, don't you? What do you think?"

Midoriya tried to resist the urge to answer the question, but Confession forced him to answer, "Emotions are worthless. They just cloud your thought process, and disrupt your judgment."

"Ah, he does understand." Nemoto proudly declared, as Togata glanced at Midoriya, worried for the younger's state of mind. Midoriya didn't seem too bothered by the fact that he had just replied to the statement, though, as Nemoto continued, "When you first encountered Eri, you let it go once because of that, right? And then you probably guessed what our plan was, and regretted it. Rescue Eri? You just want to use her as a cover to make yourself feel better."

Midoriya easily saw through Nemoto's words; he could tell that the yakuza was trying to break their spirit.

"I live for the young boss' ambition. He needs me! I must follow him! We'll walk together! We'll share the joy when it's realized! Now! Die, nuisance!" Nemoto fired off a bullet at Togata, as Sakaki threw two knives at Midoriya, but the bullet just passed through Togata, and Midoriya deflected the knives back at Sakaki. Togata dove into the wall as Midoriya rushed at Nemoto. Sakaki was forced to swerve to avoid the knives, as Nemoto tried to shoot Midoriya down, but the boy was able to avoid the shots effortlessly; Nemoto was just too obvious in where he was trying to aim.

Togata burst out of the wall, crashing into Sakaki, before activating his quirk to bounce off the wall. He used a bit of One for All to increase his speed, as he used the unique ejective property of his quirk to repeatedly catapult himself around, phasing through Midoriya and only making contact with Sasaki and Nemoto, as the smaller boy easily snagged the two yakuza's weapons, disarming them, "Ultimate move: Phantom Menace!"

Togata nodded at Midoriya, and partially phased through Midoriya as the green haired boy stood his ground. Togata released his quirk, repelling himself forwards, directly towards Sakaki and Nemoto, knocking them both out with a punch to the gut, before shooting towards Chisaki.

Togata was pretty confident that he could have taken them down on his own with Phantom Menace, but with Midoriya's help, they probably managed to cut that time down in half. They needed to chase after Chisaki and Eri, and every second counts. Plus, Midoriya didn't seem to be too bothered by Sakaki's quirk, for some reason.

Togata quickly phased through the ground, as Midoriya raced forwards, his footsteps drawing Chisaki and Chronostasis' attention. Just as Chisaki turned around, Togata emerged from the ground behind him, attempting to kick the yakuza. Chisaki managed to dodge the blow, and was forced to jump away from Togata as Midoriya threw a knife at him, the blade just grazing the yakuza's cheek.

Togata shifted in midair, his foot phasing through Eri as he kicked Chronostasis in the face, forcing the villain to drop the girl. The blonde quickly swerved, as Chisaki tried to attack him, but Midoriya ran in, sliding past Chisaki and Chronostasis, and catching Eri just before she hit the ground.

Togata found some proper footing, and turned to check on Eri as the girl curled into herself, in fear for what Chisaki would do, "You actually... came... but you guys can't be here... he'll kill you!"

Midoriya gently patted Eri's arm, "He won't."

"Yeah. It's fine!" Togata nodded, before turning to Chisaki and Chronostasis, as the latter picked himself off the ground.

"How filthy..." Chisaki spat, trying to rub the dirt off his face, "Come back, Eri. Killed? How many times do I have to tell you? You _break_ people. That's how you were born."

The familiar feeling of anger bubbled up from Midoriya's gut, and the green haired boy wrapped his arms around Eri protectively.

"No... you shouldn't..." Eri tried to reason with Midoriya, to make him let her go, but Togata just said, "You don't have to listen to him."

Midoriya just leaned down and whispered, so softly that even Togata wasn't too sure what he was saying, "There's no such thing as being _born_ to do something bad."

"Aren't I always telling you? I have to get my hands dirty because of your selfishness. Each and every action you take kills people. You're cursed." Chisaki growled, and Togata turned to him, growling, "How can you say that to your own child?!"

"Huh? Oh, I see. That's the story I told you... I don't have any children." Chisaki crouched down, peeling off a glove, but Midoriya spotted the small action and flung one of the knives he had stolen from Sakaki at him.

Chisaki just leaned to the side, avoiding the blade, and pressed his hand to the ground, easily breaking the ground apart with his quirk and reshaping it into stone spikes. But ground the sound of the rumbling, Midoriya could predict where the spikes would emerge from, though he was barely able to dodge the spikes since he didn't know which direction the spikes would be facing. Togata was also able to avoid most of the damage with his quirk.

"He didn't care that she's here..." Togata growled, as Chisaki replied, "Yeah, it wouldn't have been an impediment even if she broke."

Midoriya clenched his fists, as he slid under another stone spike with Eri in his arms. He needed to relay information to Togata, but with so much dust and rocks flying around, Togata wouldn't be able to see him signing. He couldn't sign with Eri in his arms anyways.

"He kills her, he tears her apart. and immediately restores her, putting her back together. It's sickening." Midoriya hissed, holding Eri tightly as he avoided another stone spike.

"Ah, the quirkless boy figured it out." Chisaki spat, "If she dies, I can always restore her, revive her. I could always put her back the way she was. She already knows that firsthand."

Chisaki made another batch of spikes erupt from the ground, forcing the two students to do their best to avoid them. Midoriya managed to kick down a stone spike, making his way back to Togata, and passed Eri to him; Togata was much stronger than him, and would be able to protect Eri more efficiently than he could. They were forced to dodge another barrage of stone spikes, and Midoriya found it much easier to slip by all the spikes, while Togata had more flexibility on how to dodge due to his quirk.

"What will you do if Eri gets injured? Under these conditions, I'm the only one who can heal her. I've sealed off your escape. You can't slip through walls, or break them down without hurting Eri. Are you going to fight me, then?" Chisaki asked, as the dust slowly settled. There wasn't any rumbling, so Chisaki wasn't going to make any more stone spikes any time soon, and Midoriya opted to try and find Chronostasis; he had lost track of him when Chisaki had used his quirk, and even though Togata had given him a good hit to the face and was probably unconscious, he just wanted to make sure he knew where everyone was.

He found Chronostasis sitting behind Chisaki, holding up a gun.

_I thought I knocked him out... was my center off? Is that drunk's quirk still in effect somehow?_ Togata questioned himself, not really sure of what Chronostasis was planning.

"Aim for the arm carrying Eri." Chisaki ordered, loud enough so that Chronostasis could hear him, but quiet enough so that the three kids in the distance couldn't, "I'll break the spikes to eliminate his screen."

"I didn't think he could use his quirk so precisely. He must have trained very hard. But what about the other child, the quirkless one? I didn't think he'd be able to dodge everything you threw at him, even with Eri in his arms."

"We'll deal with that later." Chisaki growled, before destroying the spikes between Togata and Chronostasis. Togata shifted backwards as the spikes disintegrated, before realizing that if Chronostasis was going to shoot with a gun, then there couldn't be any spikes in the way.

He hastily curled in on himself, holding Eri protectively, ripping his cape off to obscure his body. Two bullets flew past him, ripping his cape apart, but otherwise, did nothing.

"I thought a hero's cape was just them trying to look cool." Chronostasis growled, trying to fight Togata, as Chisaki turned, elevating the ground that Chronostasis had been standing on.

Togata's fist phased through the concrete, as Chronostasis barely managed to leap to safety, dropping his gun the in the process, "Sorry, Overhaul!"

_He's good._ Chisaki admitted, but he put Eri down. _If I break her, then they won't be able to resist._

Chisaki put his hand to the ground, preparing to impale Eri with a stone spike, but Togata emerged from the ground again, "That's the kind of guy you are, right? A hero puts on his cape so he can use it to wrap up a hurting girl who's suffering and in pain!"

Chisaki tried to block Togata's punch, but the blonde's fist just phased through his hand, making contact with the yakuza's cheek, knocking him away. Chronostasis tried to reach for the gun, but Togata kicked him away, before diving into the ground, emerging to punch Chisaki in the cheek, "You're strong... but I'm stronger! I won't let you lay another finger on her! I'll take you both down! You've lost, Chisaki!"

Eri watched on from a distance, and while Togata was occupied with the two Yakuza, Midoriya was using the remaining stone spikes as a cover to creep closer to Eri.

"Don't use my name so casually..." Chisaki muttered, glaring at Togata, "I've already thrown that name away!"

"Master!" Nemoto yelled, having somehow managed to reach the fight through a hole in the wall, and Chisaki tossing a red box towards the other yakuza, yelling, "Nemoto! Shoot!"

"Master needs me... I must give my life... and walk by his side!" Nemoto quickly scooped a red bullet out of the box and swiftly loaded it into his gun. He tried to aim it at Togata, who was dealing with Chisaki, before changing his mind, and aimed the gun at Eri.

Eri froze up as the gun was pointed at her, and quickly tensed up, ready to take the bullet, as Togata rushed back to her. The blonde leapt towards Eri, wrapping his arms around her protectively as he smiled.

He waited for the bullet to hit his arm, except it didn't.

Togata quickly put himself between the yakuza and Eri, before turning around; he swore he had heard a gunshot.

He found Midoriya standing between him and Nemoto, as Chisaki pushed himself to his feet, glaring at Midoriya. Nemoto openly gaped at Midoriya's presence, "He was... here!? How on earth... did he manage to survive... all the spikes... without a quirk!?"

Chisaki had to admit, while he was busy with Eri and Togata, he had completely forgotten that Midoriya had also been in the room.

And he was going to pay the price for that mistake.

* * *

Midoriya just picked the red dart-like bullet out of his arm, and threw it to the ground, crushing it under his foot. The voice that had been lingering in his head was now silent; its presence was still there, but there wasn't any more noise.

He fell to the ground, feeling the drug in the bullet take effect, a cold, empty feeling seeping through his entire body.

He couldn't afford to let Togata get shot. He knew that Nemoto would aim for Eri due to Togata's Permeation, and that Togata would allow himself to get hit, and lose his quirks in the process, in order to protect her. But he couldn't let him do that, couldn't let him lose Permeation and One for All. Togata had spent a lot of time training to use his quirk and finally, had mastered it, and One for All had been passed down from Yagi to Togata.

He already failed Yagi once, being the one to end the Symbol of Peace. As much as he disliked Yagi, he couldn't bear to fail him again.

But now, he felt oddly calm. His heart was finally at peace.

"You bore it this whole time... thinking you had no choice but to accept the despair... that help would never come." Midoriya clenched his fists, turning towards Eri, his voice softening, "I'll never let you suffer anymore. I promise."

He was finally free from the shackles of the past, the voice that constantly reminded him of every single mistake that he had made, the very quirk that made him suffer, and didn't let him escape from his suffering.

Nemoto tried to reach out for the box of bullets with the need to try again, but Midoriya just let out a sharp whistle.

Ryuto swooped down from the ceiling, where Midoriya had told him to hide quite some time ago, and snatched up the box of bullets with one talon. He swiped the gun right out of Nemot's grasp, before flying out of the chamber before anyone could react.

"The diseased have been given quirks, and that lets them dream... Thinking you can actually become something... is an illness of the mind." Chisaki snapped, pushing himself to his feet. The quirkless child was ruining his plan; Togata still had his Permeation quirk, making him ridiculously hard to hit, and he somehow got a _bird_, of all things, to snatch away their quirk destroying bullets.

Chisaki placed his hand on the ground, frustrated, as Togata tossed Chronostasis at him, giving Midoriya some cover. The blonde punched Chisaki in the arm, and Chisaki disintegrated his other glove in an attempt to hit Togata, only for his hand to phase right through Togata, giving the student an opening to punch Chisaki in the face.

Midoriya shook his head and stood up, as Eri reached out, and grabbed his arm, tears pooling in her eyes. Midoriya gently patted her head, before slipping off his dragon pendant, and hanging it around Eri's neck, "Take care of that for me, okay?"

Wrapped in Togata's cape and clutching the pendant that Midoriya had just handed to her, Eri couldn't do anything but watch as Midoriya leaped after Chisaki, glancing at Togata "Lemillion! Go!"

Togata immediately got the message; Eri was their priority. He fell back, allowing Midoriya to kick Chisaki's arm as he ran back to scoop Eri up. The yakuza immediately made a barrage of spikes, but Midoriya was easily able to weave through the attack; Chisaki's emotions were clouding his judgment, and his movements were very obvious and easy to predict.

"Did you want to become a hero that badly? Even while quirkless!?" Chisaki growled, "It's all a filthy disease of our time! I'll fix guys like you and your friend with Eri's power!"

Midoriya expertly twisted and slid past spikes, before kicking a few apart and sending the rubble flying in Chisaki's direction. The villain's attention was on him, and he needed to keep it that way to buy Togata enough time to escape with Eri.

And keeping a villain's attention was easy; just piss them off more.

He skidded under another spike, sliding under Chisaki's hand as the villain tried to disintegrate him, and punched Chisaki in the chin. Chisaki tried to hit him with another barrage of spikes, and Midoriya was too close to dodge them, getting a spike impaled through his leg and arm, but that did nothing to deter him. The greenette just broke off the stone spike, and ripped them out of his flesh, before charging at Chisaki again.

He wouldn't let Chisaki hurt Eri again. He made a promise, and he was done breaking promises."

Togata was trying to find an exit; and while he knew he could just punch a hole in the wall, he didn't know how stable the entire building was; he didn't want to accidentally bury everyone in rubble. He quickly knocked Nemoto out, before checking the wall that the yakuza had crawled out of; it was relatively thin, and was made by Chisaki; it wasn't essential to holding up the ceiling.

He quickly used One for All to knock down the wall, and was about to escape with Eri when he heard footsteps echoing down the hallway. He tensed up, ready in case there were more yakuza to fight, and sighed in relief when he saw Aizawa and Sasaki running towards him, with Ryuto leading the way and Reiko following behind Aizawa.

* * *

Aizawa wasn't too sure what to make of it when he found a knocked out Sakaki lying on the ground; at least, they were going the right way.

They came across a wall, and weren't very sure if they should break it down when the wall suddenly fell apart, and they came face to face with Togata and a teary Eri.

Out of the corner of his eye, Midoriya noticed the two heroes, and ducked down as Chisaki swiped his hand at him. Chisaki used that opportunity to grab Midoriya's arm, but Aizawa erased Chisaki's quirk, and Midoriya kicked the older man away.

"Nighteye, secure those who need treatment!" Aizawa yelled, and Sasaki laid his eyes on the unconscious forms of Chronostasis and Nemoto, and mused, "Two of Chisaki's inner circle... one on the way here... and this space wrapped in distorted walls..."

Sasaki quickly checked on Togata and Eri, seeing that they didn't have any major injuries, before turning to check on Midoriya, who seemed content that Aizawa was keeping Chisaki at bay and staggered back to Eri's side to check on her. The green haired boy was bleeding from his arm and leg, and was panting, but other than that, Midoriya just looked worse for wear.

"My quirk was erased!" Chisaki smacked his hand against the ground, before noticing that Aizawa was leaping at him, his eyes glowing, and snarled, "Get up, Chrono!"

Midoriya tensed up, and whirled around, taking out a knife and throwing it. Sasaki wasn't too what the boy had been aiming for, when a bunch of hair shot out of Chronostasis' hood, aimed at Aizawa, but the knife sliced the extended hair off.

But not in time; the arrowhead of the hair had already sliced through Aizawa's skin. Midoriya immediately leapt at Chisaki, knowing that the combination of Chronostasis' quirk, the dust, and Aizawa's dry eye would force the Erasure hero to blink sooner or later.

"Your efforts... they're all for nothing!" Chisaki growled, slamming his hand into the ground. More spikes erupted from the ground, pushing Nemoto towards him as a hole opened up under Chronostasis and Aizawa, dropping them into the room below. Togata quickly picked Sasaki and Eri up with One for All, managing to avoid the spikes, as Midoriya twisted past the incoming spikes, only getting a graze on his side.

"Nemoto... you tried your best... You would die for my sake, wouldn't you?" Chisaki growled, holding one hand against Nemoto's face, and another against his own. He activated his quirk, fusing himself together with the other yakuza, using Nemoto to heal his injuries as another pair of arms erupted from his back, "Now! I'll have you return Eri!"

Midoriya blinked, not sure what to make of this new monstrosity, as Chisaki snarled, "That was the worst feeling, but it's much better than how I felt before!"

The greenette turned his attention to Eri; he was fairly sure that Sasaki and Togata would be able to protect her easily. He wasn't too sure where Aizawa and Chronostasis were, but he was certain that Aizawa would be able to deal with him. His top priority right now was Chisaki, who was someone miraculously healed from his injuries, and had gotten a new pair of limbs to boot.

"I'm obsessed about cleanliness, so when someone touches me, it makes my blood boil. It's the first time it's gotten to this point." Chisaki growled, and turned his attention to Midoriya. He created more stone spikes, but Midoriya managed to avoid them, albeit barely; the speed at which they appeared had increased.

Sasaki quickly threw a seal at Chisaki, "Hakryuen, fall back!"

"Like I'd let you." Chisaki snarled, as Sasaki threw more seals at him. _Limit the number of his moves and get close! Don't let him transform the ground!_

"Where did Eraser go? Your aide isn't here, either?" Sasaki hissed, and Chisaki snapped, easily dodging the seals, "I'm interested in heroes who can erase quirks, so he's been shown to the VIP room."

"Someone who finds joy in destroying other people's quirks is afraid of getting his own quirk erased?" Sasaki growled, and Chisaki tried to swipe his arms at him, only for Sasaki to slip through the gap between the two arms, and touched his arm. He activated Foresight, allowing him to see Chisaki's future, as he easily dodged the villain's attacks, ducking under Chisaki's arm.

_Mirio... you believed in my teachings and became strong... and I'm proud of you. And Midoriya... I haven't known you for long, but I know that you'll become an outstanding hero, just like Mirio... I've seen... the safety of you... and those you want to protect... Even without looking at the result, by repeating my one-second Foresight, we can reach the best conclusion that we all want._

Sasaki froze, as he felt himself being shoved to the ground.

_The future where Eri is saved, and Mirio, Midoriya and the others are safe..._

_There's no such future._

Midoriya would die, his efforts in vain, and Chisaki would take Eri back.


	81. Chapter 81 - Take the past away

Shinsou yawned, and trudged to the common room. With Yamada's permission, the class had asked Nezu about those articles and forum posts circulating around Midoriya, and he was really bothered by what Nezu had said.

Midoriya had, in fact, lost his parents in a fire while he was seven, before being sent to the foster system. He did fall off the roof of his elementary school, but that has been largely deemed an accident, and even Nezu himself wasn't too sure about the true nature of that incident.

Nezu did seem pissed when he realised that private information, like hospital reports and x-rays, had been posted on the internet, and seemed to be trying to do his best to remove such information from the websites. He was grumbling about people being insensitive as he sent the students back to their homeroom lesson, where they found Yamada seething under his breath as he scrolled through the site that Ashido had shown him.

Iida didn't even stop Yamada as he cursed in English under his breath.

They eventually decided that instead of thinking about it, they should just do something to take their minds off it, and Shinsou wanted to finish his homework first, and maybe, consider asking Kamihara about internships.

He grabbed his bag, and was about to fish out his homework when he noticed that the television was on, and that Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido were intently staring at the screen.

"What's going on?" Shinsou asked, walking closer to take a closer look, before noticing that there was a giant hole in the ground, with smoke coming out of it.

"We saw Uraraka, Tsu and that... uh... her name was Nejire, right?" Kaminari asked, "And a dragon. They all fell into the hole."

"Wait... so that's what they're doing for work studies?!" Shinsou yelped, as he sat down on the couch to take a closer look.

"Hitoshi, I thought we were going to do homework..." Iida walked down the stairs, before noticing the commotion, "What's going on?"

"Uraraka and Tsu's work study." Ashido replied, still staring intently at the screen, "I think this is a news helicopter."

_"It seems like they tackled one of the villains into the ground... and is that an underground cavern? Right beneath the streets? Get in for a closer look!"_

"But where's Midoriya and Kirishima?" Yaoyorozu asked, worried, as Bakugou walked out of the kitchen, "Who cares!? Maybe those two fuckers aren't even there! Pinky, Pikachu, it's your fucking shift for cleaning up!"

"Okay, okay." Kaminari and Ashido reluctantly got up from his seat to clean up the kitchen, as Todoroki and Koda sat down, their eyes glued on the screen.

"I hope they'll be okay..." Yaoyorozu muttered, "They're with pros... right? They'll be fine..."

* * *

"This should at least stop the bleeding... It's frustrating, but he'll need to rest for a while." Toyomitsu mused, laying Kirishima gently on the bed. Tengai had been tied up and was sitting in a corner, but Toyomitsu chose to let Rappa be since he wasn't being bery hostile at the moment. He had just finished wrapping the redhead's injuries, and Rappa eagerly asked, "Is he better? Can I kill him?"

"How can he be better already?!" Toyomitsu countered, "Let him live!"

The pro hero turned around to face Rappa, and scratched his head, "Since we're kind of talking frankly with each other now, this might be weird for a hero to ask, but why are you stuck in a small time gang like this?"

"That's because Overjerk was the only person I ever lost to." Rappa admitted, and Toyomitsu gawked, "You lost...?"

Rappa continued, "He told me to join, coming out of nowhere, picking a fight. Of course, I left it up to who won. And then... I died, but just when I thought that, I was back to normal. Even after I joined, I challenged him five times, but I lost every time. I stayed in order to beat that man."

He lost every time? Wait... that means that Chisaki can handle Rappa's power and speed? Since Rappa was being pretty cooperative, Toyomitsu asked, "Even though Chisaki's so strong, he's still left his underlings to fight us. Why won't he come out? He's not here, right? He either ran away, or is in hiding. What does Chisaki want to do?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Tengai snorted, "Who'd tell an enemy?"

"Trying to rehabilitate Yakuza?" Rappa asked, almost mockingly.

"Rappa!" Tengai shouted, but Rappa just ignored the other yakuza, "I don't know the details, but I overheard them talking. They said they'd distribute large numbers of something or something. And they needed money for that. As long as they clear that, then the day will soon come to implement their plan."

"Stop! Rappa!" Tengai yelled, but Rappa just kicked Tengai, shutting him up.

_Plan? What kind of plan?_ Toyomitsu thought, as he glanced at Kirishima's unconscious form.

* * *

"Suspect restrained."

"His bark turned out to be much worse than his bite, kero." Asui muttered, watching as the police cuffed Katsukame. Uraraka turned to her, "No kidding."

"Katsukame Rikiya." Tatsuma spoke up, "He inhales the life force of those he touches and uses it to enhance his size. Isolate him before he regains consciousness."

"Yes, ma'am!"

"There's a lot of commotion inside! We'd better hurry!" Hado pointed at the compound, and Tatsuma nodded, "We're off to a late start, but let's head after Nighteye."

"Okay!" Uraraka and Asui nodded, turning towards the building, before they suddenly collapsed and fell to the ground, their energy drained.

Tatsuma turned around, worried, before noticing that he was absorbing the vitality of all the nearby people just by inhalation.

_He's inhaling their life force? How? He's not even touching them!_ Tatsuma didn't have too much time to wonder what was going on as Katsukame woke up and snapped his restraints off, "The boosting drug I got from Irinaka finally kicked in... I feel full of energy!"

"Oh no!" Tatsuma swiftly changed into her dragon form to block a punch aimed at Uraraka and Asui. Katsukame kept up the attack, as Tatsuma fended him off.

_They've been robbed of their vitality and can't even stand up..._ Tatsuma placed herself between the two first years and the yakuza, before yelling, "Nejire Chan!"

"Full charge!" Hado charged up a yellow bean in her hands, shooting it at Katsukame, though it didn't seem to affect him too much.

"The drug wore off." Katsukame complained, trying to steal Hado's vitality from a distance, "Let me feel you up, cutie pie!"

Hado just frowned at the perverted comment, before firing more blasts at Katsukame, "Ew! No!"

"Ryukyu!"

Asui and Uraraka turned to the side, before noticing Midoriya standing on the street, "I'm calling for backup! The objective is directly beneath that intersection. The others are pinned and need reinforcements!"

They did find it odd that Midoriya, of all people, was _actually_ calling for help, but they weren't in the right mind to linger on it for too long.

"Everyone!" Tatsuma stretched out her wings and collided into Katsukame, sinking her fangs into his arm. Uraraka immediately activated her quirk on Katsukame and Tatsuma, making them float, as Asui used her tongue to drag them over to the intersection.

"Nejire Chan! Hit us with everything you've got!" Tatsuma yelled, as Katsukame growled, "How come these broads can still move!?"

"Because every day, we were told to go beyond! Plus Ultra!"

Hado fired off a powerful blast at Tatsuma and Katsukame, as Toga's disguise peeled off.

Toga snickered, "Go entropy! Plus Chaos! Am I right?"

"Where did you even get his blood?" Bubaigawara asked, as Toga laughed, "When we kidnapped him! Izu-kun's blood is tasty!"

* * *

Midoriya carefully snuck over to Togata and Eri, as Togata determined the best route to escape without being seen by Chisaki.

"Senpai..." Midoriya spoke up, "Get Eri out of here. I'll stay and help Sir."

"I can't leave you here to fight that monster, Midoriya." Togata tried to argue, but Midoriya just growled, "We can't leave Eri within range of Chisaki. You need to put some distance between him and her. Your quirk is best suited to protect her. Just go, I'll be fine."

"That's... enough..." Eri stammered, eyeing the blood that was dripping out of Midoriya's arm, "I'm sorry..."

"It's alright." Midoriya gently patted Eri's head, before suddenly tensing up, and without even waiting for a response, he ran back to the fight.

"Wait!" Togata called out, but Midoriya was already gone. The blonde turned to Eri, "Come on... let's go."

Midoriya ran towards Sasaki, a feeling of dread pooling in his stomach as he watched Sasaki avoid Chisaki's attacks.

And suddenly, he paused, frozen, almost like he had seen something that he shouldn't. Midoriya shot forward, pushing Sasaki to the side as Chisaki assaulted them with spikes. Midoriya felt a spike pierce through his side, and hissed in pain. It took Midoriya several hits with his knife to break the stone spike, but he finally broke it, and pushed himself off the remains of the spike.

He pressed his hand against the injury, and turned his head to check on Sasaki, who was lying on the ground, stunned, with a relatively large spike pierced through his arm, though otherwise, relatively unharmed. He stared into space, almost like he was in shock, and Midoriya did wonder what had happened for Sasaki to just freeze up like that, but now, he needed to defend Sasaki long enough for the pro to regain his bearings and get rid of the spike.

"The future..." Sasaki muttered, and Midoriya immediately understood what had happened; Sasaki had seen a terrible future, and was under the assumption that it couldn't be changed.

Who cared about stuff like that? It was useless to just wallow and not take action.

Midoriya lunged, and Chisaki growled, eyeing the green haired boy, trying to stop him with a combination of walls and spikes. Midoriya just shot out a blade from his bracer, lodging it into the concrete wall, and jumped, using it as leverage to flip over the wall, expertly twisting past the emerging spikes.

"Give it up. It'll end up like I said; you'll all die! Especially you!" Chisaki growled, but Midoriya didn't even seem bothered as he lunged at Chisaki again, "Who cares?"

"Impertinent!" Chisaki snapped, placing his hands on the ground, and creating four concrete tendrils that sped towards Midoriya. The green haired boy narrowly twisted past the first one, before jumping over another, using the subtle changes in the air around him to guess where the tendrils would be going. He managed to avoid them, and took a step closer to Chisaki, only for the yakuza to elevate the platform he was, and creating two more stone spikes. Midoriya swerved to the side, avoiding the first one, but the second went right through his shoulder.

Midoriya grit his teeth, and broke the spike with his bracer, before continuing after Chisaki. He knew that he couldn't beat Chisaki, and was just stalling for time; the man could literally repair himself if Midoriya did manage to injure him, and he had such a wide range of attack that it was only a matter of time until he skewered him.

The green haired boy threw himself at Chisaki, as the yakuza stretched out an arm to try and make contact, but Midoriya threw one of the knives he had stolen from Sakaki at him, lodging the blade in his arm. He used it as leverage to avoid getting hit by Chisaki directly, just barely managing to avoid Chisaki's hand. More spikes erupted out of the ground, and Midoriya got another spike impaled through his leg, but he just yanked it out and threw it away.

"Even if I can repair myself... It still hurts when I break apart..." Chisaki grumbled, dislodging the knife as he repaired his arm, "I'm done."

Midoriya growled, and tried to get in close, flipped through more stone spikes as Chisaki swiped at him with his hand. He slipped through the opening between the villain's arms, but his movements were limited as Chisaki's other set of hands came to grab him.

He didn't have a choice. Midoriya took a deep breath, and exhaled.

His mask lit up with red streaks, and the front opened up slightly, revealing a small opening as fire erupted out, right in Chisaki's face. Chisaki yelped in pain as the flames washed over him, giving Midoriya space to create some distance between the yakuza and himself, out of range of his grasp for instant destruction.

"Jeez, you kids are so persistent... I guess you can't look down on the hidden reserves of someone who won't give up." Chisaki growled, reforming his burnt face, before a mouth appeared on one of Chisaki's hands.

Midoriya looked at the mouth in confusion, and threw a knife at him, but Chisaki merely swatted the blade away and made more stone spikes. Midoriya managed to avoid most of them, before a stone tendril reached out from the ground, wrapping around his ankle, and another large stone spike erupted from the ground, right through Midoriya's gut.

The ground started trembling slightly, as Midoriya hissed, and broke the tendril with his foot, before trying to break the spike that had impaled him, as Chisaki looked up, "Huh... looks like he's back in action..."

Chisaki turned his hand towards the hole that Togata had escaped through.

"Someone is about to die because of you! Is that what you want?! Eri!"

* * *

Togata lifted Eri in his arms, as he started down the hallway. He noticed Sakaki still lying on the ground, knocked out, and he put Eri down for a minute, just to tie the unconscious drunk up to ensure that he wouldn't be an interference.

He continued trudging down the hallway with Eri, until he came across Mimic and Rock Lock, as well as several police officers. Mimic was tied up and leaning against a wall, thoroughly exhausted, as Rock Lock pressed a hand against his wound, before looking up at Togata.

"You came back? And this must be the girl..." Rock Lock muttered, observing the scared girl in Togata's grasp. Eri just clutched the pendant that Midoriya had left in her care, and tried to avoid looking at both Mimic and Rock Lock.

"I'm going to put you down for a quick second, alright?" Togata asked, placing Eri on the ground as he checked on Rock Lock. Eri spared a glance at Mimic fearfully, and the yakuza just snarled animalistically as he caught sight of the small girl. Eri flinched, and stumbled backwards, trying to get as far away from Mimic as possible.

Mimic just glared at Eri, anger burning within his eyes.

The heroes had somehow gotten the girl back, and he wasn't going to tolerate that. He knew that using Trigger on himself without resting properly between each dosage wasn't good for his body, but the heroes had already stolen the quirk-destroying bullets from Chisaki.

But as long as Chisaki had Eri, he could remake the bullets, and his plan could be put into motion. But he needed the girl, and even if it cost him his life, he would do anything for Chisaki.

He palmed the red vial in his hand, waiting for an opportunity where both Togata and Rock Lock were distracted; the police were all weak, and wouldn't be a problem. This particular vial of Trigger was weaker than the one he had just used, but it did give him a bigger energy boost, so he could control a smaller space for a longer amount of time. He watched as Eri backed into the wall, as Togata and Rock Lock turned away from him to check on the girl.

It didn't matter if he killed Eri in the process of getting rid of the heroes; Chisaki did it all the time, draining Eri of all her blood, before reassembling her back to life.

With that, Mimic took a switchblade out of his pants pocket, and ripped through the restraints; the police had checked his pockets and confiscated his weapons, but they didn't check for any hidden compartments on the inside of his clothes. He stabbed the red vial into his neck, injecting its contents into his bloodstream, as Rock Lock turned to the yakuza, noticing his weird movement.

"Lemillion! Get him!" Rock Lock yelled, as Togata turned around. The police tried to stop him, but they weren't fast enough, and Mimic immediately grabbed two of them and slammed them into the wall, knocking them out. He promptly assimilated into the wall, and the entire underground started shaking as the exit was blocked off. Concrete rushed down from the ceiling, but with One for All, Togata was easily able to break them apart, though it was getting harder to protect Eri, Rock Lock, and all the police officers while also fending off blocks of cement that were threatening to crush them.

"Not this bullshit again!" Rock Lock growled, looking upwards at all the shaking walls, placing his hand on the wall and locking the room in place with his quirk, "Lemillion, you need to find Irinaka before he brings the entire underground down on us! I've locked down a part of this chamber, but I don't know how long it will last."

"Got it! Take care of Eri!" Togata nodded, before smiling at Eri, "Stay with him, okay, Eri? Dozens of people are acting to save you. You'll be fine! I'll be back soon."

Togata phased into the wall, trying to find Mimic, as Rock Lock gently pulled Eri closer to him, using himself as a shield to prevent any rubble from falling onto her.

This was the girl that all the kids were risking their lives for, and he wasn't about to let their efforts be in vain. A particularly large block of cement fell from the ceiling, and Rock Lock pushed Eri out of the way, getting pinned down underneath the cement.

Eri tumbled to the ground, staring in shock at the pro hero who was pinned down under the rubble, when suddenly, a section of the wall peeled off, revealing a corridor, and a voice echoed out, _"Someone is about to die because of you! Is that what you want?! Eri!"_

Eri tensed up, and turned to the hole, "No... I don't..."

She started walking towards the hole, as Rock Lock reached out, "No! Eri, stay here!"

But his efforts were in vain; Eri had already disappeared down the newly opened corridor, running back to the man that made her life a living hell, with Mimic's powers shortening the corridor back to him.

* * *

Midoriya growled, breaking the stone spike with his blades, and charged at Chisaki, blood dripping out of his injuries. Chisaki swatted him away, as Sasaki pushed himself up and threw two more seals at Chisaki in an attempt to at least save Midoriya from the fate he had seen.

The future couldn't be changed. But maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could prevent one death. It wouldn't change the outcome by too much, but at least, he could try to save one of the children.

"I... don't... want that... Please... stop..." Eri stammered, walking back into the room, her entire body shaking, as Midoriya and Sasaki turned to her in shock.

"Eri! Stay with Lemillion!" Midoriya yelled, as Sasaki's head drooped; he had seen her coming back in his vision.

The mouth on Chisaki's hand asked, "Eri... do you really think that these guys can do anything in this situation by himself?"

"No... I don't..." Eri looked at the floor, trying to avoid looking at Midoriya's bloody body as the boy attempted to tackle Chisaki again.

"Then... what should you do...?" Chisaki asked, as Midoriya ducked down under his arms, stabbing the villain in the gut, but Chisaki created more stone spikes to chase Midoriya away, before healing his injury.

"Go back... In exchange... leave everyone else alone! Call Irinaka off! Please!" Eri begged, as Nemoto's Confession forced her to speak up.

"That's right! It's easier to be hurt yourself than to have others get hurt for you, huh?" Chisaki cackled, as a burning inferno blazed to life in Midoriya's gut as his anger boiled over, and he snarled, "Enough with the lies! Leave her alone! I hate people like you! Stop trying to guilt trip her!"

"Guilt trip?" Chisaki snorted, "Look at yourself. You don't have any extraordinary powers, and that pro hero you're with has already given up! You'll bleed to death before you can even save anyone!"

"I saw the future... you and I are killed... and Chisaki gets away with Eri..." Sasaki muttered, pushing Midoriya to the side as another stone spike erupted from the ground, impaling Sasaki in the side, and restricting his movements, "The future can't be changed... You can't save Eri... but I can still try to save you. Midoriya, get out of here... I'll try to buy you enough time to escape."

"There's no such thing as not being able to change a future that hasn't happened." Midoriya growled, before charging at Chisaki again, "Eri, stay back!"

"Have you realized that you're acting in the cruelest way possible to Eri? Your death would be much more painful to her than even her own death!" Chisaki cackled, using Nemoto's quirk once again.

"Then, I just won't die!" Midoriya snapped back, getting in close and kicking Chisaki in the head, "I'll refuse to die! I made a promise to get her out of here, and I'm going to keep it!"


	82. Chapter 82 - The lost and the silent

"Nighteye? What's going on?" Nezu glanced at his screen, quickly downloading the files of the Eight Precepts that were to be given to the Hero Commission. Moashi and Awata had tried to hack into their database before, trying to get more information on the supposed quirk destroying drug, but they had always been unsuccessful since there was always someone keeping an eye on the files, and kicking them out whenever they tried.

They decided that while the heroes were conducting the raid, and the yakuza were preoccupied with the heroes presence, it should theoretically be possible to use that opportunity to find out more about the plans of the Eight Precepts. And while they could download the information after the raid was over, they didn't know the entire layout of the underground, and they didn't put it past Chisaki to have some sort of self destruct protocol in order to destroy all the evidence. They had enlisted Nezu's help in hacking and information downloading, and while it wasn't necessary for him to attend the meetings about the raid itself, he had requested that Sasaki and Aizawa should update him whenever convenient.

"Eraser Head?" Nezu tried calling Aizawa, but he was either too deep underground, or his communicator was broken; all he was getting was static.

He was getting particularly worried about Midoriya and Togata, especially Midoriya; according to Sasaki's last update, those two had run off on their own to chase after Chisaki and Eri. And with what that drug was capable of, Nezu couldn't help but be worried.

Apparently, the drug doesn't just damage the quirk factor and prevent the quirk from being used, but it rewinds the entire quirk out of existence. Quirks are said to be the next stage of evolution in the human race, and are thus considered mutations. No matter how the quirk manifested, either through natural means, or through trauma, it was still a mutation, and the drug rewinds those very mutations back to it's unmutated state, effectively rendering a person quirkless.

Chisaki had also done his own research into trauma induced quirks, as rare as they were, deeming them as anomalies and wanting to ensure that his drug could erase any kind of quirk. And while he was never able to test the drugs on people who did have trauma induced quirks, there weren't many biological differences between normal quirks and a trauma induced ones, leading to the conclusion that the quirk destroying would rewind them out of existence all the same.

Nezu wasn't too sure if One for All would be destroyed, given that it wasn't reliant on a quirk factor if a quirkless person like Yagi could inherit it from Nana, but at the very least, Togata had a sense of self preservation.

Midoriya did not. The only thing that kept him alive through the attack on UA and Kamino, as well as all his previous suicide attempts, was that quirk. While losing the quirk might help improve his mindset and solve some psychological issues, given that the quirk was most likely actively making him hate himself and urging him towards suicide, Nezu was worried that Chisaki would very well end up killing Midoriya, given that the greenette'd speciality was close combat, something that could be very fatal against the quirk that Chisaki possessed.

He could only hope that everything would turn out okay.

* * *

Chisaki growled, and attempted to grab the boy, but Midoriya used his mask to blow more fire in Chisaki's face, blinding him temporarily, before twisting through the gaps between his four arms.

Suddenly, there was an explosion from above, as the ceiling caved in, with Tatsuma tackling Katsukame into the ground, with Uraraka and Asui behind her.

"Uravity!" Asui stammered, looking towards Sasaki, who had a stone spike poking through his gut, as he desperately watched an injured Midoriya trying to get to Eri.

"Nighteye!" Uraraka yelled, as Midoriya kept his gaze focused on Chisaki, "Take care of him!"

"Hakryuen? Eh?" Uraraka tilted her head in confusion, as Asui asked, "Then who was the one we just saw outside?"

"Get Nighteye first!" Tatsuma yelled, as they made their way over to Sasaki, who impaled on a spike, "Be careful!"

The ground erupted beneath him, as Midoriya narrowly avoided getting impaled by the stone spikes, but a large stone pillar shot into the air, sending Eri flying.

"Chisaki!" Midoriya growled, turning to the villain that was on the ground, but the villain merely created another stone pillar that rapidly elevated him to the surface, grabbing Eri in the process, "Everything's messed up! You pieces of garbage!"

Midoriya just growled, and threw a few knives at the stone pillar, lodging them into the concrete, before attempting to scale the rapidly ascending pillar. He wasn't going to let Eri go, not when they were so close.

He wouldn't let her be sad again.

"So obstinate!" Chisaki spat, before spotting Togata's cape, that had been flung up by a piece of flying rubble, "That was flung up too? Disgusting!"

Eri clutched the dragon pendant tightly with both of her hands, not wanting to let go, before the red cape caught her attention.

_That's... that's enough... I don't want anyone to die... I don't want that... Why do they keep..._

Eri reached out for the cape, pressing her other hand against the arm that Chisaki was holding her with, and activated her quirk, undoing the fusion that Chisaki had done with Nemoto. She pulled the cape closer to her, clutching the pendant tightly, and looked downwards, seeing Midoriya trying to climb up the pillar, desperately reaching out to her, doing everything in his power to get closer.

_These people aren't going to give up... not until I'm saved... even if it means that they'll die... I have to go back..._

She stood up.

_I have to let them save me... Or they'll all die for nothing... I have to go back! Into his kind arms!_

Eri jumped off the ascending pillar, and Midoriya bit his lip, letting go of the knife that was lodged into the side of the pillar. He growled, and leapt off towards another piece of ascending rubble, and quickly caught his footing, before jumping off towards a higher piece of rubble.

She had taken a leap of faith. It was his turn to catch her. He had to; he had already let her go once, he wasn't going to fail again.

Midoriya reached out, jumping off another piece of rubble as the rocks crashed into each other and broke apart. One rock shard flew past his face, right by his eye, but he ignored the blood that started dripping down his face as he reached out.

"I'm so sorry we took so long to come." He grabbed onto Eri's arm tightly, catching her as she fell, using his own body as a shield as they fell to the ground, as Eri wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Give her back!" Chisaki roared, pressing his arm against the concrete pillar and creating more stone tendrils that chased after him.

But that just gave Midoriya more solid footing to work with. He caught himself, wrapping his arms around Eri tightly, as he swiftly twisted between the tendrils, being able to dodge them relatively easily; Chisaki was making the movements of the tendrils really easy to predict, and Midoriya was able to use that to his advantage.

"I won't let go. I'll never let go of you again. I won't let you go through that again." Midoriya whispered, watching as Chisaki leapt off the pillar in an attempt to get Eri back.

Midoriya took a deep breath.

_I can do this._

There was nothing. No voices in his head saying that he couldn't, saying that he was useless and worthless and couldn't do anything right.

He could save Eri.

And he would.

Midoriya jumped off one of the tendrils, right towards Chisaki, and used his mask to blow more fire in Chisak's face, blinding him, before kicking the yakuza towards the ground. Chisaki yelped as he crashed into one of the other tendrils, and placed his palm on it, forcing it to turn around.

Eri clung to him even tighter, as Midoriya spotted the tendril zooming towards him. He activated his bracer, and a blade slid out of it, as Midoriya held Eri with one hand swerved to the side, lodging the blade in the tendril that was shooting upwards.

Midoriya grit his teeth as he let the tendril push them higher to the surface, before the yakuza seemed to realise what they were doing. Chisaki immediately forced the tendril to stop moving upwards, but it was too late; the green haired boy had already turned around, releasing the blade from his bracer as he shot upwards, jumping to reach the edge of the giant chasm that Tatsuma had fallen through. He quickly turned around in midair, using his bracer to shoot a few blades at Chisaki that tore right through the villain's flesh, breaking his focus, before he reached up, grabbed onto the side of the gigantic hole, desperately trying to hold on to both Eri as he hung on the edge, as the tendrils started falling apart and the rubble rained down on the people below.

"What... happened...?" Tatsuma asked, using her wings to shield Uraraka, Asui, and Sasaki from the rubble that was raining down on them. "Where's Izuku?" Uraraka asked, looking around, before she noticed that Chisaki was getting up, repairing his broken arms.

"Even though I never told her what her power was... or how to use it... Eri... you naughty girl. You know you belong to me." Chisaki stumbled towards the unconscious Katsukame, before activating his quirk on the fallen yakuza, turning him into a splatter of blood, "In order to realize the old man's greatest wish, I need you, Eri."

"Oh no!" Tatsuma growled, but Sasaki groaned, "It's okay... for you... At least... for the time being... he wouldn't target any of you... He'll head to the surface in pursuit of Midoriya and Eri. Then, he'll kill Midoriya, and take Eri back."

"No! We have to -" Uraraka tried to activate her quirk, before she collapsed. _I want to move... but I can't..._

"I tried... to stop him... I tried to save him... but in the end... the future can't be changed..." Sasaki panted, trying to stem the bleeding, but Tatsuma stood up, "We can't do nothing after hearing that!"

"In the shape you're all in... you couldn't beat him even if you tried. Midoriya doesn't stand a chance." Sasaki continued, but Uraraka pushed herself up, activating her quirk on the rubble around her, "So what? We can't just do nothing! You don't know how the future will turn out!"

Sasaki lifted his head, spotting the monstrous form of Chisaki in the distance, "Froppy... I'm not sure where Mirio is at the moment... but Rock Lock and some policemen should be beyond that hole in the wall. I think Mimic managed to get free... you should go help them."

Asui nodded, as Sasaki continued, "Uravity, Ryukyu... head to the surface with me. We need to help Hakryuen."

Uraraka carefully made her way over to Sasaki, and used her quirk on him, before picking him up. She activated her quirk on herself, before Tatsuma lowered her wing, allowing Uraraka to use it as a boost to get to the surface, "Don't wait for us, Uravity! Take him to an ambulance first! Stabilise that fragment in his stomach. Don't remove it! Then go help Hakryuen! He won't be able to deal with a monster like that on his own, not in the state he's in!"

* * *

Togata was using One for All to push up the ceiling, as Rock Lock tried his best to push himself up. Compared to the first time, Mimic had been much easier to subdue; Togata's ability to phase through the walls, and Mimic being a much noisier and angrier asshole than last time, and with Ryuto's hearing and Reiko's weird ability to just sense people, it made it easier for Togata to locate him.

But there was only so much stress the underground structures could take; the fight with Chisaki, as well as Mimic manipulating and twisting all the walls, had made it unstable, as the ceiling fell apart and started raining concrete down on them.

Togata was devastated that Rock Lock had somehow lost Eri to Chisaki, but he couldn't really blame the older man; he had tried to save her from falling rubble, and Chisaki had been manipulating Eri's emotions from the start, and it was no surprise that Eri would try to go back if it meant that she could save someone from Chisaki's wrath.

"Hold on." Togata easily heaved the concrete block off Rock Lock, and despite his injuries, the pro hero was trying his best to pull the police officers out from the rest of the falling debris. Togata pushed the ceiling up, as more police officers streamed into the room, helping Rock Lock and the rest of the officers up.

"Wait... what's going on?" Togata asked, and one officer replied, "Most of the yakuza are cleared up, and Katsukame is being taken care of by Ryukyu and her interns, in a large basement below. We're going to get all of you out."

A hooded figure walked out, and Togata grinned, "Tamaki!"

Amajiki admitted, "I woke up... some time ago, and I thought you were in trouble. So I came to find you... though you seem fine."

"I'm fine." Togata nodded, "You should go find Eraser. He and Chronostasis... uh, I think his name is Kurono, they disappeared while Sir, Midoriya and I were fighting Chisaki."

"Alright. I'll let the rest of the police help you." Amajiki gave his friend a small smile, "Just keep the ceiling up."

* * *

"I know much about you. Erasure Hero: Eraser Head." Chronostasis muttered, pinning Aizawa down, stabbing him with the hour hand of his quirk, "We referenced your quirk a lot while conducting research on Eri. Since I was able to isolate you without killing you... that means it must be worth keeping you alive. Erasing quirks... to him, that's an attractive power."

Aizawa tried to push himself up, but Chronostasis merely removed his mask, "Oh, you should just give up. You can't move faster than a snail right now. Once he's decided something, you can't stop him. I don't know how much you know, but Eri is the granddaughter of the boss of the Eight Precepts. If it's for his goal, he'll use anything. That's the kind of person the man called Overhaul is."

The ground started rumbling, as Chronostasis looked up at the ceiling.

_Too long... There's no way you'll lose, right? Kai... I've been watching this whole time... how in order to preserve the dignity of the organization, ever since you were young, you were always willing to put in an exorbitant amount of effort. If Kai loses... then at least I'll take the finished drug and serum... and execute his plan._

He unsheathed his knife, as he stood over the helpless Aizawa.

_For the Eight Precepts. For Kai._

He tried to stab Aizawa, only for a giant spike to impale his arm, forcing him to drop his knife.

"You're Kurono... right?" Amajiki asked, panting as he leaned against the wall, a swordfish manifestation in his hand, "I know the conditions you need to activate your quirk."

Two police officers appeared behind him, pointing their guns at Chronostasis, "It's the police! Resistance is useless!"

"Senpai!" Asui hopped up to him, "Where's Lemillion?"

Amajiki turned back to her, "I saw him just now. He's somewhere past this corridor, you'll see him. He's trying to protect Rock Lock and some of the police officers as the ceiling caved in, I think you should go help him out."

"Alright, kero." Asui nodded.

"Ah, there's no need for that, Suneater!" Togata grinned, as he raced down the corridor, giving him a thumbs up, "All the police are safe, and we're going to head out. The ceiling's pretty stable now, so we'll be fine."

"Froppy... Suneater..." Aizawa muttered, trying to look up with his slow movements due to Chronostasis' quirk, "Lemillion... how's Hakryuen?"

"Uh... last I saw him, he was fighting Chisaki with Sir. He did get hit by one of the quirk destroying drug bullets, though." Togata replied, and Aizawa's eyes widened.

"Bring me to the surface. I need to contact Nezu." Aizawa ordered, and Amajiki frowned in confusion, "The principal?"

"He's hacking through the database of the Eight Precepts. He'll have more information on what the drug is capable of." Aizawa replied, and Togata asked, "But Hakryuen is quirkless, right?"

Aizawa bit his lip, desperately trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't reveal that Midoriya actually did have a quirk, before he hastily ad libbed, "Exactly. At least, we do know the effects of the drug on someone who has a quirk, but for someone who doesn't have one, we're completely in the dark. If the drug does indeed target the quirk factor, and Hakryuen doesn't have one, who knows what other effects the drug could have on him."

"Ah. Makes sense." Togata nodded, "I think that's everyone."

Asui spoke up, "Ryukyu's waiting for us in the main room, kero. Let's go."

* * *

Midoriya knew he couldn't hang on for too long; water from the broken pipes were starting to leak out, making it slippery, but he just hoped that Uraraka or Asui or even Tatsuma would just see what was going on and help him out.

But he didn't have time. He wasn't sure if Chisaki was unconscious, and while Eri did manage to rewind his transformation with Nemoto, he didn't know where Katsukame had fallen, and if Chisaki decided to fuse with that monster, who knows what would happen.

His shoulder was aching, the bone broken from when the stone spike had pierced through it, but he could still use it. Clutching Eri with one hand, with the girl wrapping her own arms tightly around his neck, he desperately tried to pull himself up, but his broken arm just wasn't strong enough to pull both him, and Eri, upwards.

Midoriya grit his teeth, and pushed all his remaining energy into his arm. His muscles were screaming from the exertion, as pain flared through his entire body, but Midoriya refused to give up, pulling himself up until he could use his elbow to anchor himself down on the side of the edge.

"Hold on tight... Eri..." Midoriya groaned, as he tried to crawl his way out of the hole with one arm. He managed to get up to chest level, before pushing Eri out of the hole with his other arm. Once she was safe and away from the edge, Midoriya hauled himself up, panting, before turning to Eri, "Are you alright? Are you... hurt... anywhere? I'm sorry... if I was a little rough..."

Eri just shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes, her horn still glowing faintly, as she did her best to not make contact with Midoriya. Midoriya shaikly stood up, and gently led her further away from the edge.

"You... undid the fusion. You turned him back to before he fused with that other guy... is that your quirk?" Midoriya softly asked, not wanting to spook Eri. The girl nodded slowly, looking away from him, almost as if she was expecting him to be disgusted at her, but Midoriya gently patted her head, "You're quirk is such a blessing."

Midoriya noted how Eri seemed to flinch away from him, yet wanting to get closer to him at the same time, and he crouched down, "Are you... afraid that you'll destroy me?"

Eri flinched, and looked towards the ground, before nodding slowly. Her powers hadn't worked on Midoriya due to his clothes, but with parts of his outfit ripped apart, she didn't want to risk making him disappear.

"It's alright. Just... calm down. We can deal with it." Midoriya gently patted her head.

Eri nodded, trying to listen to what Midoriya was saying, but her eyes just trailed down to the puddle of blood that was accumulating under the green haired boy.

"You're... bleeding..." Midoriya looked at the small girl, before saying, "I'm fine. Don't worry."

Suddenly, the ground started cracking, and Midoriya hastily picked Eri up, along with Togata's cape that she was still clinging on to, as he ran away from the edge of the hole. The cracks grew wider and wider, and the ground was starting to split apart, as Chisaki crawled out of the hole in his gigantic, monstrous form. Midoriya knew that he couldn't outrun a monster like that; Chisaki could easily catch up to him even if he tried.

"She has no control. She may have activated it at a good time, but she doesn't know how to stop it. Isn't that right, Eri?" Chisaki spat, as multiple appendages protruded out of the fused body, each arm equipped with clawed hands that could tear him apart in an instant, "She rewinds humans. That's who Eri is. Depending on how you use her, it might even be possible to turn a person back into a monkey. You keep carrying her like that... the second you make physical contact with her, you'll be annihilated. Everyone who touches her will be rewound into nothingness. That girl's quirk is cursed!"

Midoriya's temper finally reached its limit, and he snapped back, "That's because you only used her, and never taught her how to control it! There's no such thing as a cursed quirk!"

"Hand her over! There's no way to stop her other than to disassemble her! Unless you want to be annihilated, hand Eri over!" Chisaki growled, but Midoriya just used Togata's cape to tie Eri to his back, making sure that she couldn't make any direct contact with him, growling, "Over my dead body! I'd rather die than to give her back to you!"

He turned to Eri, who was clinging onto his back, whispering, "With a form like that... I can't beat him on my own. Eri... will you lend me your power?"

"Neither you nor Eri know the value of her power. Quirks progress markedly when you develop them. By conducting countless experiments, I extracted Eri's power, and succeeded in bringing it to its end point. As a result, it doesn't stop at simply winding back the flesh. It winds back on a much greater scale. It rewinds the course of the species to its unmutated form. That's the kind of power Eri possesses!" Chisaki yelled, creating stone tendrils that sped towards them, but Midoriya was just barely able to evade them, before lodging a knife into the tendril and climbing upwards.

He needed to beat Chisaki before they could even think about escaping. If he ran away, Chisaki could easily use the open space to locate his position. By getting in close, Chisaki's own gigantic form, the tendrils and debris would make it harder for the yakuza to hit him.

"The power to annihilate quirk factors, and turn humans back to normal! Enough power to destroy this world built upon quirks... to destroy the natural order! That's Eri's power! You don't know her value! A punk like you can't exploit an asset like her!" Chisaki snarled, trying to hit the small boy, but all he was doing was destroying the other stone tendrils as he tried to locate the boy with all the dust flying about. He deduced that the boy was trying to run away, and extended the reach of his stone tendrils, but still wasn't able to find the boy.

Midoriya threw another knife, lodging it into one of Chisaki's fleshy arms, and the yakuza looked down, shocked that the boy had managed to get close. Chisaki took a step forward, attempting to step on him, but Midoriya swiftly dodged it, before slashing his leg with a blade from his bracer.

"Why won't people look at the big picture!?" Chisaki growled, looking downwards as he desperately tried to find Midoriya, "What I'm going to tear down is this world! It's very framework! Your justice is so small; you only see what's in front you! It's mere sentimentalism! You hero pretenders! Stay out of my way!"

Chisaki activated his quirk on himself, transforming his numerous appendages into a large set of arms and legs, as he towered over Midoriya. He took a step forward, as Midoriya rolled out of the way, before he turned to Eri, "We've got one chance, Eri. Do you trust me?"

Eri nodded, still clinging onto his back, as Midoriya charged forwards. Chisaki aimed a punch at him, but Midoriya flipped out of the way, before undoing the cloth around his arms and lashing onto the gigantic hand. Chisaki lifted him up, before trying to use his other arm to try and swat Midoriya away, as the green haired boy pulled himself in, grabbing onto the humongous, fleshy arm with all his strength.

"Eri!" Midoriya yelled, gritting his teeth as he anchored himself onto Chisaki with a knife, "Do it!"

With a burst of energy, Eri's horn glowed, and she reached out, pressing her hand against Chisaki's arm, as a bright yellow glow burst through Chisaki's monstrous form, undoing the fusion between Katsukame and Chisaki just as one of Chisaki's claws tore Togata's cape to shreds. Uraraka jumped in, attempting to restrain Chisaki, but the man just growled, and swiped his hand at her, forcing Uraraka to evade; he practically didn't have any injuries, and Uraraka knew she didn't stand a chance against him. She opted to go after Katsukame first, before Chisaki could fuse them back together again, and caught him as Chisaki crashed into the ground headfirst.

"Uravity! What's the situation!" Tatsuma asked, as she climbed out of the hole, only to find that Sasaki was trying to stem the bleeding from his wound as he surveyed the situation. Asui and Amajiki crawled up her arm, as Togata walked out, carrying Aizawa on his back, and several police officers were helping Rock Lock.

"We already called for residents in the vicinity to evacuate!" Uraraka yelled, "But Hakryuen and Eri! Something's off!"

Midoriya growled, and reached out for Eri, who's horn was still glowing.

_Stop! He'll die!_ Eri was close to tears as Midoriya attempted to grab her arm in midair, and Aizawa's finger twitched, causing Togata to turn to the Erasure hero.

"Froppy!" Togata yelled, as Asui looked up, before gently tilting Aizawa's head until he was looking directly at Eri, and Aizawa's eyes glowed red, erasing Eri's quirk.

Eri's horn stopped glowing, and Midoriya quickly grabbed her, pulling her in and using his own body to protect her as they fell to the ground. Midoriya flipped around, landing directly on his feet, bending his knees and using his legs to absorb the impact, before he fell to the side, panting.

Midoriya coughed up some blood as he tried to push himself up, cradelling a barely conscious Eri gently, and Sasaki gazed at them, "I... I saw it... Chisaki succeeded in his escape... with Eri... and Midoriya dies... That's... the immutable future I saw... I even tried to change it... but the outcome was the same... I did not see... this future..."

_Does that mean... that it can be changed?_

Togata quickly rushed forwards, having left Aizawa to Asui, and helped Midoriya up, pressing his hand against Eri's flushed face, "She's feverish. Come on, let's go."

Midoriya gave the older boy a small nod, as Togata supported Midoriya as they slowly walked back to the other heroes.

Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, and Midoriya tensed up, much to Togata's confusion, as they heard the sound of rubble moving behind him. The ground started rumbling, and before the blonde could react, Midoriya hastily shoved Togata out of the way as he whirled around, shifting his body as a gigantic stone spike erupted out of the ground, impaling Midoriya all the way through.

Midoriya coughed out a mouthful of blood, as Togata stared at the younger boy in shock; if Midoriya hadn't reacted in time, Chisaki would have run both him and Eri through. Instead, he just opted to take the brunt of the fatal attack. Chisaki pushed himself up, healing all his wounds with his quirk, cackling, "People these days are so fixtated on quirks and their stupid sense of heroism and villany! It's all a disease! I'm trying to cure humanity! You're quirkless; you should understand fully well what I'm talking about! But now you're reduced to this!"

Tears rolled down Eri's face as she glanced to the side, noticing the stone spike that was inches from her arm. Midoriya gently reached up, and patted her back, "Don't worry. It doesn't even hurt."

"How can... it not hurt..." Eri cried, as Midoriya passed her to Togata. It really didn't hurt, he could barely feel his own body, and everything was foggy and blurred, but only one thing was clear; Chisaki. Midoriya took out a knife, and lodged it into the spike, breaking through it, before he tried to pull the spike out of his abdomen.

"Stop, you'll just kill youself." Togata tried to stop the boy, but Midoriya just yanked the spike out and threw it to the side, ignoring the blood that was pouring out of his wound like a leaky faucet.

"Chisaki would stop at nothing to get Eri back. Right now, you're the only one strong enough to protect her. Just go. And don't turn back." Midoriya muttered, taking out a knife, before he leapt at Chisaki.

"No!" Eri yelled, reaching out, before she coughed, her small body shaking, and Togata wrapped his arms around the girl. Midoriya was risking everything for Eri. The least he could do was to ensure that Eri got out safe and sound.


	83. Chapter 83 - If it means the death of me

1-A just watched as Midoriya pulled himself out of the hole, blood streaming down his face, before turning to the girl with white hair and clutching a red tattered piece of cloth.

"Dude... he's not in good shape. That's a hell of a lot of blood." Kaminari muttered; he and Ashido had finished clearing up the kitchen in record time, wanting to get back to the news.

"Who's that girl though?" Todoroki asked, squinting at the screen. Koda and Shinsou were gazing at the screen nervously, as the commentator tried to get the helicopter closer,_ "And it looks like... I think that boy there is the quirkless student from UA... Midoriya Izuku, I believe that's his name. And a girl. Where are the pros?"_

Suddenly, a gigantic fleshy hand reached out of the hole, grabbing onto the edge, and Hagakure shrieked.

"What on earth is that!?" Jiro yelped, as she watched the gigantic form of Chisaki crawl out of the hole, "Midoriya, get out of there!"

"Holy shit..." Sero gaped at the sheer number of appendages that Chisaki had, "Is he even human!?"

_"She has no control. She may have activated it at a good time, but she doesn't know how to stop it. Isn't that right, Eri? She rewinds humans. That's who Eri is. Depending on how you use her, it might even be possible to turn a person back into a monkey. You keep carrying her like that... the second you make physical contact with her, you'll be annihilated. Everyone who touches her will be rewound into nothingness. That girl's quirk is cursed!"_

"Eri... her name's Eri..." Todoroki muttered, as Jiro turned to him, "That's all the information you got from that!?"

_"That's because you only used her, and never taught her how to control it! There's no such thing as a cursed quirk!"_

"Dude... Midoriya's _pissed_." Kaminari muttered, "But like, please, don't aggravate the villain, Midoriya! Please?!"

_"Hand her over! There's no way to stop her other than to disassemble her! Unless you want to be annihilated, hand Eri over!"_

_"Over my dead body! I'd rather die than to give her back to you!"_

"Don't threaten the gigantic villain! Midoriya, you're smarter than that!" Ashido begged, shaking her arms around, "Come on, don't piss him off even more!"

_"Neither you nor Eri know the value of her power. Quirks progress markedly when you develop them. By conducting countless experiments, I extracted Eri's power, and succeeded in bringing it to its end point. As a result, it doesn't stop at simply winding back the flesh. It winds back on a much greater scale. It rewinds the course of the species to its unmutated form. That's the kind of power Eri possesses!"_

"Experimentation? That's disgusting! Kick his ass, Midoriya!"

Yaoyorozu watched Midoriya run _towards_ the villain instead of running away, before he was covered by a cloud of dust as stone tendrils erupted out of the ground, and gasped, "Midoriya, what are you doing!? Get away!"

"He can't get away." Shoji muttered, gazing at the screen, "That villain can just reach out and catch him easily. I don't think even Iida can outrun this thing. I think Midoriya's trying to use the villain's size against him."

_"The power to annihilate quirk factors, and turn humans back to normal! Enough power to destroy this world built upon quirks... to destroy the natural order! That's Eri's power! You don't know her value! A punk like you can't exploit an asset like her!"_

"Wait... WHAT!?" Hagakure yelled, "What do you mean, destroying quirks?!"

"What the fuck is going on!?" Bakugou screamed, "Shut the fuck up, you noisy fucks!"

"Bakugou, you should take a look at this." Kaminari said, "This is crazy!"

The explosive blonde raised his eyebrow; if Kaminari was calling him Bakugou instead of Explodey or some other stupid nickname, then it was probably serious. He peered at the screen, and blinked when he saw Chisaki's humongous form lifting his foot up, stomping down on the street.

"What the fuck is that!?" Bakugou snapped, "What kind of fucking movie are you watching this time, Pikachu!?"

"It's not a movie. This is real, live from... uh... where is this?" Jiro asked, as Yaoyorozu turned to her, "No idea. It didn't state where this is."

_"Why won't people look at the big picture!? What I'm going to tear down is this world! It's very framework! Your justice is so small; you only see what's in front you! It's mere sentimentalism! You hero pretenders! Stay out of my way!"_

They could only watch helplessly as Chisaki transformed the appendages into a large set of arms and legs, before Sero gawked, "What kind of quirk is that!?"

Chisaki tried to hit Midoriya, but the smaller boy just dodged and undid the cloth around his arms and lashing onto the gigantic hand, as Kendo burst into the 1-A common room, "We heard a lot of screaming... what's going on- What is that!? Is that Midoriya!?"

"Yeah." Shinsou couldn't really say anything else. Midoriya was already in terrible shape, he had to protect a young girl, and he was up against a monster that he doubted anyone short of Yagi could take out.

"Guys! Come over!" Kendo yelled over to the 1-B dorms, as some of the students slowly walked over to the 1-A common room. "Huh!? Why is 1-A so noisy!? We're better than you in terms of that!" Monoma drawled, before Kendo smacked him, "Not now, dumbass."

Monoma frowned slightly, "What's going on?"

They all watched as Midoriya clung onto the arm of the monster, as the small girl tied to his back reached out, emitting some kind of bright yellow light that flowed through the villain, turning him back into something that looked human. But in that instance, one of the claws ripped through the red cloth, as all of them fell to the ground, Midoriya reaching out towards Eri.

"I see Uraraka!" Ojiro yelled, pointing to the screen, "She's trying to get that guy! Oh, wait he's still conscious, she's going after the other one!"

At the corner of the screen, they did notice Tatsuma climbing out of the hole with the other heroes and students, and Ashido grinned, "Tsu! She's okay! Alright! And Aizawa-sensei!"

"He's not moving... though... was he hit by some kind of quirk?" Iida asked, concerned.

"Not important, they're going to die!" Mineta screeched, as the glow around Eri faded, and Midoriya caught her as they both tumbled towards the ground. Luckily, despite all his injuries, Midoriya was able to right himself in time, landing on his feet, before he fell to the side, exhausted, as he cradled Eri protectively.

Iida let out a sigh of relief, as Togata quickly walked over to check on them, before helping the injured Midoriya back to the other heroes, "Whew... they're okay..."

"That was... intense..." Yaoyorozu slumped into her seat, before Midoriya suddenly tensed up on camera, before he shoved Togata out of the way as he whirled around, a gigantic spike erupting form the ground and narrowly missing Eri, but piercing all the way through Midoriya's abdomen.

"Holy... shit..." Kendo gasped, as Tetsutetsu gasped, "That's so manly."

_"People these days are so fixtated on quirks and their stupid sense of heroism and villany! It's all a disease! I'm trying to cure humanity! You're quirkless; you should understand fully well what I'm talking about! But now you're reduced to this!"_

"That's no reason to try and kill him!" Monoma snapped, as Midoriya handed Eri over to Togata, yanking the spike out of his side, before running back towards Chisaki, "Midoriya, stop!"

"He's stubborn... but he's already so injured..." Awase muttered, "Come on, beat that guy and go get treatment!"

"Don't encourage him!" Iida turned to Monoma, but the blonde just replied, "What? It's not like he can hear me! Plus, what else can he do?!"

"Despite all those injuries... he's still... really... fast though." Kamakiri noted.

* * *

_"Nezu... Midoriya got hit by one of the quirk destroying bullets."_

Nezu tensed up as Aizáwas's voice came through his earpiece, before searching up the file that had the information on the bullets, before Kayama poked her head into the room, "Nezu... you should take a look at this..."

The teachers were crowded around the television in the teacher's lounge, and Nezu spared a glance up at the screen, only to find that Midoriya was attempting to fend Chisaki off.

"That's Chisaki!?" Nezu practically jaw dropped, as Yamada peered at the screen, adjusting his glasses, "Those injuries don't look too good..."

"Who's that girl?" Snipe asked, and Nezu replied, giving them a brief rundown of the situation, "Her name is Eri. Those villains were using her to make drugs."

"That's... terrible!" Kayama gasped, before turning back to the screen, "Midoriya! Kick his ass!"

"Drugs... was it that supposed quirk destroying ones I heard rumours about in the underground?" Ectoplasm asked, and Nezu nodded, "Yes. And Izuku got hit by one of them."

"What... so that means..." Snipe spoke up, before he paused, "Wait... isn't his quirk like... different?"

"Biologically... not too much." Nezu replied, his ears drooping as he stared at the screen.

Yamada's eyes widened, "So... it's very possible that he could..."

Nezu nodded, "Yeah. We can only hope that he'll be alright."

* * *

Midoriya sped forwards, as Chisaki pressed his hand to the ground, narrowly twisting past all the spikes that were emerging from the ground. He jumped backwards as Chisaki tried to grab his arm, before pivoting on his foot as he tried to kick Chisaki.

"Give Eri back! Why do you even bother trying so hard?! I'm the only one who can utilize her power!" Chisaki snapped, "Is it even worth it!? Trying so hard and losing everything for a child that is cursed!? "

"If there's a life I can save by losing everything, I'll be happy to give it all up!" Midoriya growled, "I made a promise to her to get her out!"

For the first time in his life, he finally felt like he was alive.

"I'll just get rid of you first!" Chisaki growled, and raised another spike, but Midoriya just kicked it apart and charged at him again. The news helicopter in the air seemed to get lower, to try and get a better view, and Chisaki looked upwards, snarled, "Get out of the way!"

He slammed his palm against the ground, raising another large spike, but Midoriya jumped in front of it and blasted it apart with a kick, but not before the spike impaled him in the chest.

"Keep your attention on me!" Midoriya spat out some blood, grabbing the spike and pulling it out, before throwing it in Chisaki's direction. The yakuza was forced to jump back to avoid it, and Midoriya landed on the ground, before leaping after him, activating his mask and spewing more fire in Chisaki's direction.

Chisaki yelped as the flames washed over him, and created a stone spike between himself and Midoriya, before repairing his burnt face, watching as Midoriya easily kicked the spike apart and charged at him again.

"I'm trying to rid the world of this disease! Of this sense of heroism and villainy!" Chisaki hissed, as Midoriya got closer. He created a bunch of spikes, but Midoriya either dodged or broke them apart. He sent another spike at Midoriya, as the green haired boy rolled out of the way.

"If you want Eri back so badly... why don't you just take her back? With a quirk like yours... you can easily just attack the other pros. Why are you so intent on attacking me?" Midoriya merely asked, as he stood up, blood dripping out of his wounds, and Chisaki took a step back, away from the boy, growling as he tried to change the topic, "You don't even have a quirk! How on earth are you still alive?! Why won't you just die!?"

Midoriya spat out some more blood, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes, "The truth is... you're scared, right?"

Chisaki flinched, and growled. Scared? What was he afraid of? There was nothing he was afraid of -

"You're scared of me."

The yakuza froze up, as Midoriya turned to look Chisaki in the eye, as an intense pressure flooded the entire area, "You knew that I had figured something out, when you met us. You know what I'm capable of. You specifically tried to get someone to take me out... and failed; you were shocked when Lemillion and I found you in that hallway. Your plan is to control who can and who can't use quirks. In a quirk reliant society like ours, the biggest threat to your plan is someone who doesn't need a quirk."

Chisaki growled, as he took another step back, eyeing the sheer amount of blood that had dripped to the ground. He wanted to attack the child in front of him, but he just couldn't do so.

_No. This wasn't a child. This was a monster._

Midoriya took another step closer, and Chisaki just wanted to _get away_ from him. He couldn't even tear his gaze away as the boy stopped moving, "Someone who thinks that quirks are merely just... a worthless necessity."

Chisaki froze up, and barely noticed as Midoriya rushed at him, two knives in hand, bringing up a wall just in time to avoid getting hit. Midoriya kicked himself off the wall, jumped back, before lunging again, as Chisaki tried to stop the boy with a barrage of spikes, only for his spikes to only emerge late, after Midoriya had already gotten closer.

With the intense pressure hanging in the air, Chisaki couldn't do anything but defend himself as Midoriya kept up a merciless assault. The green haired boy got up close, and Chisaki reached out, desperately trying to grab onto Midoriya to just stop him from moving around so erratically, and Midoriya growled, his eyes practically glowing, "You kept trying to make Eri give up on everything, to trap her, to make her feel despair."

Chisaki only managed to graze his bracer, causing the metal to split apart and fall to the ground, and Midoriya used that opportunity to get behind him, whispering, "Even despair... can become a weapon."

Midoriya slammed the hilt of his knife into Chisaki's head, knocking the villain out, before he muttered, "I'd like to see you repair yourself while unconscious."

The boy stumbled backwards, dropping the knife to the ground, as he tried to regain his balance. Chisaki was out cold, he had done what wanted to do, he was feeling light headed, he could hear the sound of his heart pounding in his chest, and with the threat gone, Midoriya whirled around, desperation pounding in his chest as he looked around, trying to find someone.

He spotted Eri, being carried by Togata, as the hero talked to one of the paramedics, as relief flowed through his entire system.

_She's safe._

His legs turned to jelly, and he collapsed, his vision turning blurry as he watched two figures, one in pink and one in green, run towards him.

* * *

"We have a large number who are seriously injured! Call as many ambulances as you can! Hurry!" Tatsuma yelled, "Go check to make sure we didn't miss any victims! The League of Villains may be nearby! Look for them!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Tatsuma quickly looked around. Uraraka had already gotten Sasaki to an ambulance, but Midoriya was still fending off Chisaki, and Toyomitsu and Kirishima were getting medical treatment. The rest of the heroes and yakuza were already accounted for, but Tatsuma was worried about Midoriya. As exhausted as they were, they needed to make sure that he was alright, especially with all the injuries he was sporting. It didn't help that the damned news helicopter had tried to get closer to get a better shot, and Midoriya had to take another spike to the chest in an attempt to protect them.

Some of the officers had found Hado lying on the surface, exhausted, but other than that, she was relatively alright. Some of the paramedics were looking over Rock Lock and Aizawa, as well as Amajiki, but other than a stab wound on Rock Lock, the others seemed alright, albeit tired.

An intense pressure covered the entire area, making it hard to even breathe. Rock Lock squinted as Midoriya charged at Chisaki again, before muttering, "Is he... getting... faster?"

Uraraka and Asui didn't seem too particularly affected, as Reiko and Ryuto popped out from Aizawa's capture weapon.

"Froppy, Uravity. Once he takes Chisaki out, go get him. He's already pushing himself too much, and he's going to need immediate medical attention." Aizawa ordered, and the two students nodded, watching as Midoriya talked. He didn't speak particularly loudly, but they weren't so far away, and from that distance, his voice was audible.

"He expected this." Tatsuma muttered, "No, he planned this. He knew Chisaki would target him, and he used that to his advantage. This entire time... Chisaki thought he was manipulating everyone, but Midoriya was the one who was pulling the strings."

"He's good." Rock Lock admitted, "You sure he's quirkless? Sounds like he has some sort of intelligence quirk or something."

Aizawa looked away, "Yes. Lemillion even told me that he was hit by one of the quirk destroying bullets."

_"Someone who thinks that quirks are merely just... a worthless necessity."_

In a society where people were judged by the quirks, where people try to take advantage of other people's quirks, to a child who was deemed as quirkless by most of society... it was obvious that Midoriya held some kind of bitterness towards other people, as much as he tried to hide it.

And Aizawa couldn't blame him for it.

It didn't take too long for Midoriya to finally knock Chisaki out, and Uraraka and Asui raced towards him, as the boy collapsed.

"Izuku!" Uraraka yelled, quickly reaching Midoriya, activating her quirk so that both she and Asui could pick him up.

"...Eri..." Midoriya muttered, and Asui gently heaved the light boy up, speaking up, "She's alright, don't worry about her, okay? Eri'll be fine. You saved her, kero."

"Think you can stay awake for a little longer?" Uraraka muttered, as Midoriya mumbled something incoherently under his breath, before turning to Asui, "Froppy."

Asui nodded, "Yeah. We need to get him to the ambulance."

* * *

Eri clutched onto Togata tightly with one hand, squeezing her eyes shut, refusing to let go as one of the paramedics tried to take her for a checkup.

Midoriya had told her not to turn back; she wanted to listen, but all the same, she wanted to check and make sure he was okay. He promised to save her, he promised he wouldn't die, she wanted to believe him, but in her heart, she knew that with all the injuries Midoriya had sustained, especially the spike through his stomach, he wouldn't be able to last long.

_Don't turn back._

"Izuku!"

She heard a yell, and despite everything, she lifted her head, peering over Togata's shoulder, only to see a bloody Midoriya lying on the ground, lifeless.

_You did this._

_If they didn't come to save you, this wouldn't have happened to him._

_Chisaki's right. _

_You really are cursed._

Tears ran down her cheeks, as she squeezed the pendant Midoriya had given her, and Togata turned around, patting the girl on the head, "It's alright. He's a stubborn guy. He'll be fine, okay, Eri?"


	84. Chapter 84 - Lost in the worlds shadows

"Other than exhaustion, there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary."

"Thank you very much." Uraraka gave a slight bow to the doctor, wearing a plain t-shirt and shorts, "But how is everyone else?"

Aizawa opened the curtains, "I went to check on them. Come with me."

Uraraka exited the room, only to find Asui standing beside the Erasure Hero.

"Both you and Asui are fine, just exhausted due to Katsukame's quirk. Kirishima has bruises and lacerations on his whole body, but he'll live. Amajiki cracked a bone in his face, but none of his injuries will leave a scar. Fat Gum has broken bones in a few places, but he seems fine for the most part. Luckily, the blade that stabbed Rock Lock didn't hit any vital organs, so his wound didn't develop into anything serious. Nighteye had a relatively large stab wound, but he'll recover in a few days and be back on his feet. Togata has a couple of bruises and cuts from falling debris, but overall, he's fine." Aizawa spoke up, leading the two girls back to their hospital room, "Your UA uniforms and other belongings are in the room that you're sharing with Hado. Kirishima's in the room next to yours, and he's sharing it with Fat Gum, Amajiki and Togata before Recovery Girl comes to heal up most of the damage. You'll have to stay overnight, but you all should be discharged tomorrow."

"Um... what about Eri, kero?" Asui asked.

"She's feverish, and sleeping. She's being quarantined right now." Aizawa replied.

"Quarantine... so we can't see her?" Uraraka looked at the teacher hopefully, but Aizawa shook his head.

"From the information we got about her, she can't control her quirk that rewinds people. If something activates it again, I'm the only one that can stop her. The only way to possibly touch her is to continuously break yourself over and over in a short span of time, and not many people can do that. Plus, her quirk might become powerful enough to surpass that, so it's out of the question anyway. Since it doesn't work on the buildings or the ground, but only on living things, training to teach her control isn't something we can approach lightly. Thinking about her emotional state on top of the unknowns, right now, it would be the most logical to keep her quarantined. For her sake as well. In other words, we can't depend on her quirk. All we can do is accept it."

Uraraka looked up, worried, "What about Izuku? He had so many injuries..."

Aizawa looked away, as he opened the door to the hospital room, "I... The doctors are still treating him. We don't have any news on him either."

"I hope he's okay... kero..." Asui muttered, looking downcast, as Aizawa patted her on the back, "Just rest up for now. We should get more news later. For now, the students are to return to school, but I believe that some police officers might be questioning you over what just happened today. Plus... there's some paperwork. I think Ryukyu would run it through with you."

* * *

Kirishima stretched, and yawned, "Man... it feels so good to be out of the bandages."

He pulled his uniform on, as Amajiki gazed at him tiredly; he wanted to go back and sleep. Shuzenji's quirk had drained them of some energy, though with Uraraka, Asui and Hado's help, they managed to finish up most of the paperwork under Toyomitsu's guidance. Awata and Moashi had been discussing some more paperwork with Togata, and the blonde kept smiling cheerfully, trying to keep the mood light.

"Hey... where's Sir?" Togata asked, slipping on his shirt, as Awata sighed, "I'm not sure. He wanted to be alone at the moment."

Aizawa knocked on the door, and entered, as Togata buttoned up his uniform, "Are you all good to go? With that attack the League did on the carrier for Chisaki... we figured it might be safer to chauffeur all of you back to UA at one go."

"Oh...yeah... that happened..." Kirishima muttered, as Aizawa sighed, "It isn't something you should feel responsible for. None of us would have expected the League to do that."

"Can't we at least stay until Eri wakes up? Or Izuku..." Uraraka trailed off, and Aizawa replied, "Even if you stay... the situation wouldn't change. All we can do is to leave Eri and Midoriya to the doctors."

"But it's been a day already, kero. At least, we know that Eri is in quarantine, but we know nothing about Midoriya." Asui argued.

Aizawa was about to say something when a doctor walked up to him, gently tapping the hero on the shoulder, "Are you... Eraser Head?"

Aizawa turned, and nodded, "Yes, how may I help you?"

"We have some news regarding the patient Midoriya Izuku."

"Izuku!?" Uraraka immediately stood up, "Is he okay!?"

The doctor glanced at her, and turned to Aizawa in confusion, as the Erasure hero replied, "They're all friends and classmates. They deserve to know as well."

The doctor turned to the room, seeing the rest of the students inside, before he spoke up, "I... don't want to be the bearer of bad news... He's still in critical condition, but unfortunately, I don't think he'll live to see tomorrow."

Uraraka blinked, registering what the doctor was saying before she yelped, "What do you mean by that?!"

She had to be physically restrained by Asui, as Togata walked up, "But... why..."

"On the ambulance ride itself, we almost lost him two times. He's pushed his body past his limits, and even Recovery Girl can't do anything with her healing at this point, with him being so exhausted. He's barely alive, and we really can't do anything more at this point... but he's still hanging on. We're calling for help from other hospitals, but we don't know if he'll be able to last long enough for help to arrive. It's a miracle that he even managed to last this long... but it's doubtful that he'll make it."

Aizawa closed his eyes, and exhaled, "Can we... visit him?"

The doctor nodded, "Yeah. I'll lead the way."

"Alright." Aizawa turned to the students, "Leave your stuff here. We'll pick them up later."

* * *

Sasaki looked up, as he watched the doctor walk into the room, with Aizawa and the six UA students trailing after him. They were in a room adjacent to Midoriya's, with a glass window allowing them to look into the room. Uraraka gently pressed her hand against the window, peering through the glass, watching as the doctors in the next room bustled around Midoriya's bed. Reiko and Ryuto were perched on the ledge, barely moving as they watched the doctors treat their human.

The boy looked so small as he lay lifelessly on the bed, covered in bandages with a multitude of scanners and tubes protruding out of the two holes in his torso, the only indication that he was alive being the heart rate monitor and the faint cloud of condensation on the oxygen mask the greenette was wearing.

"... Sir..." Togata spoke up, as Sasaki glanced at the blonde boy. Sasaki looked away, not sure what to say to his intern, as Togata reached up, patting Sasaki on the shoulder, "It's... not your fault, Sir."

Sasaki remained quiet, before Togata spoke up again, giving his mentor a shaky smile, "Smile... that's what you... always told me, right? A society without cheer and humour... will not have a bright future... right? We just have to believe that he'll make it."

"He'll make it." Uraraka clenched her fists, holding in her tears, "Izuku... he didn't come so far... to just die now. He'll live."

"Ochako..." Asui patted Uraraka on the back, as Amajiki pressed his head against the wall, "First it was Kirishima... then it was Midoriya... why do all the first years have to keep risking their lives when they're barely a week into the internships?"

"Amajiki-senpai... you know that wasn't your fault... and Fat Gum had to help me too!" Kirishima tried to encourage Amajiki, but to no avail.

Hado huffed, and pulled Amajiki away, "Being depressed isn't going to help anyone. We should go now... too many people might distract the doctors, and we are getting a little noisy. Like Togata said, all we can do now is smile and hope for the best!"

"But... wasn't there more that I could have done?" Uraraka muttered, "Maybe... if I had taken Chisaki out when I had the chance... Izuku wouldn't have been so badly injured..."

"Uraraka." Aizawa gently patted her shoulder, "You did everything that you could. The responsibility lies with us. I won't tell you to be positive right away, but I want you to take this and think about what you want to do."

* * *

"It feels like... we haven't been back in a long time..." Uraraka muttered, as she, Asui and Kirishima stood outside the 1-A dorms.

"Yeah." Asui replied, and Kirishima took a deep breath, "Let's go."

Uraraka pulled open the door, and let the others in, before Mineta raced towards the door, yelling, "They're back! Those guys are back!"

Pretty soon, all the other students who were sitting around the common room crowded around them, including those from 1-B.

"We were all worried about you." Tokage heaved a sigh of relief, as Sero nodded, "Yeah! We saw the fight on the news, and everything after it!"

"Looks like you guys had a rough time." Kendo butted in, "Are you okay!?"

"You troublesome kids!" Aoyama piped up, as Sato brought out a cake, "Anyways, have some chocolate cake!"

"With Kamino and that giant monster this time, you guys keep getting involved in some crazy stuff!" Kaminari practically screeched in their faces, "It's really scary, you know!"

Kirishima sweatdropped, "Sorry..."

Hagakure wrapped her arms around Asui and Uraraka, "Ochako, Tsu, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Ah...t-thanks..." Uraraka awkwardly replied, as Asui ribbited, not really sure what to do. Iida promptly jumped up, separating the three students from the other members of the hero course, and waved his arms, "Everyone! I know that you were worried, but let us all just please, calm down! We all saw the news! A lot has happened to them. If you're their schoolmates, you should console them and let them rest quietly! Because I'm sure it's not just their bodies, but also, their spirits must also be worn down."

"Tenya..." Uraraka spoke up, trying her best to smile, remembering what Togata had said, "Thanks, but... it's fine."

Iida pushed up his glasses, "Then... if I may..."

The blue haired boy just walked up to all of them, before chopping his arms around erratically, "I was extremely worried about you guys! Jeez, you guys! You guys!"

"You're being the noisiest." Sero commented, as Yaoyorozu turned to go to the kitchen, "I'll make some lavender herb tea. It'll help ease your spirits."

"I'm just glad that they're okay..." Shoji muttered in relief, as Jiro turned to him, "Are they okay? I guess they are... though they do seem a little stiff..."

"Why didn't you tell us about what was going on!? We were super surprised, too!" Kaminari whined, as Sato tried to stuff a slice of chocolate cake in Kirishima's mouth, with the redhead trying to answer with his mouth full, "Sorry... there... was a... gag order..."

Monoma did a quick mental count, "Where's Midoriya? Wasn't he with you guys?"

Asui, Kirishima and Uraraka froze up as Shinsou turned to the blonde, "I mean... did you see his injuries? I'm not surprised that they would want to keep him in the hospital for a few more days."

"Kirishima... are you okay?" Ashido asked, as she held Yuwai, "Ochako... Tsu... are you guys okay?"

"Does it have to do with Midoriya?" Ojiro asked, as Kirishima looked away gloomily. Asui opted to stare at the ground, as Uraraka spoke up, "The doctors... said he might not make it."

There was silence. Even Bakugou, who had been swearing at Kaminari, was quiet, as they all processed what Uraraka had said.

"What... do you mean..." Iida blinked, as Uraraka turned away from him, "He pushed himself too hard. They said... that he might not even live to see tomorrow."

"I... see..." Shinsou muttered, his heart clenching, not really sure how to feel or react, as the entire room fell into silence once again.

"I think... we should let them rest." Iida spoke up, breaking the silence, "Come on, I bet you're all tired, after what happened... If you need anything, just message us. I'll bring some of Yaoyorozu's tea up for you guys."

* * *

"She's much better now, but we don't know how stable she is emotionally. Given that if anything reminds her of the event, which could lead to her quirk could go out of control, visitors are not allowed to see her unless you're around with your quirk, Eraser." One of the nurses said. "But her horn did shrink as her fever went down. It's now the size of a small bump."

Aizawa nodded, as he peered into the room, seeing Eri lying down quietly on the bed, slightly flushed, but overall, she looked better than before.

Eri's eyes fluttered open, as she stared at the ceiling of her hospital room. Her head was still hurting, and there seemed to be something cooling on her forehead.

She closed her eyes, and unconsciously clenched her fists, before she realized that there was nothing in her hand. She bolted up, as pain flared through her head, as she reached up for her neck.

There was nothing, and she looked around in a panic, alerting the doctors outside the room to her condition.

"Dear, what's wrong?" The nurse softly spoke, as Eri looked around nervously. Aizawa gently sat down on her bed, "Eri, are you looking for something?"

Eri nodded sadly, as she hastily checked under the blankets, and the nurse picked up something from the table, and held it out to her, "We found this around your neck, but had to take it off to treat you. We didn't think that you'd want to keep something from Chisaki, but you were holding it so tightly that it must be important to you. Is... this what you were looking for?"

Eri's eyes lit up, and she hesitantly reached out, taking the dragon pendant from the nurse's hand, and put it around her neck, before holding the dragon tightly. She quietly spoke up, "It's... not from him."

Aizawa's gaze softened, "It's Midoriya's, isn't it?"

Eri tilted her head in confusion, "Mido...riya?"

Aizawa raised his eyebrow, "Uh... green fluffy hair, black jacket? That kid."

Eri nodded, "Oh... Izuku..." She glanced down at the dragon, "He... promised me... he would get me out... he promised me... he wouldn't die... He told me to take care of it for him."

Aizawa gently patted her on the head, "Don't worry about him, okay. He'll be fine."


	85. Chapter 85 - Just born to fade

Uraraka, Asui, and Kirishima had opted to have counseling sessions with Inui before they were due to have extra lessons to go through all the school work they missed due to their work studies. All of them felt that they could have done more, and not just let Midoriya take the brunt of the attacks, as Inui tried to tell them than they've already done the best they could, and if even the pros were having trouble, with all their experience, the students shouldn't be so hard on themselves; with Katsukame's quirk draining their energy, and Rappa having such an intense attacking style, they've already done enough by helping the pros.

But it still wasn't enough. With everything going on, as much as the students tried to focus on their work, they just couldn't. And the teachers couldn't really blame them; all of them were equally upset over the entire situation.

"Hey, Mineta, did you see this?" Kaminari asked, trying to lighten the heavy mood as he showed an article on his phone to Mineta.

"What's the rating?" Mineta asked, as Kaminari replied, "All ages. Mt Lady and Edgeshot have teamed up. Kamui Woods is there, too."

"Mt Lady?" Mineta jaw dropped, as Jiro peered over Kaminari's shoulder, "Team Lurkers, right? People have been talking about them for a while."

"A lot of heroes are teaming up these days, huh?" Kaminari grinned, as Ashido shouted, "Once we're pros, let's team up too! Ochako, you can make me float! And we can make acid rain!"

"Isn't that kind of cruel?" Uraraka asked, as Ashido continued, "Sero can control me with his tape."

Sero tilted his head upwards in confusion, "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Koda and Shoji and Jiro can be scouts! We'll be called "Team Rainy Day"!" Ashido finished, and Jiro nodded halfheartedly, "Okay."

"What about us!?" Kaminari and Mineta yelled, and Ashido stuck her tongue out "Don't need you!"

"When you team up, you don't just look at quirks..." Yaoyorozu added, "Compatibility of personalities is also important..."

Hagakure paused before responding, "Yaomomo... that's just making it worse..."

"Everyone, start moving, or you'll run out of time to change!" Iida yelled, moving his arms about, as his classmates grabbed their hero costumes, with the only case remaining on the shelf being Midoriya's.

Just seeing the remaining costume case reminded everyone of how Midoriya was still being hospitalized, and everyone's mood fell. As much as they tried to lighten the mood with talk about their future careers, they can't help but remember that one of their classmate's careers could have ended before it even began.

Shinsou grabbed his case, and Kirishima patted him on the shoulder, "He'll be alright. I trust that he'll be alright. He wouldn't want all of us to be brooding over him; Midoriya's really manly like that."

The lavender haired boy slowly nodded, just to placate the redhead, but deep inside, he knew that the others wouldn't really understand. Midoriya wouldn't want them to be upset about him, that was for sure, but that was only because he felt that he wasn't worth it. He didn't think that anyone would care about him.

"I need to get stronger." Kirishima suddenly spoke up, "That villain... he easily broke through my Hardening... I need to make myself so strong, that it will never be broken apart. I'll be the perfect defense, and that would be my perfect offense."

Shinsou watched as the redhead walked over to Bakugou to annoy him, only to get blasted, before he straightened up, and walked to the gym with vigor. The only thing they could do now was to get stronger, and make sure that something like this would never happen again.

* * *

"Are you... okay?" Koda asked softly, as Shinsou stared at his homework, tapping his pen against the table. Uraraka was lounging in one of the chairs in the study room on the second floor, texting Hado, hoping she might have more information on Midoriya, as Iida tried to help Todoroki with his English homework. As the 1-A dorms had thirty two rooms, and only twenty one of them were occupied with students, they had converted several of the empty rooms on the female side of the dorms for other uses.

There was a generic study room on each floor, and on the third floor, there was a mini library, though it was mostly used as a room for Yaoyorozu and Iida to store some of their books. One of the rooms was also converted into a walk-in closet for the girls, where some of them stored their outfits, though for obvious reasons, they kept it locked, and the key was kept in Yaoyorozu's possession.

"I..." Shinsou sighed, leaning back so that he was lying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling, "I don't know. Izuku's already done so much for me... and with everything happening, I just feel like I can't make it up to him."

Todoroki raised his eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Oh yeah... you did mention that Izuku saved you six years ago." Uraraka sat up, putting her phone in her pocket.

Shinsou sat up, resting his head against his elbows, "You remember... that my quirk was considered as villainous... right?"

Todoroki nodded, "I remember that guy who harassed you during the Sports Festival..."

"And... one of those villains... during that attack in the USJ..." Koda softy added in.

Shinsou sighed, "Yeah... well... my parents... kind of hated me for it. My birth parents, anyways... not the ones I have now."

"Oh..." Iida nodded, already having an idea of what had happened since he knew Aizawa and Yamada, and Uraraka pieced together some of the information, "Before we went to Kamino... you mentioned abuse... did they... well... do that?"

Shinsou nodded slowly, "Yeah... well... there was once I just... ran away, and accidentally ran into some criminals. But this guy in a black hoodie just... jumped in and chased the villains away."

"Izuku?" Todoroki asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Yeah, but I didn't know it was him at that time. He kind of just... asked what I was doing in the middle of night, and I don't know... I just told him. Everything. He told me to go back, and he'd get some help."

"Well, I'm pretty sure he did get help." Uraraka asked, "So... which hero did he call?"

"Aizawa-sensei."

Todoroki's eyes widened, "No way."

"Isn't Aizawa-sensei some underground hero, though?" Iida asked; he did know roughly what had happened, but he wasn't too sure about the details, "How did Izuku get into contact with him?"

"Well... Izuku was a vigilante... right? Maybe he ran into him at some point?" Koda suggested.

Shinsou shrugged, "I'm also not too sure, but from what I know, he ran into Mic-sensei and got him to pass along a message."

Iida nodded, "Well... I can understand that you feel indebted to him."

"Yeah... but... that was the only time I saw him actually smile." Shinsou replied, and Uraraka widened her eyes, "He smiled? He always looks so... troubled... though... I know people can change a lot in six years... but that big of a difference?"

Shinsou let out a sad smile at the memory, "Exactly. Back then, he had such a bright smile. I just... want to see him smile again."

"Well, we got this little peppermint to smile." Uraraka pointed at Todoroki, and the dual hair coloured boy mock glared at her, "I am not a peppermint. But... I agree that Izuku has never really seemed happy."

"He seems to trust us, maybe once he's out of the hospital, we can all go out for a group outing." Iida added.

"On another note..." Todoroki asked, "Aizawa-sensei is your dad, huh?"

"Well... yeah? Why?" Shinsou asked, as Todoroki smirked, "I knew it. Secret love child, confirmed."

"Wait, what?!" Shinsou bolted up, "Shoto, what the hell!?"

Todoroki just took out his phone, "Long hair, eyebags, capture weapon, I knew it. You're his secret love child!"

"I'm adopted!" Shinsou whined, but Todoroki just replied, "Same thing."

Uraraka and Koda just laughed as Iida tried to stop Todoroki and Shinsou from arguing,

* * *

Nezu sat outside the operating theatre, trying to do some work while he waited, but he just couldn't get his mind off his injured kid. It had been three days after Midoriya had rescued Eri, and despite everything the doctors had done, they had no choice but to wait for other doctors with better, more suitable quirks to arrive. Waiting just felt like an eternity, but luckily, by some miracle, Midoriya managed to last long enough for the external help to arrive.

The doors finally opened, and several doctors, including Shuzenji, walked out, and the Youthful Heroine was talking to other doctors as they continued on their way. One of the other doctors walked up to Nezu, and the small mammal practically leaped off his seat, as Reiko and Ryuto, who were curled up on the seat next to Nezu's, perked up, as the doctor spoke up, "Nezu, right? You're registered here as Midoriya Izuku's guardian?"

Nezu nodded, and the doctor murmured, "Over the course of the past few days... we almost lost him a few times, but... I... still don't know how he managed to last this long, but with the help of the other doctors... he's out of the danger zone. His injuries were pretty severe... and according to his hospital records, this is the third time so far that he's received injuries that... You know what I'm talking about. It's a miracle that he's still alive, and... well... we don't know how stable he would be emotionally or mentally."

Nezu nodded, as the doctor continued, "I'm sure you're aware of the two injuries he received on his torso... we managed to patch them up, but when he wakes up, we'll have to keep him on an IV drip, at the very least, until his internal organs have recovered sufficiently before letting him on a liquid diet. That covers the injury on his abdomen, but the one on his chest is more severe. We had to heal his lung and some of his ribs, and he was really lucky that he wasn't hit in the heart. That part of the body is delicate, and while the intercostal muscles heal, even after we discharge him back to under Recovery Girl's care, he might occasionally feel some pain in the chest area if he gets too emotional or stressed. He also shouldn't do any intense exercise until Recovery Girl says so."

"Noted." Nezu nodded, and the doctor finished up, "Lastly... while it's not as vital as the other two injuries... his right shoulder joint, as well as some of the bones around that area, were completely shattered. We pieced the bones back together, as well as done reconstructive surgery on the muscles in that area. He won't be able to use his right arm for at least a month, taking Recovery Girl's quirk into account. I'm just... worried... he's accumulating too many serious injuries in a short amount of time... if he breaks something again... we won't be able to fix it. There's only that much we can do."

"I understand." Nezu looked away, as the doctor said, "I'll bring you to his room. I've heard about the feline and the avian... and while we don't usually allow animals inside, I think we should make an exception."

It took a few minutes for the doctor to lead Nezu to Midoriya's hospital room, and the small mammal gently pushed open the door, noticing Midoriya lying on the bed, completely still, a blanket draped over his thin frame. His left eye, along with his right arm and his chest was covered by bandages, though Nezu was pretty sure that the rest of Midoriya's body was covered in bandages under the blanket. An IV was connected to his hand, and a heart rate monitor was beeping every now and then, and Nezu moved to stand by the bed, as Reiko and Ryuto hopped onto the bed to settle down beside their human.

"I'm not sure when he'll wake up, but it'll probably take a day or two." The doctor said, before he exited the room.

Nezu reached out, gently brushing his paw through Midoriya's fluffy green curls, before he sat down into one of the chairs by the bed, watching as Midoriya's chest rose and fell as he breathed.

He was going to have to have a talk with his kid about self preservation, but for now, he could relax, knowing that he was alive.


	86. Chapter 86 - I won't let go

Hado and Amajiki were trying to help Uraraka, Kirishima and Asui regarding some of the details of their work studies; while it was unlikely that the Fat Gum agency and Ryukyu agency were going to end their contracts with the trio, given that UA didn't really want to put any more students in danger and was toning down what the first year students were allowed to do on their work studies, and the two third years were just trying to get a good idea of what might interest the students, while also being useful to the hero agencies that they were currently working for.

"I HAVE NEWS!" Togata burst into the 1-A dorms, quickly gathering everyone's attention. Iida was in the middle of berating Shinsou about needing to eat a proper meal, while Todoroki and Bakugou had been arguing about something. Hado looked up from the paper that she was writing on, and smiled, "Hey, hey, what's the news? You look really happy, it must be good! Tell us, tell us!"

Togata grinned, and threw his arms into the air, "Sir just told me that Midoriya's no longer in critical condition! He's still unconscious, but he should wake up in a few days!"

Uraraka and Kirishima immediately grinned, and the redhead punched the air, "Alright! That's great!"

"I told you'll make it!" Uraraka yelled, as Iida grabbed Shinsou by the shoulders, very literally shaking him out of his stupor, "That's great! Isn't it, Hitoshi!?"

"You might want to calm down... I think he's going to get sick." Kaminari sweatdropped, as Hagakure wrapped her arms around Asui and Uraraka as she jumped up and down, "That's awesome! Can we go see him?"

"Well, not now." Togata replied, "Sir told me that the doctors didn't want too many visitors at the moment so that it's easier to check on him, but maybe in a few days!"

"I told you... he's as bright as the sun... Too bright..." Amajiki muttered, turning away from all the yelling and cheering first years, as Hado slung her arm around him, "Aww, come on. Sure, you're awkward around lots of people, but you're happy too!"

"We should ask Aizawa-sensei, kero." Asui spoke up, "Since he goes to the hospital to check up on Eri."

"Eri? The girl that you guys rescued... right? Why is Aizawa visiting her?" Shoji asked, as Ashido pipped up, "That's not important! How old is she? She looked pretty young on television... She has white hair, right? Is she cute?"

Shinsou added in, "She has a horn of some sort... right?"

Kirishima turned to him, "Eh? How did you know?"

The lavender haired boy shrugged, "Izuku's been doodling in classes, before you guys went on that rescue mission. I kind of saw one of the drawings in his notebook before he packed his bag."

Uraraka looked at Hado questioningly, only to find that the older girl was on her phone, before Hado tugged on Amajiki's sleeve, "Hey, what did Fat Gum say?"

"He hasn't replied..." Amajiki muttered, staring at his phone screen, as Uraraka's phone buzzed. She pulled it out, seeing a text message from Aizawa.

_"You can tell the class about Eri. They've already seen and heard about her on the news, and with all of your involvement in her rescue, it is likely that they'll end up meeting her sometime in the future."_

Uraraka's face lit up, and Todoroki walked over to Uraraka, looking at the message on her phone, "Oh. You had to get permission first."

"Yep!" The brunette grinned, "Aizawa-sensei said it was okay. Though I haven't really had any interactions with Eri before..."

"Eri's adorable." Togata piped in, "She's a bit shy, though. I'm sure all of you would love her!"

* * *

Eri was sipping on a small juice pack a nurse had given her, as she gazed out of the window. Aizawa settled down on the seat beside her bed, leaning against the wall, as he gazed at the small girl.

"Um... Mr Eraser?" Eri turned to him, and tilted her head, "Can I... make a request?"

"Yes, Eri?" Aizawa asked. This was new; Eri had never ever asked for anything before, whether it being food, comfort, anything, really. She was very obedient, but that was probably due to being conditioned by Chisaki; she just took what she was given, and never complained or asked for more, in fear that she or someone else would be hurt.

"Can I..." Eri spoke up hesitantly, meekly clutching her juice box, "Can I see Izuku?"

Aizawa stared at the girl, not too sure what to tell her. He couldn't exactly tell her that Midoriya had been in critical condition for the past few days, and that the doctors had just barely been able to stabilize him. He already knew that Eri was blaming herself for everyone's injuries, and the entire raid in general, but knowing that Midoriya had almost died to save her? That would tear her apart.

"We'll see." Aizawa nodded, "I'll ask the doctors about it."

"Okay. Thank you." Er softly replied, finishing up her juice, before looking out the window, gazing at the setting sun.

* * *

Reiko gently pressed her paw against Midoriya's cheek, purring, before curling up by Midoriya's neck, as Ryuto played with Midoriya's hair with his beak. He tugged at the bandages lightly, before he just puffed up, and nuzzled the unconscious boy.

Nezu had been doing some work in the hospital room, and had fallen asleep, curled up on one of the chairs, as Sasaki silently observed the sleeping boy.

Sasaki sighed, and leaned back into his chair. If he had tried harder, and wasn't so affected by seeing a dire future, maybe he could have helped to take Chisaki down. If he had planned the entire raid better, and maybe recruited a few more heroes, they would be able to defeat the Yakuza without putting all the students' lives at risk. If they had just been more cautious, and had sent out the two students with a pro hero each instead of pairing them together, maybe they could have saved Eri before the entire raid even occurred.

Kirishima was a powerful, cheerful asset to the Fat Gum Agency. Asui and Uraraka's versatile quirks, along with their control, made them valuable to the Ryukyu Agency. Midoriya may not have a quirk, but he was a smart, intelligent child, who looked into details and solved problems with unique and effective methods. He wasn't the most talkative person, nor was he capable of bringing up the mood, but he tore problems down to their most basic forms, and solved it from there, straight to the point. He planned ahead, and while he didn't really make contingency plans, Midoriya was easily capable of coming up with solutions on the fly. Like the others, he was a unique and valuable asset to the agency.

And because of Sasaki's failure to see that the future could be changed, to create more back up plans, to get more help from other heroes, they almost lost the boy.

Sasaki watched as Nezu yawned, and stretched, sitting up on his chair as he checked his phone for the time.

Nezu gazed at the smaller boy, and sighed, before looking at Sasaki.

"It's not your fault, Nighteye."

Sasaki turned away, "I shouldn't have allowed the kids to join. Mirio, Hado, and Amajiki have enough experience, but the first years? Yes, I know that Midoriya has his own experiences... but it's not enough. Even most of the top pros would have trouble beating a monster like Chisaki... Midoriya had to end up getting Eri to use her powers to weaken him, before finishing him off himself. He nearly died, Nezu."

"I am aware of that." Nezu solemnly replied, "However, Izuku's a stubborn kid. Once he knew that Eri was in danger, there was no doubt that he was going to do something to solve it. If he wasn't aware that you were already planning a raid, I find it highly likely that Midoriya would have tried to infiltrate the yakuza's hideout on his own. He would never sit back and let something bad happen, especially if he knew it would happen."

Sasaki gazed once more at the unconscious boy, as Nezu continued, "To him... if he could have done something, but he didn't... if something bad happened, then it was his fault."

"But if he did something and something bad still happened, he would still blame himself. All the kids are... in some way... guilty, thinking that they could have done more." Sasaki replied, "It's a hard reality that all heroes have to face, sooner or later. You can't save everyone. Just that... do we really want kids to experience that so soon?"

"They already know the pain of not being able to save everyone." Aizawa muttered, gently opening the door and entering the room.

"Hello, Aizawa." Nezu greeted, "How's Eri?"

"Eri's doing fine, but she's asking to see Midoriya. I... wasn't too sure what to tell her." Aizawa replied, "Out of everyone, she seems most attached to him, though I'm not really surprised, given that he was the first one that Eri very literally bumped into, and that he was the one that eventually rescued her from Chisaki."

Reiko purred, gently patting Midoriya's cheek, before she purred loudly, getting the attention of Nezu, Aizawa and Sasaki.

Suddenly, the frequency of the beeping increased, and the three heroes turned their heads to look at the greenette. The boy tilted his head to the side slightly, his fingers twitching, and Nezu immediately hopped off his chair to stand beside the bed.

The green haired boy coughed weakly, before opening his lone visible, "Ne... Nezu..?"

"Yeah. It's me." Nezu sighed in relief, gently reaching a paw out to pat Midoriya's hand. Sasaki hastily pressed one of the buttons on the wall, alerting the doctors, as Aizawa stood awkwardly in the corner of the room, not really sure what to do, before deciding to scoop up Reiko and Ryuto.

It didn't take long for a few doctors to rush into the room, ordering the three heroes to leave the room so that they could check up on Midoriya.

* * *

"So... how are you feeling?" Nezu softly asked, as Midoriya blinked blearily at him. According to the doctors, his kid didn't seem to have any brain damage or memory loss. He could go back to the dorms in a few days, provided that Shuzenji checked up on his daily regarding the two injuries on his torso, and his arm.

They did recommend that Midoriya used a sling for his arm, but Nezu highly doubted that a sling was going to stop the boy from using it.

Sasaki and Aizawa were standing outside the room, talking, giving the principal some privacy with his pup, as the doctors adjusted the bed so that Midoriya could sit up, and still lean backwards on the bed.

Reiko happily pressed her paw against Midoriya's cheek, as Ryuto nuzzled Midoriya's neck, chirping contently, as Midoriya tiredly gazed at Nezu, "... Tired... Feels like... I got run over... by a steam roller..."

Nezu blinked, before continuing, "You... don't really seem to mind the blanket..."

"Thin..and light... not really suffocating..." Midoriya hoarsely replied, trying to grab the cup of water one of the nurses left for him with his left, uninjured arm, and drinking out of it with the straw.

"How's... Eri? I thought... she had a fever..." Midoriya muttered, as Nezu replied, "Well, she's fine now. Recovering well. She's actually been asking for you."

"That's... good. Who's... going to take care of her once she's discharged?" Midoriya asked, as Nezu hummed to himself, "Well, most likely, it's Aizawa, since she can't control her quirk and the only one who can shut it off is him."

The principal looked at Midoriya, "You really care about Eri, don't you? You seem really attached to her."

Midoriya leaned back, blinking wearily, "Everyone around her kept hurting her... she had no one to rely on... the person taking care of her... just used her... for his own selfish goals... No one cared about her... She just... desperately... unconsciously... wanted to be loved and cared for."

Nezu nodded, as Midoriya muttered softly, "She... reminds me of... myself."

That immediately caught Nezu's attention, "I...I don't want her... to be sad anymore. I want her to be... happy... and free... from the shackles that... he chained her down with..."

"Izuku... are you okay?" Nezu asked. While he was glad that Midoriya was talking, Midoriya wasn't the kind of person who would talk about his past. He talked once, but that was because he was having a mental breakdown, and probably wasn't in too much control over what he was saying. Then again, Midoriya was tired, and did just wake up.

"Okay is... a relative term. What... is the definition of okay?" Midoriya groggily asked, "Being alive? Being able to accept myself for who I am despite hating who I am?"

Nezu really wasn't too sure if Midoriya was really okay if he was saying stuff like that, when the green haired boy turned his head, facing the principal, "For the first time in forever... I finally feel... free. And... that's enough... for me."


	87. Chapter 87 - Past the horizon

Nezu gently patted Midoriya's fluffy hair, watching as the small boy slept, before he exited the room. Despite stating before that he didn't really mind the thin blanket, the boy had still gotten rid of it, before curling up around Reiko and Ryuto protectively.

"How is he?" Sasaki asked, and Nezu replied, "I... think he finally may be able to recover from... everything that's happened in the past. What were you guys talking about?"

Aizawa immediately noticed that Nezu was trying to change the topic, and quickly replied, "We were just discussing whether we should allow the other students to visit. Those that participated in the raid... we agreed that they should be allowed to visit if they wish, though we might want to warn him if Hado's coming; we all know how she's a bit noisy and excitable. But they also have to take extra lessons, since they missed some classes. Given how Midoriya was practically acing all his lessons, I don't think that it would matter so much to him. Maybe Hitoshi, Koda, Iida, and Todoroki could come, too, since they're all pretty close, and they were helpful after the Kamino Incident."

Sasaki raised his eyebrow slightly at the change in topic, but made no comment on it, "I know Eri wants to see Midoriya, but I thought the doctors said that it would be better for her to be kept away from anything that would remind her of the raid."

"They were worried about her quirk going out of control." Aizawa explained, "But now, since her quirk is still pretty much drained, it won't pose too much of a threat at this point in time, and if it does appear, I can erase it. Plus, it's most likely that she will be in UA's care once she is discharged, so it'll be better if she's accustomed to some of the students."

"Maybe we should let a few of them visit first. Didn't the doctors say he could go back to living in the dorms in a few days?" Sasaki asked.

* * *

"Eri wants to see Midoriya, kero?" Asui asked, and Aizawa nodded, "Yeah. Strictly speaking, she's concerned about Midoriya and Togata, and given all that's happened... I don't blame her. It's her first request since being admitted to the hospital."

"Awwnn.. and we'd have to miss it because of lessons..." Uraraka sighed, as Aizawa replied, "The faster you finish up the lessons, the earlier you can see Eri and Midoriya."

"That's right!" Kirishima punched the air, "Come on, let's hurry up and finish all these remedial lessons!"

"Yeah!" Uraraka determinedly nodded.

"Yaomomo said that if we needed help... we could also go to her." Asui added, as Tokoyami asked, "Aizawa-sensei... given everything that's going on... are we still allowed to have these work studies? I thought at minimum, we'd still have to work with the heroes for a month."

"We're still working the details out." Aizawa replied, scratching his head, "I think it's likely that you'd be allowed to continue your work studies, but you'll be focusing on less dangerous cases, and even if you go on patrols, you'll have to be paired with a pro hero at all times. And no more raids, for the time being."

"Makes sense... kero..." Asui muttered, as Aizawa sighed, "Alright, enough chit chat. It's late, and if you want to sleep earlier, we need to finish the lesson."

* * *

"The doctors said it was alright to meet Midoriya." Aizawa spoke up as he entered Eri's room, "Do you want to see him now?"

Eri lit up, and she nodded, inching to the edge of the bed, and attempted to climb off, only to find that she couldn't really reach the floor.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Aizawa awkwardly asked, as he gently picked her up, off the bed; he didn't really know how to treat kids. Sure, he had Shinsou, but the boy had been nine when they had adopted him, and Eri was only six.

Eri shook her head, and Aizawa placed her on the ground, allowing her to put on a small set of shoes. The girl checked her neck, making sure that the dragon pendant was still there, before allowing Aizawa to lead her out of the room.

"Is he... okay?" Eri asked, looking up at Aizawa, and the Erasure hero responded, "He's getting better. You can see for yourself, he'll be fine."

Eri noticed that some of the doctors and nurses she had seen were following behind them, but she tried to ignore it. If she could see Midoriya... then she'd put up with it. It was her fault that he had gotten so badly injured... she needed to make sure that he was okay.

* * *

"Hello, Izuku!" Iida grinned, as he slid open the door. Midoriya had just been sitting on his bed, staring into space, before he looked up at the sound of Iida's voice. Todoroki, Koda, and Shinsou stepped into the room, as Nezu smiled at the four students.

"Kirishima, Tsu, and Ochako wanted to come, but they had to take extra lessons now, since they missed some classes." Todoroki spoke up.

"I thought Togata was coming with you?" Nezu asked, as Koda meekly replied, "He said... he wanted to buy something... Aizawa-sensei also... went somewhere else. The doctors were... the ones that led us here."

"Ah, don't worry about Aizawa. He'd be back in a minute or two." Nezu replied, as the students sat down on the chairs in the room.

"How are you doing?" Shinsou asked, noticing that one of Midoriya's arms were completely wrapped in bandages, and Midoriya hesitantly replied, "I'm... okay..."

"What about your arm? That... doesn't look too good." Todoroki asked, and Midoriya tried to clench his right fist, but all he could manage was to move his fingers slightly, "...Hurts a bit..."

Shinsou blinked. Sure, Midoriya wasn't one to talk a lot, and he usually preferred to sign, but while he did say that he didn't like pizza after the license exam, he had never once admitted that he was in pain.

There was a knock on the door, and Aizawa slowly slid open the door, "There's someone who wants to see you."

Iida turned to the door, not really sure who Aizawa was talking about, when a small girl ran into the room. She slipped out of her shoes, and climbed onto the bed, as the four students tried to figure out what was going on.

"Izuku!" Eri cried, wrapping her arms around Midoriya, as the green haired boy looked at her in confusion, but he still put his one good arm around Eri.

"Secret love child..." Todoroki muttered under his breath, and Shinsou glared at Todoroki, "Seriously?"

"Umm..." Eri reached around her neck, gently taking off the dragon pendant, "I took care of it."

Midoriya gazed at the pendant, and nodded, "You can... keep it..."

Eri vehemently shook her head, kneeling on the bed, before putting the pendant around Midoriya's neck, "It's yours."

"Is that... Eri?" Iida asked, and Midoriya nodded. Eri seemed to just have realized that there were other people in the room, as she tightened her grip around Midoriya, looking at the students and Nezu warily. Midoriya gently patted Eri on the shoulder, and nodded at the students, "They're... friends... it's fine."

Iida nearly screeched. He knew that Midoriya had been a bit awkward around the concept of friends, but for Midoriya to just blatantly say that they were friends just made him so happy.

Eri loosened her grip on Midoriya, turning around to get a better look at the four students, as Reiko purred, gaining Eri's attention. Eri peered down at the feline, as Reiko slowly padded over to her, and flicked her tail. Eri curiously reached out, gently placing her hand on Reiko's back, as the feline purred.

"A cat..." Eri muttered in awe, petting Reiko, as Ryuto gave a small whine, and Eri turned to the hawk in surprise.

"You have... a bird... and a cat?" Eri asked, and Midoriya nodded.

There was another knock on the door, and Togata pushed open the door, smiling, "Hi! I didn't find Eri in her room, so I assumed she'd be here! Here's a fruit basket! You guys can eat some if you like!"

The blonde turned to Eri, "Is there a fruit you like? Can I try guessing? It's peaches, right? Because you're like a peach!"

"Apples..." Eri muttered, staring at the basket of fruits in confusion, as Togata proudly smiled,"That's what I thought! Then let's peel it! Since it's an apple!"

It took a few minutes for Togata to peel the apples for Eri, and the blonde settled down on a chair.

"This whole time, even when I had a fever, I was thinking.. about when you rescued me. But I only knew Izuku's name... I don't know yours." Eri muttered, clinging onto Midoriya, looking at Togata hesitantly, and the third year smiled, "Ah! My name is Togata Mirio! My hero name is Lemillion! but you can just call me Mirio!"

"Hero name?" Eri asked, as Togata replied, "Like a nickname when we save people!"

"...Izuku... do you have a hero name?" Eri hesitantly asked, and Midoriya slowly nodded, softly speaking up, "Hakryuen."

"Haku..." Eri tried to pronounce it, "Hakryuen... Lemillion... and the man wearing glasses... All of you were injured because of me... Because of me... you all suffered... I'm sorry... It was my fault that you lost your power, Izuku..."

"Eri..." Midoriya softly spoke up, "No one thought they were suffering."

Midoriya looked away slightly, "And... I don't have a quirk. I... didn't lose anything."

Aizawa and Nezu knew that it was a lie, but didn't comment on it; Midoriya clearly seemed to be better off without the quirk.

"Oh..." The tension left Eri's shoulders, and Togata nodded, "Yeah! This is what we all think, "I'm glad Eri is okay." There is no point in apologizing to someone who doesn't exist. Don't worry about it. Everyone fought because they wanted to see your smile."

Eri gazed at Togata in confusion, before she tried to contort her face, even trying to use her fingers to pull up the sides of her mouth. Everyone looked at her in confusion, not really sure what she was trying to do, before she put her hands down, tears starting to pool in her eyes, "I'm sorry... How do you smile again?"

She had tried to smile, but to no avail; she couldn't even force herself to do it.

Midoriya bit his lip. They may have rescued her physically, but Chisaki's shadow was still there, looming over Eri, consuming her. They haven't saved Eri, from the shackles that Chisaki had forced on her.

Shinsou gazed at Eri, before noticing just how similar she was to Midoriya. It was no wonder that Midoriya would get so attached to her; he understood and knew first hand exactly what she was going through.

"Sensei... aren't we still going to hold the annual School Festival? Could Eri leave the hospital for just one day to attend it?" Togata turned around, facing Aizawa, as the students looked at him in confusion.

"Festival?" Eri asked, as Iida explained, "Every year, UA holds a School Festival, and there are exhibits, performances, spectacles, food stands, and all sorts of things like that. Since the hero course has the Sports Festival to show off, the School Festival allows for the other courses to make themselves known."

Togata nodded, "The students in school plan things for everyone at school to have fun!"

Iida gave a small grin, "My brother brought me to the School Festival once, I think you'll enjoy it!"

"I was going to tell the class about it next week." Aizawa sighed, as Nezu nodded, "I see where you're getting at. We'll need to talk it over with all the other teachers first."

"Eri, what do you think?" Togata asked, as Eri looked away, "I... thought... about the people who saved me... when I was saved... I thought about how I wanted to know more about everyone."

"We'll tell you more than you want to know!" Togata grinned.

* * *

"So... are you coming back to the dorms soon?" Shinsou asked, as Midoriya gently pet Eri's head. The girl was lying on his bed, using his legs as a pillow, snuggled up with Reiko and Ryuto who were also on his lap. The students had spent the entire afternoon with the green haired boy, and they could already tell that Midoriya was getting tired, a clear indication that he was far from fully recovered.

"I... not sure..." Midoriya softly replied, as Aizawa spoke up, "The doctors said that he could be discharged soon. Though he'll need to check in with Recovery Girl daily, and might have to come back for check-ups every now and then, because of his arm."

"Oh... that's great." Iida grinned, "We'll be waiting for you, back at the dorms!"

Midoriya mutely nodded, blinking, trying to keep himself awake, and Shinsou said, "You're tired, aren't you? And we've stayed for quite some time already. You should just rest, alright?"

Part of him wanted to say that he was alright, and that he could stay awake, but he knew that he was tired, and he just wanted to shut his eyes and block out all the pain for some time. He blearily nodded, and Shinsou smiled, gently reaching out, running his fingers through the greenette's fluffy hair, "We'll see you soon, okay, Izuku?"

* * *

"You got everything?" Aizawa asked, stopping the car right outside the 1-A dorms, and Midoriya nodded, with Reiko and Ryuto tucked safely in his hood.

Eri had been really happy to hear that Midoriya was getting out of the hospital, and Aizawa had assured her that Midoriya, Togata, and the others would be able to visit whenever it was possible.

Midoriya reached around his neck, intending to readjust his collar, only to remember that the collar had been shoved with the rest of his hero costume and was back in UA. He did feel quite uncomfortable without it, though the bandages around his neck were more than sufficient to cover up the scar around his neck.

"Alright." Midoriya opened the car door, and Aizawa said, "The teachers and your classmates already know that you'll be back, but just be careful."

Midoriya tiredly nodded, before he started making his way to the door. He gently pulled the door open, trying to draw as little attention to himself, but the door was uncooperative and creaked.

Pretty much everyone had been in the common room, but with their enhanced hearing, Jiro and Shoji had been the first ones to hear the door open. They immediately turned to the door, gaining everyone's attention, and the other students turned towards the door, noticing the small green haired boy closing the door behind him.

"Midoriya! You're back!" Yaoyorozu smiled, as some of the students started to crowd around him, "We were all worried about you."

Midoriya visibly shrank back from all the attention, as Iida stepped in front of Midoriya, "Now, he just got back from the hospital. You have questions, but I think it's best to let him rest."

"Makes sense." Kaminari nodded, reaching out to pat Midoriya's shoulder, "We all saw the fight. You were awesome!"

Much to his surprise, Midoriya immediately flinched, pain flaring through his entire body as his right arm tensed up. He used his other hand to clutch at the shoulder that Kaminari had touched, gritting his teeth, as Kaminari retracted his arm, "Are you okay? Did I do something?"

"His shoulder, idiot." Ashido whacked Kaminari lightly, "Aizawa-sensei said it was still healing."

"I'm so sorry!" Kaminari yelled, as Midoriya tried to take deep breaths and slow his heart rate.

Midoriya finally managed to get the pain under control, and sighed, "It's... fine..."

"But seriously, dude... are you okay? You look like you're going to drop. Those eye bags look terrible. And your hand is shaking." Kaminari blurted out nervously, as Shinsou tried to clear a path for Midoriya. Iida chopped his arms about, "Like I said, it's better to let him rest!"

* * *

"Look! Look at me!" Ashido stretched, before she jumped into the air and started break dancing.

"Breaking! Breaking!" Hagakure cheered, as Sero grinned, "Pow! Pow!"

"Dancing is her hobby, huh?" Aoyama commented, "But I'll never forget how she burned through my cape."

"If you're going to wear something underneath, then take off your skirt!" Mineta shouted, before Hagakure smacked him, "You can't talk like that!"

"That looks so cool! I want to try too!" Kirishima grinned, and Kaminari piped up, "Why don't you get her to teach you?"

Ashido overheard what Kaminari was saying, and smiled, "Okay, boy! Let's dance!"

"Alright! Let's go!" Kirishima cheered, as Ashido tried to teach him the two-step, "Step forward and back, left and right, and swing both arms..."

Aoyama and Kirishima tried to copy her movements, but their movements were far too rigid.

"I supposed... Mina's fighting style is compatible with her dancing, but Kirishima is a more straightforward attacker." Uraraka hummed, watching as Ashido tried to get the two males to relax. Shinsou turned in his seat, noticing that while Midoriya was discharged, he was still tired, and was currently lying on his table, napping. They had tried to convince the boy to rest for a few more days, but the greenette had been stubborn and insisted on coming to lessons.

"It's nice to be able to apply your hobbies to hero work. Makes you strong! Sato's baking is similar, too. Speaking of hobbies," Kaminari turned to Jiro, "You have an amazing one too, right, Jiro?"

Jiro shyly muttered, "Hey, stop that."

"You know, your room at the dorm, it was like a music store in there! That went past just a hobby!" Kaminari grinned, as Jiro whined, "I said, stop! Can't you just forget about my room?"

"Man, but that was a pro's room! Honestly, it was cool -" Jiro stopped him midsentence with an earphone jack, "Seriously! Stop it!"

Jiro stormed back to her seat, as Kaminari looked around, not really sure why she got so upset over it, "Why...?"

"Everyone, it's almost time for lessons! Please get back to your seats!" Iida ordered, chopping his arms. Luckily for him, his classmates seemed to understand his urgency, and hopped into their seats, seconds before Aizawa entered the classroom.

The Erasure Hero pulled up his sleeping bag, "Um... we're going to have a school festival."

"School festival!" Everyone cheered.

"It's a super normal school event!" Sero yelled, as Hagakure grinned, "Let's decide what we're going to do!"

"Aizawa-sensei, is this really okay? To be so carefree in these times?" Kirishima stood up, worried, as Kaminari turned around, "Kirishima, you've changed."

"But it's true! Villains are flourishing right now!" Kirishima argued, as Aizawa zipped his sleeping bag up, "You're right. That's a very reasonable opinion. However, UA isn't just about the hero course. If the Sports Festival is the big moment for the hero course, the School Festival is for the other courses to shine, like the Support Course, General Education and Business Course. It doesn't get as much attention as the Sports Festival, but for them, it's an event they look forwards to. And there are those who are feeling stressed by the current conditions, which, starting with the dorm system, came about because of the hero course."

"Thinking about it that way... there's no excuse for not holding it." Kirishima muttered.

Aizawa sat down, leaning against a wall, "Yeah. That's why we can't just say we won't have it. Unlike in past years, this year, other than some of the people involved, the festival will just be for the school. Even if we aren't the focus, each class still needs to participate with something. You need to decide that today."

"He's asleep." Everyone muttered.

Iida promptly stood up, and walked to the front of the classroom with a thick stack of paper, "I, Iida Tenya, Class 1-A representative, will take things from here! I'll do my best to help things go smoothly! First, put out some options! If you have a suggestion, raise your hand!"

Most of the people raised their hands promptly, and Iida yelled, "I will definitely consolidate everyone's ideas! Okay, Kaminari!"

"Let's do a maid cafe!" Kaminari suggested, as Iida muttered, "Maids... so we'll be serving others! That's not bad!"

"That's too tame, Kaminari! Do a boo -" Mineta stood up, but he was immediately silenced as a knife flew past his face; even without his dominant arm, Midoriya aim was still deadly accurate.

"A mochi shop!" Uraraka suggested, and Iida nodded, "I see, something Japanese!"

"An arm-wrestling tournament!" Kirishima yelled, and Iida wrote it on the board, "That's intense!"

It didn't take too long for Iida to write down everyone's suggestions on the board, and he nodded, "Alright, then. That's everyone."

Yaoyorozu turned to the board, "I'll eliminate the ones that are inappropriate, impossible or confusing."

She crossed out four suggestions; Mineta's suggestion that was cut off by Midoriya, Tokoyami's "Students of Darkness Feast", Bakugou's "Death Match" and Aoyama's "My Twinkling Show".

"Merciless." Tokoyami gasped, as Bakugou snapped, "Don't ask us in the first place, then!"

"The local history presentation seems kind of boring..." Hagakure sighed, and Iida twitched; that had been his suggestion.

"That's true.." Shoji muttered.

"It's fine, but the others seem more fun." Shinsou spoke up.

"I can't go against the consensus!" Iida clenched his fist, and canceled out his suggestion.

"We do study sessions all the time!" Kaminari sighed, and Yaoyorozu looked away, "I thought maybe it would be of help..."

"Can't we combine all the food suggestions into one?" Sero asked, and Kirishima replied, "Don't you think crepes and soba would clash?"

"You can't have crepes at an oriental place." Jiro added.

The students' discussion became louder and louder, and Iida had no choice but to yell, "Quiet down!"

Midoriya snapped to attention, and sat up, thinking there was some sort of threat, as pain flared through his shoulder, and Midoriya hissed, biting his lip and using his other hand to massage his throbbing shoulder. Reiko and Ryuto looked at the noisy students, not really sure what to make of it, before Reiko pushed Midoriya's water bottle towards him.

"We should do a fun house!" Hagakure said, and Sero asked, "What does that even mean?!"

"Quiet! Quiet!" Iida raised his voice, trying to get his noisy classmates to settle down, as Yaoyorozu sweatdropped at everyone's loud discussions, "We haven't been able to come to a consensus..."

"Quiet down!" Iida screamed, just as the bell rang.

Aizawa was already out of his sleeping bag, as he exited the room, "That was a very illogical meeting. Decide what you'll do by tomorrow morning. If you don't, I'll make it a public lecture."

"That's just studying." Kaminari pointed out.

"He's joking, right?" Sero sighed.

Kirishima stood up, "Everyone, let's decide what we'll do by tonight!"

* * *

"Huh? Where are the other interns?" Sero asked.

"Extra classes." Kaminari replied, "They can't participate in the discussion, so they said that they'd do whatever we decided. Midoriya's sleeping."

"Everyone, I took a step back and thought about it again..." Iida started, "And the stress we cause the other courses that Aizawa-sensei was talking about... I think we should do something to help them relieve that."

"You're right." Yaoyorozu added, "Those aiming to be heroes cannot cause trouble for others without doing anything about it."

"In that case, honestly, I don't think we can offer UA students, who know Lunch Rush's cooking, anything that could satisfy their stomachs." Iida said.

"Oh, you mean we shouldn't do food?" Sero asked, and Iida nodded, "Personally, that's what I think. If we think about how to serve students in other courses..."

"If you put it that way, it would be rude to them if we were the only ones having fun." Shoji muttered.

"It's frustrating... we can't beat Lunch Rush." Sato sighed.

"If we look at the ones falling under experiences, we get the maid cafe, petting zoo, or fun house?" Yaoyorozu looked at her screen, and Sero commented, "A zoo would be hard to keep sanitary, wouldn't it? Plus, we only have Yuwai, Reiko and Ryuto, and maybe if we ask Tokage, we can borrow her iguana, but we'd also have to find some way to borrow more animals."

"Hmm... stress relief, huh?" Hagakure scratched her head, and Jiro piped up, "We can't do a funny skit?"

"Watching amateurs perform is really stressful, you know?" Sero sighed.

"It's fun if we all dance together..." Ashido spoke up, and Todoroki thought for a second, before nodding, "A dance... might be good."

"I'm getting support from someone super unexpected!" Ashido gasped. Todoroki stood up, and started tapping on Iida's computer, "hang on a second... there was something, wasn't there...? I don't know what it's called, but it's the one where everyone's having a good time..."

He found a video of a live concert, "Oh... something like this."

"This isn't something I'd expect from Todoroki." Jiro commented, and Mineta asked, "Did you turn into one of those party people?!"

"No." Todoroki deadpanned, "I agree with Iida's opinion that we should provide stress relief for the other courses. In order to do that, don't you think it would be good to offer a place where everyone can have fun?"

"I see... a song and dance, huh?" Iida peered at the video, and Sero sighed, "I'll say it again, but watching amateurs perform is really stressful, you know?"

"I can teach people how to dance!" Ashido grinned, jumping up from her seat, with Aoyama performing a two-step flawlessly. Kaminari grinned, "An amateur that moved bizarrely mastered the step in one day! Mina's instructions are proven to work!"

"Wait, you amateurs! Dance is about rhythm!" Mineta yelled, "In other words, sound! Party people need the ultimate music to dance to!"

"If we're talking about music, Jiro can do it!" Hagakure shouted, and everyone turned to Jiro.

"Huh? What!?" Jiro stammered, as Hagakure bounded up to her, "We can play live music on your instruments!"

"Wait a second!" Jiro tried to stop her, and the invisible girl asked, "What's wrong? You're really good at playing and teaching people how to play, and you always look like you're having a lot of fun when you play music! I want to hear your music!"

"Mina... and the others..." Jiro looked away, tapping her earphone jacks together nervously, "Their hobbies are all rooted in hero work, right? Mine is... really... just a hobby. Honestly, I don't think it's something I can boast about publicly."

"Oh... is that what that was about this afternoon?" Kaminari asked, suddenly feeling bad about what had happened, walking up to Jiro, much to the surprise of the purple haired girl, "It's super cool to be able to play so many instruments!"

"Jiro! It's a technique that might be able to make people smile!" Koda tried to encourage her, "I think that's definitely something you could use in your hero work!"

Yaoyorozu stood in front of Jiro, "I understand where you two are coming from, but the decision should be left up to Jiro herself..."

"After being told all that... to not do it... wouldn't be rocking at all... would it?" Jiro sheepishly spoke up, and everyone cheered.

"Alright then, 1-A will be doing a live performance and dance to create a partying atmosphere!" Kaminari yelled.


	88. Chapter 88 - Flying into this future

"Midoriya, I think I forgot to mention this... but you can lay off the notetaking and homework for a while." Aizawa stated, getting the students to come up to the front of the class after Iida had proposed their idea for the School Festival in order to give them some feedback on their performance in school. Midoriya tilted his head slightly in confusion, while Aizawa sighed, "You can barely use your dominant arm right now, in that state."

Midoriya merely grabbed a marker with his left hand, and started scribbling on the board, _"I can write with my left hand."_

The handwriting wasn't as neat as if he were to use his left hand, but it was legible enough.

"You're ambidextrous?" Aizawa asked, raising an eyebrow. Midoriya shook his head, and scribbled again, _"I practiced using my left hand, in case I ever lost my right one."_

Aizawa blinked. He really shouldn't be surprised, but it was sad that Midoriya had expected himself to lose a limb in the future, and had specifically trained himself in case that ever happened.

"Just... don't push yourself too hard." Aizawa sighed, not knowing what else to say, "Also, you can't participate in hero training until Recovery Girl says so. You can observe, but now, you should just be resting. Those injuries on your torso still haven't fully healed, and I don't want them to get worse."

Midoriya looked at the teacher in confusion, as Aizawa stared back at him, "Don't tell me you actually wanted to train? With how many injuries you have, you're just going to tear yourself apart. It's good to work hard, but we all have our limits. If you break yourself, how can you help other people?"

Midoriya pondered over those words as Aizawa sent him back to his seat.

Just rest? That was boring.

But Aizawa was the teacher, and he wasn't about to go against the teacher's orders, at least, until he found a way around it.

* * *

"The work study students have extra classes, right?" Ojiro asked, and Kirishima nodded, "Yeah! Sorry!"

"You don't have to apologize. We'll work on the school festival stuff here." Ojiro grinned, as Ashido waved her arms about, "That dance choreography and costumes... there's a lot to decide!"

"What do you think people will like?" Shoji asked, and Kaminari asked, "We should do what's popular, right, Jiro?"

"Hmm..." Jiro thought about it for a second.

"Hey, did you hear? Hero course Class 1-A is doing a concert. For us."

Midoriya overheard some of the general education students talking, as he walked at the back of the group.

"For us? What's that supposed to mean? Aren't they thinking too much of themselves?"

"Seriously, they're too carefree. Even though they were attacked by villains and brought the entire fight to the school grounds, they still went to the training camp nonchalantly and were attacked again. They even had people injured, and one person kidnapped. Thanks to that, even we had to go through a lot. Even though it was all their fault... They've got some nerve."

"But still... you kind of have to feel sorry for Midoriya. He was literally just shoved into that class and ended up being caught up in everything..."

"He was the one kidnapped, you know."

"I heard that he was the real reason that the hero course was attacked in the first place on that stupid camp, though."

Midoriya just lowered his head, feeling the gazes of the General Education students on his back.

It was his fault. He couldn't stop the second attack on UA. The League had attacked them at the training camp because of him. He just wasn't good enough.

Just like with his parents. When he was seven, if he had done more than just struggle in the villains' grasp, maybe he could have done something to prevent his parents' death. And with Rikaru; maybe if he had managed to move and do something in time, she wouldn't have died. In both cases, he froze up, and didn't do anything, just dumbly watching everything play out in front of him as his mind went blank.

Maybe he could have done more. If he didn't do anything, and something bad happened, then it was his fault.

* * *

"The school festival is exactly one month away!" Iida started, "We don't have much time, so we should decide various things today!"

"First, we need to decide on a song, huh?" Hagakure spoke up, "What should we do?"

"I don't know much about stuff like that, so I'll go along with what you guys think." Ojiro admitted, and Shoji nodded, "Same here."

"Anyway, since it's for everyone, shouldn't we do a song most people know?" Kaminari suggested, "We should do something with a beat!"

"Something you can dance too!" Ashido yelled.

"If I put together everyone's opinions, then we're looking at a four-on-the-floor new rave type of club rock song. For dance music, we should really be playing EDM, but you guys want to play instruments, right?" Jiro stated, much to everyone's confusion.

"Huh?"

"Has anyone ever played bass or drums or anything?" Jiro asked, but she got no response, "Alright. First, the backbone of a band is drums, but I mainly play guitar, and honestly, I'm still learning drums. Teaching a beginner and practicing myself will be a lot to do in just a month."

"Oh!" Kaminari turned to Bakugou, "Didn't you say you were made to take music classes as a kid?"

"Huh?" Bakugou muttered, not really sure why Kaminari brought it up.

"Really? That's surprising!" Ashido grinned, as Sero picked up a drum stick, "Bakugou, try playing the drums a little!"

"Like I'd do that!" Bakugou snapped, but Sero just grinned, "I hear it's pretty hard!"

That immediately got Bakugou's attention, and the blonde, never one to turn down a challenge, snatched the drum sticks and snarled, "Fuck you! Give them to me!"

Bakugou stomped over to the drum kit, quickly playing a solo, before growling, "Well!?"

"It's... perfect..." Jiro gaped, as Ashido cheered, "There it is! Mr Talented!"

The rest of the class were equally dumbfounded by Bakugou's performance, and Kaminari grinned, "Bakugou's got to be on the drums!"

"Tch." Bakugou growled, "I'm not doing anything so stupid!"

"Bakugou, please!" Jiro tried to say, "I mean, if you do it, it'll definitely turn out good!"

Bakugou snapped, "There's no way it'll be good! It's _that_, right? Some empty promises to let students from other courses blow off steam? All of them hate the hero course! For the cause of all that stress to do that, if that's not self-satisfaction, then what is? There's no way that they'd take that quietly from people they're mad at!"

Midoriya just stood there, looking downcast; after all, he was the reason why everyone seemed to hate the hero course. Even if some of them took pity on him, it didn't matter; in the end, it was still his fault, no matter what anyone said.

"Hey, you don't have to say it like that!" Hagakure grumbled, but Bakugou just growled, "That's exactly what I'm talking about!"

"But... it's true that we may not have been considerate enough..." Iida muttered, turning to Yaoyorozu.

"You didn't have anything else to say during the discussion, so don't complain about it now." Todoroki grumbled.

"Doesn't it make you mad? It's not like we wanted to be messed around with by the villains! Even when those fucking villains attacked the school, we were the ones trying to keep those fucking extras safe! And we're getting blamed for it?!" Bakugou snarled, "Why do we have to think about how they feel? If you guys are doing this to make them feel better, then stop it, right now! We've got to hit them, hard! We're not here to make friends, we're here to fight! If we're going to do this, then we've got to do this seriously! Forget about making everyone forget their stress or whatever bullshit, let's just kill all of them with our sound!"

"You're reasoning is scary, but you'll do it?" Hagakure cheered, as Bakugou snapped, "This is serious! Shut up!"

"Got it! Super serious!" Ashido laughed, as Kaminari smiled at the explosive blonde, "You're not being honest with yourself at all!"

"I'm always serious, you asshole!" Bakugou growled.

"Isn't this great, Jiro?" Hagakure hugged Jiro, who just smiled, "Yeah! I'll do my best too!"

"Um... as part of my education, I studied the piano from a young age." Yaoyorozu added, "Will that be of any help?"

"Then Yaomomo will be on the keyboard!" Ashido cheered, and Jiro nodded, "We've got to have a synth for club music! Yaomomo, it will be a big help!

"I'll do my best." Yaoyorozu nodded.

"I was going to have a girls dance group with all the girls." Ashido whined, "But you'll be cute, so it's fine."

"I'll play bass, so we just need guitars and vocals, then." Jiro grinned

"So everyone else will be dancing?" Ojiro asked, and Iida hummed, "Yeah. But will that be enough to fire everyone up?"

"In that video with the dance-" Todoroki was cut off by Ashido, "We've got to put in some effects!"

"That." Todoroki nodded.

"Effects?" Sero asked, as Ashido grabbed the computer, bringing up a video, "Like this! See how they use sparks and streamers and that disco ball to fire everyone up? Effects are there to set the mood."

"Oh! Let's make it like the parades at the happiest place on earth!" Hagakure yelled, and Ashido grinned, "We can do it like that with everyone participating!"

"We're using the gym for this... right?" Sato asked, and Iida nodded, "Yes. Aizawa-sensei has already made the arrangements."

"Then, what if, Uraraka makes Todoroki and Kirishima float, and then Kirishima scrapes at Todoroki's ice to chip away at it! Then, Aoyama can be a disco ball, and it'll look like the light's twinkling down like stardust! I call it Team Snowmen!"

"A human shaved-ice machine!" Mineta yelled, and Kaminari added, "Like the teaming up we were talking about before."

"I'm a disco ball?" Aoyama asked, "That's not bad!"

"The gym will look spectacular!" Yaoyorozu smiled, and Iida nodded "Yes, that's a great idea!"

Midoriya gazed at his classmates, as Reiko nudged his leg, urging him to participate in the discussion, but Midoriya just turned away. He couldn't play any instruments; all he could do was copy what others did. He couldn't sing either, and as much as he tried to hide it, his legs were still aching and he was already trying to hide a limp; there was no way he could dance properly. Not to mention his right arm was pretty much useless at the moment, and Ashido uses her whole body in all of her dancing; no doubt any dance she taught the class would need the usage of his arms as well.

"In that case, we need people working behind the scenes for the effects, huh?" Hagakure added, as the door opened.

"Hey! Sorry we're late! We finally made up all our classes!" Uraraka smiled, closing the door behind her, "We can help out for real now!"

It took Iida and Yaoyorozu a few minutes to explain everything that had been discussed, and Asui mused, "I see... We've decided on a new rave type club rock for the music, huh?"

"I understand Jiro on bass and Yaoyorozu on keyboards, and Bakugou is on drums?"

"That's... unexpected..." Uraraka grinned.

"You got a problem with that!?" Bakugou snapped, and Uraraka, Kirishima and Asui shook their heads.

"So... who will be singing the all-important vocals, kero?" Asui asked, and Jiro replied, "Well... we haven't decided yet?"

"Huh? You're not going to sing, Jiro?" Uraraka asked, and the purple haired girl blanched, "What? No!"

"If it's vocals you want, I can do it!" Mineta yelled, and Aoyama suggested that he sing and be the disco ball at the same time, as Kirishima grinned, "I can't play any instruments, but I'm a pretty great singer!"

The trio tried to sing, but Kirishima was singing a song of the wrong genre, Mineta was just yelling random noises, and Aoyama was apparently singing in a high pitched, piercing falsetto.

"Hey, Midoriya, can you sing?" Kaminari turned to Midoriya jokingly, noticing that he wasn't really participating in the discussion and was trying to make him feel involved, but the green haired boy just looked up and shook his head.

"I'm with Ochako! I think it should be you, Jiro!" Hagakure butted in, "When you were teaching us in your room, your singing was super cool, too!"

"Hey... don't make this harder by making people expect -" Hagakure shoved a microphone in Jiro's face, cutting her off, "It's fine! It's fine!"

"Alright! I want to hear your singing, Jiro! Sing something for us!" Kirishima grinned encouragingly.

Seemingly having no other choice, Jiro sighed, before she took a deep breath, and started singing. Her beautiful voice washed over everyone, completely blowing them away.

There was no doubt about it; Jiro was going to be their vocalist.

Jiro stopped singing, as Kirishima, Mineta and Aoyama sank to the ground in defeat.

"My ears are so happy!" Hagakure cheered, as Ashido wolf whistled, "What a husky, sexy voice!"

"Right? Right?"

"Alright!" Iida smiled, "It's unanimous, then!"

"Then... let's leave that aside..." Jiro sheepishly muttered, "We still need guitars! I want two!"

"I want to do it! It's so cool to be able to play an instrument!" Kaminari raised his hand, as Mineta yelled, "Let me do it too!"

"I'll end up cutting the strings..." Kirishima sighed, as Bakugou snapped, "It's not "I want to do it"! Are you going to kill people with it!?"

"Yeah! I totally will!" Kaminari grinned, grabbing a guitar, "The guitar is the star of the band!"

Sadly for Mineta, he couldn't play the guitar properly due to his short, stubby arms.

"I want to dance." Sato spoke up, and Ojiro nodded, "Me too! I can move pretty well with my tail."

"I want to work on effects with my tape!" Sero grinned, before Tokoyami picked up the guitar and started playing a short solo.

"What a heartrending sound! So manly!" Kirishima gushed, as Shoji asked, stunned, "You can play? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I quit once at the F chord." Tokoyami admitted, "Mineta, if you're giving up on the guitar, then I will strum for you, as well."

"Do what you want, damn it. This is stupid." Mineta muttered, "Let's get this stupid festival over with. I hope you all break a nail."

"Mineta, if I make a harem part for you in the dance, will you do it?" Ashido asked nicely, trying to cheer the grape haired boy up, and he teared up, "I will! The school festival can't come any sooner!"

"I'll be in the effects team!" Koda admitted, "I'm not really good at dancing."

"Same." Todoroki muttered, "I've never danced before."

"Alright! With Kirishima and Sero also part of the effects team, I think we have enough people for the dance team!" Ashido grinned, doing a headcount, "Twelve people, just nice!"

Midoriya internally sighed, and looked around the common room. He was originally thinking of being in the effects team, given the state of his body, but it seems like they needed people to dance, so he was just going to have to deal with it for the time being.

"Hold on a second." Shinsou interjected, before turning to the greenette, "Izuku, can you even dance right now? With your arm like that, and don't try to hide it, I've seen you trying to hide a limp."

Midoriya snapped to attention at the mention of his name, and was about to argue that he could dance, but Ashido stopped him, "If you're still injured, then don't force yourself. Don't worry about it, we'll be alright with only eleven dancers!"

"Agreed! Right now, it's most important that you rest and heal! We'll find something for you!" Iida chopped his arms, before turning to the rest of the class, "Everyone, we'll be busy starting tomorrow! So you should all sleep now! It's already one in the morning!"

Midoriya just blinked; they had just shut him down before he even had a chance to say anything, and until they figured out something for him to do, he'd just be useless.

For the time being, hopefully; he didn't want to be useless.


	89. Chapter 89 - Floating through forever

The next day was a Saturday, and all the different groups were practising. Jiro had stuck the song sheet for "Hero Too" onto the wall, as the five students of the Band Team tried to play all their respective instruments in sync. The Stage Team were discussing the effects they should use for the performance, as the Dance Team practised their choreography in front of the Class 1-A dorms.

Midoriya was just standing behind Ashido, watching as Ashido tried to fix Ojiro's stance. Since he couldn't dance, she had decided to have him as her assistant, watching the choreography and seeing if anything was wrong. Sadly, his own knowledge of dancing was lacking, and despite thinking that Ojiro was doing well, Ashido was insisting that he needed to put more muscle into his movements.

"So do it like you're turning a lock, and stop it with a snap!" Ashido said, doing a demonstration, but Midoriya literally couldn't tell the difference. Reiko didn't seem too bothered with the dancing, opting to just sleep in Midoriya's hood as Ryuto settled down in his hair.

Midoriya felt a presence behind him, and turned around, seeing Togata standing behind a bunch of bushes. Suddenly, Togata stuck his butt out from inside the bushes, "Here's a peach!"

Midoriya just blinked at Togata in confusion, as Togata's voice caught the attention of the others in the Dance Team. noticed a silver of bluish, off-white hair, and peered over at the bush in confusion. Togata coaxed Eri to step out, and Uraraka lit up, "Eri!"

"Oh! It's Eri!" Ojiro peered over, as Eri ran over to Midoriya, wrapping her arms around Midoriya, "Izuku!"

"What lovely clothes!" Asui complimented, looking at her white dress shirt and red pinafore, as Uraraka gushed, "You're so cute!"

"Really?" Eri tilted her head to the side, clutching the strap of her bag with one arm as she had another around Midoriya's waist, as she spotted Iida and Shinsou, waving hesitantly, "Hello!"

"Eri!" Iida gently reached down, patting Eri's head.

"Midoriya, she's allowed to attend the School Festival, but in order to keep her from being surprised and panicking, we wanted to let her visit once to get used to it." Aizawa stated, as Mineta introduced himself, "I'm Mineta! I can't wait to see how you look in ten years!"

Eri shyly shifted behind Midoriya, as the green haired boy glared at Mineta, baring his teeth as he let out a small growl. Mineta screeched, and ran to hide behind Shoji, as the taller boy muttered, "You kind of deserved that."

"I kind of wanted to take Eri around UA!" Togata grinned, "Midoriya, do you want to come, too?"

"But don't you have to work on the School Festival stuff too?" Uraraka asked, as Togata laughed, "Not really! 3-B is just manning a few food stalls this year, and since I can't really cook, I'm just in charge of buying and bringing a portion of the ingredients to school before the event itself, and helping to set up the booths. Nothing much to do now."

"Hey! Dance Team! We wanted to talk about -" Kirishima opened the door, before spotting the small girl, "Oh! It's Eri!"

The redhead ran out of the dorms, "Hey there! Wait... you don't know who I am, huh?"

Ashido grinned, "Then, why don't we take a break?"

"I'm also curious about what the other classes are doing!" Uraraka smiled, "Come on, let's go!"

Some of the students were tired after practising outside, and had gone indoors for some drinks, while Togata quickly led Midoriya, Eri, Ashido, Kirishima, Uraraka, Shinsou and Iida to the main UA building.

"There's so many people..." Shinsou sweatdropped, as Togata smiled, "It's a weekend, but since everyone's living in the dorms, a lot of students are still preparing for the festival!"

One of the business course students (Midoriya saw that there were three buttons on the shoulder straps) popped out from a classroom, carrying some posters, "Oh! It's Togata!"

He spotted Eri, who was clutching at Midoriya's shirt nervously, "What? A kid?"

"Don't tell me this is why you left school earlier today?"

"Wait... isn't this the kid from that villain attack... that monster thing...?" The blonde business student asked, as Eri shrunk back, hiding behind Midoriya, as the green haired boy narrowed his eyes. Midoriya reached down to grab Eri's hand, comforting her, as Togata hastily nodded, and put his finger to his lips, subtly telling them to shut up.

It took some time for the business students to regain their composure, and they handed Togata a flyer for some lecture, "All jokes aside... this year's 3-I will be amazing, so make sure you come!"

He handed another flyer to Midoriya, "You too!"

Midoriya hesitantly took the flyer from the business student, as Togata smiled, "I'll definitely go!"

The business student proceeded to hand out more flyers to the other students, as Midoriya passed his poster to Eri, who examined it curiously. Ryuto, still on Midoriya's head, leaned down to look at it.

"This is a really nice flyer!" Uraraka looked at it, as the business student looked at Ryuto in surprise.

"Do you... want one?" The business students asked awkwardly, holding out a flyer for Ryuto, and the avian gave a happy chirp stretching out a talon, taking the flyer, only for the paper to accidentally smack Midoriya in the face.

Ryuto, still holding the flyer in on talon, moved it out of the way, and leaned forwards, looking down at Midoriya to make sure he was okay, using his beak to move a few strands of hair out of his human's face.

Midoriya let out a small grunt, as Ryuto settled back on his head, satisfied, as Togata let the students out the front of the UA building.

"Can you get that nail?"

"Hey, wait! Don't put a poster up there!"

"Even though there's still a month... everyone's really busy." Ashido commented, looking around, and Iida nodded, "It's best to be prepared, just in case something happens!"

"Everyone's trying to do something cooler than last year." Togata grinned, "They're trying to make it "Plus Ultra"!"

Midoriya hastily pulled Eri aside as Tetsutetsu, carrying a dragon head, almost ran into them. Ryuto gave a startled squawk, as Reiko peeked her head out, yawning, before looking around, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Oh! Sorry!" Tetsutetsu shifted his head so he could see who was in front of him, "Oh! Hi Midoriya! And Togata-senpai! And Ashido and Uraraka and Shinsou and Iida and Kirishima!"

"Bro, that looks so cool!" Kirishim leaned forwards, examining the dragon head, as Monoma popped out from behind Tetsutetsu, "What's this? For you to be idling around in a place like this, you don't have any work to do?"

Kirishima grinned, "We do have stuff to do, but we're just giving Eri a tour and seeing what else is going on!"

"Eri, are you okay?" Uraraka asked, as Eri peered closer at the dragon head, before turning to the brunette, "I thought it was the person that fell from the sky..."

"Fell from the sky?" Uraraka tilted her head in confusion, as Midoriya muttered, "Ryukyu?"

"Oh? Are you ignoring me!? You sure that's okay?" Monoma sneered at Uraraka, before patting Midoriya on the back, "How are you doing? That's the girl you saved, right?"

"So bipolar..." Shinsou sweatdropped, as Monoma turned to the other 1-A students, "I heard your class is doing a concert of something! You okay with that? This time, to put it bluntly, 1-B's performance is going to be much more amazing than yours! "Romeo and Juliet and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Return of the King!" It's a completely original script written by us; a super spectacular fantasy play!"

"How on earth do you fit the plot of three different plays into one?" Ashido asked, but Monoma ignored her and pointed at Iida, "You should probably go prepare a handkerchief to wipe your tears when you're blown away by us, that is!"

He started cackling, but Awase just swung a wooden stick at him, knocking him out, "Sorry about that... We honestly thought he got better, but he seems to be nastier than usual..."

"Where's Kendo?" Shinsou asked, "I thought she's usually the one keeping him in check?"

"Not today. She's going to be in the beauty pageant. She was entered against her will." Awase replied, picking Monoma up as Ashido whined, "Why didn't Aizawa-sensei say anything about a beauty pageant!? I want to participate!"

"I'm not Monoma, but let's go all out!" Tetsutetsu spoke up, and Kirishima grinned, "Definitely."

"Sorry to suddenly show you the bad parts of UA, Eri." Togata sweatdropped.

"Beauty... page... pega..." Eri was trying to pronounce the word, as Togata corrected her, "Pageant."

"What's that?" Eri asked, as Togata tried to explain, "Basically, it's an event where several people dress up, and people look at them and vote for who they think looks the best! Speaking of the beauty pageant, she's also really into it this year!"

"Who?" Iida asked, and Togata replied, leading the students to the equipment room, "Last year's runner-up, Hado Nejire, right?"

"Hado-senpai!" Uraraka grinned, as Hado floated down, wearing a cyan, rather revealing dress, "Hi!"

She spotted the small girl, and tilted her head, "Hey, hey, why is Eri here? It's so strange! Why? Why? How fun!"

Amajiki was trying to operate the camera, and he turned around when he heard the commotion, before noticing Haya picking out a purple dress out of the corner of his eye.

"Nejire is more of a cute type than a sexy type." Haya muttered, as the boy beside her commented, "That's how she lost last year."

Kirishima immediately turned around, "Senpai, please wear a proper dress!"

"Agreed!" Iida chopped his arms about, averting his eyes from Hado as Uraraka and Ashido laughed at the two boy's embarrassment. Midoriya and Shinsou didn't seem too affected by Hado's revealing dress,

"Yeah!" Hado laughed, not really listening to Kirishima and Iida's protests, "Listen to this! Are you listening? Every year, I keep losing! There's this other girl who's amazing! The beauty pageant champion, Bibimi Kenranzaki, in the Support Course, Class 3-G."

"This year's pageant also includes Kendo, who gained a lot of secret fans from being in a commercial. Hado is also going all out." Amajiki muttered, as Hado floated over to Haya, "At first, I just tried entering because Yuyu told me to! But it's pretty fun, and I don't want to lose. That's why this year, I'll definitely win! It's my last chance!"

"You can do it!" Togata nodded, as Eri gazed at the costume rack, "Dressing up... it looks fun..."

She turned to Togata, still having trouble pronouncing the word, "Can I try the page.. piag...?"

Haya tilted his head, and grabbed her phone, "There is one more open slot... but I don't think you can fit into any of the clothes. Plus, the pageant is only for UA students, so I don't really think you qualify. Sorry."

"It's okay..." Eri replied, slightly downcast, but she didn't seem too disappointed, before Ashido screeched, nearly scaring everyone in the room.

"Yes! I got it!" Ashido grinned, pointing to Midoriya, "You can join the beauty pageant!"

Midoriya just blinked, and tilted his head in confusion, not really sure what Ashido was thinking.

"With your injuries still healing, you shouldn't exert yourself, right? So you can't really participate in the dancing." Ashido smiled brightly, "For a guy, you're really thin and skinny!"

"That's because he doesn't eat enough..." Shinsou grumbled as Ashido continued, "And you're also really cute! Trust me, you can just put on a dress, and no one can tell. I bet you'll look really good. And you can still participate in the School Festival!"

Eri lit up, and she turned to Midoriya, "You can join? Can I pick the outfit? Please?"

"Yeah! Come on!" Ashido cheered, but Iida stopped her, "Ashido! You can't force him to participate if he doesn't want to!"

Haya peered at her phone, "Well... there aren't any rules that say boys can't join... but I guess that's because boys usually only want to watch and wouldn't participate anyway..."

The third year turned to Midoriya, "Are you sure you want to do this? Because I don't know when the last slot is going to be filled, and once your name is up there, you can't back out anymore."

"Hey... if you don't want to do it... you don't have to." Shinsou patted Midoriya on the back, "We're not going to force you, but whatever you chose to do, we'll all support you."

Midoriya just glanced at Eri, before he resolutely muttered, "If it would... make Eri happy... I'll do it."

"Got it! We'll make you look really cute!" Ashido grinned, as Eri wrapped her arms around Midoriya's waist.

"Just thinking about performing in front of so many people..." Amajiki clutched his stomach and fell to the ground, "Ow... is making my stomach hurt..."

"Amajiki-senpai! Are you okay!?" Kirishima rushed over to Amajiki's side, as Haya, with Ashido's help, registered Midoriya's name in the last slot.

Midoriya just wondered what on earth he got himself into.

But if it was for Eri, he'd do it.

* * *

"Now! Next is the Support Course!" Togata grinned, "All the grades work together to put on an exhibition of their work."

"I've heard about this! This is something that makes a really manly splash every year!" Kirishima spoke up, as Hatsume appeared right behind the students, "That's right! The school festival is the Support Course's time to shine!"

Iida whirled around, "Hatsume...!"

"Woah!" Uraraka eyed the giant combat suit that was standing right behind the pink haired girl, as Hatsume grinned, "It's my super cute baby #202!"

"Awesome!" Kirishima cheered, "You look like you have some grease on your face though..."

"Bathing is just a waste of time!" Hastume grinned, "The Sports Festival was like a secondary place for the Hero Course to show off. But this time, at the School Festival, we've been giving the spotlight! It's so I can get even bigger companies to look at my babies even more carefully! I need to raise them in a way that doesn't embarrass me!"

Hatsume turned to the green haired boy, "Oh, by the way, I'm really sorry for that time I jumped on you while you were injured. I promise I won't do that again. On another note, how was the mask? I know you submitted in a really good design, but I made some tweaks so that it would match your hero costume, as well as having enhanced firepower!"

"Mask?" Shinsou asked, confused, as Uraraka turned to the lavender haired boy, "Oh, yeah! You weren't there! Izuku had this really cool mask that apparently can allow him to breathe fire! It was so cool! I had no idea Izuku had designed it, though."

"Yeah, he did!" Hatsume nodded, "I never really thought about using air pressed to open up channels for flammable air to escape through before! By varying the amount of air you blow out, you can open the channel by a different amount, and thus, the amount of fire you can breathe out varies! It's a really good idea! If you need more tweaking on it, or you want to increase the proportional fire power output, just tell me!"

Midoriya just nodded, before he noticed that one of the panels of the combat suit was shaking. Gas started to leak out, before the top exploded, and Hatsume gasped, "Baby!?"

"Again!?" One of the other Support Course students groaned, "Get the fire extinguisher!"

"Sorry about that! Eri, let's go!" Shinsou yelled over his shoulder, as the students all ushered the shocked and confused Eri away, who just replied, "Okay."

* * *

"Well... that's about it." Togata settled into his chair after getting Eri some apple juice. Reiko had decided to just sit on Eri's lap, as Ryuto just watched as people walked by from on the table.

"Are you used to it? I mean... how was it?" Urarak leaned over, as Eri stared at her drink, "I don't really know. But there are a lot of people working really hard, so I wonder how it'll turn out."

"That is what people call "getting excited"." Nezu replied, as he glanced over from the other table, before he completely demolished a block of cheese, and wiped his mouth, "It seems like it was worthwhile!"

Nezu turned to the group of students, "I'm also excited about the school festival! So many students are working hard and having fun in order to make it the best and to let people enjoy it!"

"The police also had stuff to say about it." Kayama sighed, as Nezu patted her shoulder reassuringly, before hopping off his chair, "Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it to your hearts' content."

Kayama finished her food, and stood up, "I won't tell you the details, but it looks like the principal worked hard to ensure that we can still hold our School Festival. As a result, the security is even stronger. And if the alarm sounds, even if it's a false alarm, we had to agree to cancel and evacuate, otherwise, we can't have it. Of course, to keep that from happening, we're also beefing up our defense. We're even releasing Hound Dog around the vicinity of the school, and we may even get the help of other pros to ensure that UA is secure."

The hero smiled, before leaving to return her tray, "Also, 1-A's performance is causing a stir in the faculty lounge, too! Do your best at living your youth!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Iida saluted, as Eri turned to the blue haired boy, "What are you doing? You said that Izuku couldn't dance..."

"Oh! We're performing a dance with music!" Iida replied, "All of us, except for Kirishima and Izuku, will be dancing! We will do our best to make it fun for everyone, so make sure you come and watch!"

Ashido nodded, grinned, "Come on, let's ask Aizawa-sensei if you can visit again before the festival to pick out Midoriya's outfit!"


	90. Chapter 90 - I'll be what you wanted

"Yaomomo!" Ashido screamed, as she ran into the 1-A dorms, Iida running behind her, "Ashido! Don't run!"

Yaoyorozu yelped, messing up the piano notes in her shock, as Bakugou yelled, "What the hell, Pinky?!"

"Give me the key to the walk-in closet, please!" Ashido rushed up to Yaoyorozu, as Togata, carrying Eri, walked into the dorms, with Shinsou, Uraraka, Kirishima and Midoriya behind him. Mineta was scrolling through something on his phone, as Sato, Shoji, Ojiro, Koda, Asui and Hagakure were chatting as they ate some snacks.

"Uh... okay?" Yaoyorozu replied, fishing the key out of her pocket, "Why, though? I thought we already decided on the outfits for the dancers this morning?"

Ashido was about to reply when Mineta whirled around and asked, "Midoriya, why is your name on the list of participants for the beauty pageant?!"

That quickly got everyone's attention, as Togata gently placed Eri on the ground, and the smaller girl spoke up, "I thought he'd look nice!"

"Are you... sure?" Ojiro sweatdropped, as Midoriya just remained silent, not even seeming to be flustered or embarrassed at all, though he refused to look anyone in the eye.

"What the actual fuck -" Bakugou was immediately shut up as Midoriya quickly covered Eri's ears with his hands, glaring at Bakugou darkly as Eri looked up at him in confusion. Ashido grinned, "Alright! Come on, Midoriya! I'll let Eri pick out some stuff for you! The rest of you, I'll be back in five minutes! You better be ready for practicing!"

Ashido ran towards the elevator, as Eri followed, dragging both Togata and Midoriya behind her. The elevator doors closed, and Shoji tilted his head in confusion, "Is he... actually serious about the pageant? Midoriya doesn't like attention."

Iida sighed, "I don't think he even knows what's going on. Ashido brought it up, and Eri seemed excited about it. Izuku said that he just wanted to make Eri happy."

"You have to admit, Midoriya's got guts to do something like that." Kaminari stretched, "I wouldn't have the guts to do that."

Shinsou sighed, "Well... I just hope the others won't judge Izuku too harshly."

"No way." Uraraka replied, "If they judge him, I'll kick their butts."

* * *

There were only a few more hours until Eri had to go back to the hospital, and Togata escorted her out of the dorms.

Midoriya had spent the rest of the day sleeping in the bean bag, until Sato started vacuuming the common room, leaving Midoriya no choice but to continue sitting on the couch, watching blankly as the Band Team continued practicing as Bakugou screamed at Kaminari.

Ashido smiled, as she watched Hagakure light-heartedly tease Midoriya about joining the pageant, as Iida, Uraraka, and Shinsou tried to defend him. There were a few reasons why she wanted Midoriya to join, other than Eri's enthusiasm.

First, Midoriya was cute, but unlike most of the other boys in her class, he was slimmer, with a leaner build, even though they all knew that underneath his clothes and bandages, he packed a serious punch. Out of curiosity, she had always wanted to see how the boy would look in a dress, but given the greenette's personality, it wasn't like she could just ask him to put on any outfit she handed to him. But testing outfits for the pageant was the perfect occasion to get him to do so.

Secondly, she really wanted to see Shinsou's reaction. She did know that Shinsou liked Midoriya, and just wanted to tease him, just for the fun of it.

Thirdly, she had made a bet with Hagakure a few weeks ago over which boy in class would look best in a dress. Hagakure was somehow insistent that Todoroki or Bakugou would look good, but Ashido was convinced that Midoriya would look better. They couldn't just get the boys to dress up, but all she had to do was convince Hagakure that Midoriya could look good in a few outfits.

Suddenly, Sero spoke up, "Oh, yeah! We need more people! Aoyama being the disco ball is a great idea, but people would get used to it. When he turns into a disco ball, it'll only be interesting for that instant, but I don't think anyone will even notice it anymore after about a minute. Koda suggested that the disco ball could move in all directions, but we don't have any large scale equipment like that."

"Shoji and Sato can go up to the rafters and move Aoyama around by hand... but I think that would be way too obvious for them to be missing. They're the tallest two dancers we have." Ashido scratched her head, as Midoriya turned his attention to the Effects Team. Aoyama wasn't that heavy, and if he could get access to materials and equipment from the Support Course, he was certain that he would be able to rig something up. While he would use his own tools and materials, he didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt.

Midoriya hesitantly raised his hand, trying to get Ashido and Sero's attention without bringing too much attention to himself. Koda eventually noticed the green haired boy's attempts, and patted Sero's shoulder, "I think Izuku wants to say something."

Sero and Ashido immediately shut up, and turned to Midoriya, as his hand hung in the air, not really sure what to do next.

"Yes, Midoriya?" Sero asked, trying to be patient with the green haired boy and not rush him. It was rare that Midoriya was _actually_ trying to get any attention, and they did not want to end up scaring him by accident.

Midoriya looked away, starting to regret his attempt of getting Sero's attention, before he finally summoned enough courage to speak up, "I... I can try to build something... to do that... and control it with a remote."

Sero looked at him, before he lit up with a smile, "That's awesome! We can just get Ojiro to tie Aoyama up, and since you're not dancing anyways, you can stand in the audience and see where Aoyama should go! That's perfect, thanks Midoriya!"

Midoriya froze up, and averted his gaze, where Koda was smiling as he shot him a thumbs up.

"It's... fine..." Midoriya muttered, not noticing how Uraraka and Iida were looking at him proudly from the kitchen.

* * *

"Err... Nezu?" Yamada asked, scrolling through his phone as the teachers were eating dinner in the cafeteria. Most of the students were back in the dorms, and the teachers were just discussing school matters as they ate.

"Yes, Mic?" Nezu replied, as he looked over some paperwork, enjoying a nice warm cup of tea, before Yamada spoke up, "Are you aware that Midoriya is registered as a participant for the beauty pageant?"

All the teachers froze, taking some time to register what the Voice Hero had said. Aizawa nearly had a spit take, as Snipe, Ishiyama, and Kayama stared at Yamada like he had grown a second head. Nezu just blinked, not really sure how to react, as Ectoplasm choked on his food.

"Midoriya? Midoriya Izuku? Are you sure!?" Snipe asked, still very much stunned, as Yamada nodded, "Yeah. Midoriya Izuku, 1-A."

"Doesn't he hate attention?" Aizawa spoke up, "Why on earth would he take part in that?"

"I mean... sure... he's cute, and there aren't any rules against boys taking part, but just... why!?" Kayama asked, unable to wrap her head around the idea of the normally apathetic Midoriya dressing up.

"Maybe he was forced to enter, like Kendo was." Kan spoke up, "We can't rule that out."

"I doubt his classmates would actually do that to him, though." Yamada sighed, checking the spreadsheet, "You guys know Haya, right, from 3-A? She was the one that entered his name."

"That's... odd." Nezu muttered, "I'll just ask Izuku directly."

Aizawa grabbed his phone, and texted someone, and a few minutes later, his phone vibrated, "Oh... apparently, Eri wanted to participate, but couldn't, and Ashido brought the idea and Eri seemed excited about it, so Midoriya's doing it to make her happy."

"Who did you text?" Ectoplasm asked, as Aizawa looked up, "Hitoshi. I don't think anyone forced him to do it."

"Well... you have to admit, he's got guts to participate in the beauty pageant. That is one of the most popular events during the School Festival." Yamada sighed, "We all know how lowly he thinks of himself. Maybe he'll gain some self-confidence out of this."

* * *

"You're rushing, bastard!" Bakuogu growled, "Follow my lead!"

"But you keep throwing in new arrangements, so it's confusing!" Kaminari countered, as Yaoyorozu poured some tea for Jiro, "You seem to be born to teach. For a beginner like Kaminari to be able to learn chord progressions in just a week, it's amazing!"

"It's not that amazing." Jiro replied, "Anyway, today's tea smells really good!"

Yaoyorozu lit up, "Can you tell? Mother sent me this elusive tea; Gold Tips Imperial! Everyone, please try some!"

Shinsou walked into the common room, just having finished his shower, and was trying to rub the water out of his hair with his towel. He looked around, "Uh... where's Izuku? And Ochako, Tsu, Hagakure and Mina?"

Sero sighed, leaning back into his chair as he took a sip of tea, "They're all in that walk-in closet."

"Mina still hasn't chosen something that Midoriya would look good in? There is a huge variety of clothes in there; there should be something that works." Yaoyorozu spoke up, as Kirishima laughed, "On the contrary. Mina was saying that she was right as she complained that she couldn't figure out what to make Midoriya wear because he looked good in pretty much everything."

"He gets to go in there!?" Mineta complained, "No fair! He's getting touched all over!"

"Mineta, you are aware that Izuku hates physical contact, right?" Shinsou growled, "Stop projecting your own dirty fantasies on other people."

Suddenly, everyone's phone started vibrating, and Sero peered at it, "Oh... Mina's asking us to go up."

"Fuck it. I'm staying here." Bakugou huffed, chugging some water, as Kaminari shrugged, "Okay, suit yourself, Blasty."

"SHUT UP!" Bakugou snarled, trying to chase after Kaminari but was being held back by Kirishima, "Come on, Bakugou! Calm down!"

"Do they need help with something?" Jiro asked, checking her phone, only to find the same message, as Iida shrugged, "We should just go up and check on them."

* * *

The rest of 1-A, minus Bakugou, crowded around the outside of the room that the girls had converted into a walk-in closet, hearing Hagakure whine from the inside, "I just can't decide!"

"Uh... decide what?" Kirishima asked, as Ashido opened the door. Ojiro was keeping an eye on Mineta to ensure he didn't act out, as Ashido spoke up, "Alright. Does this look nice?"

She pushed open the door fully, and the students curiously peeked in, only to find Midoriya standing in the center of the room, looking thoroughly confused as Uraraka, Asui and Hagakure inspected the plain green dress that he was wearing. Reiko and Ryuto were sitting on the ground, not really sure what was going on.

Kaminari blinked, and rubbed his eyes, "Uh... are you sure you guys didn't gender swap Midoriya by accident?"

"We didn't. See, completely flat!" Ashido patted Midoriya's chest, and the greenette visibly tensed up, clearly uncomfortable with the situation but not really sure what to do to get Ashido's hand away without seeming rude. His entire right arm, from the shoulder to his hand, was wrapped up tightly in bandages, as well as his left arm, but they didn't really ruin the overall look.

"He looks good, right?" Hagakure piped up, and everyone, even Mineta, nodded, as Ashido closed the door.

A few minutes later, Ashido opened the door again, but this time, Midoriya was wearing a dark green yukata with a light green sash, and Hagakure stuck a flower in his hair.

"I think there's something that can fit him..." Yaoyorozu and Jiro walked into the room, and started to rummage through the other sets of the clothing, and Ashido closed the door again.

"Well... someone's clearly dying." Kaminari laughed, pointing at Shinsou, who was doing his best to will the blush on his face away.

"It's not my fault he's cute." Shinsou huffed, looking away as Sero and Kaminari continued to tease him about it. Kirishima spoke up, "It's true, though. Midoriya actually looks good. Mina was right that him being thin helps."

Yaoyorozu pushed the door open, revealing Midoriya in a long, extravagant white dress, "What do you think?"

"It's a bit... too big for him..." Shoji muttered, motioning as the bottom of the dress dragged against the ground; Midoriya was shorter than Yaoyorozu, and while the dress might fit the black haired girl, it was clearly too long for the greenette, though he did look good in it.

Midoriya was forced to change once more, into a black shirt and sparkly dark violet skirt, courtesy of Jiro.

"This." Jiro muttered, pushing the door open for a solid minute, before slamming the door shut.

"I didn't think it was possible for a guy to look good in so many dresses..." Mineta muttered, as the door was opened for what seemed to be the umpteenth time; the green haired boy had worn a yellow dress, a partially sleeveless red dress with a frilled collar, a really short pink chinese dress, a dark green dress with black frills and highlights, a blue long-sleeved dress, a light blue shirt and mini skirt with flower patterns on them, and many other outfits that didn't really leave an impression.

The poor boy had been forced to change so many times that when the girls were finally done going through all their outfit selections, he literally just put his regular clothes on and exited the room, leaning against the wall, thoroughly drained, having done his best to try and hide his nerves.

"I'm... going back... to my room..." Midoriya muttered, before literally making a mad dash to the staircase, Reiko and Ryuto right behind him.

"I should check on him." Shinsou spoke up, his face still red, but Ashido just grabbed his arm, "Nope. You're staying for a while. I need you guys to help us choose."

"I'll do it." Koda volunteered himself, "I don't know much about fashion anyways."

Koda quickly made his way down the stairs, following Midoriya, as Ashido smiled, "Anyways... what did you guys think?"

"Well... If I'm being honest..." Kirishima hummed, "He looks good, but nothing really stood out too much."

"Exactly." Uraraka replied, "Green does look best on him, out of all the other clothes..."

"And maybe some red; they're complementary colours. Or pink, red is too saturated..." Yaoyorozu sighed.

"Anyways, I got pictures." Ashido grinned, scrolling through her phone, "I'll make a new group chat without Midoriya and send it to you guys so we can decide what looks better. Maybe I should send it to Aizawa-sensei and Togata-senpai; Eri wanted to choose the outfit too. Does anyone have their numbers?"

"I... don't think that's a good idea..." Shoji muttered, as Ashido laughed, "Just relax! It'll be fine!"

She hooked her arm over Shinsou's shoulder, winking, "You're definately going to want them!"

Shinsou turned red again, and he promptly turned away, "No."

Ashido just laughed.

* * *

**_A/N Trust me, Izuku in a dress started off as a joke... and then I just couldn't forget about it._**


	91. Chapter 91 - No matter anyway

Nezu's phone buzzed, and the principal looked at his phone in confusion. It wasn't any of the teachers; there weren't any lessons now, and he was in his office. If they needed to tell him something, they could just tell him immediately.

Iida's name flashed across his screen. Iida Tenya's name, to be exact, not Tensei; the older brother's name was listed under Ingenium. There had been several occasions where he had taken care of Iida while Tensei was busy and he had somehow ended up with the younger Iida's number because Tensei had given him the wrong phone number by accident.

Nezu flicked his phone open; Iida had never contacted him directly, which wasn't too surprising, so he was curious as to why the younger boy was texting him now.

He was _not_ expecting to see a bunch of pictures of his pup in a wide variety of dresses, along with a message, _"Sir, Izuku had been entered into the School Festival's Beauty Pageant, and the girls in 1-A had decided to try and dress him up. I just thought I should inform you, given that you're his guardian."_

Nezu raised his eyebrow, and texted back, _"Why do you have these pictures?"_

_"They couldn't decide on what he should wear, so they just sent the pictures into a 1-A group chat so that the others in the class could voice their opinions and choose without needing Izuku to change every time."_

Nezu sighed in relief; at least, it didn't seem to be for any malicious reason. He texted again, _"Did the students send them to anyone else?"_

There was a long pause, before Iida replied, _"As far as I know, Togata-senpai and Aizawa-sensei have also gotten the pictures as they will be visiting Eri and she wanted to pick Izuku's outfit."_

Nezu read the message, and switched his phone off; that didn't seem too bad.

Until he heard some loud screeching coming from the teacher's lounge.

_"He's so cute! Oh my god!"_

Kayama's voice was heard, and Nezu sighed; Aizawa must have gotten the message and Kayama had probably been walking past as he was checking the messages.

There was a knock on his door, as Snipe poked his head into the office, "Nezu... 1-A sent Aizawa pictures of Midoriya in dresses, asking him which looks better, and to show them to Eri."

Nezu facepawed, "I got the pictures as well."

Snipe just shrugged, and walked back towards the teachers, with Nezu following behind him.

"Honestly... he looks best in that white dress." Nezu could hear Yamada outside, taking Aizawa's phone and sieving through the photos, as he pushed him away, "It doesn't even fit him, dumbass. It's dragging on the floor. He'll just end up tripping over everything."

"If I may interject." Ectoplasm muttered, "The one with the black shirt and sparkly dark violet skirt."

Kayama laughed, "You karaoke emo. Of course you would like it. The light green one is better, it goes with his hair."

"The dress is too plain." Thirteen spoke up, "I think the dark green yukata with that light green sash is perfect."

Snipe clicked his tongue, grabbing the phone from Thirteen and swiping past a few pictures, "No way. Too dark, and too much green. The yellow dress is brighter."

"No. Yellow clashes too much. That blue long-sleeved dress is darker, and it also covers his bandages." Ishiyama spoke up.

Aizawa just groaned as the teachers crowded around his table, curiously taking a look at the photos, "Come on, they're not for you guys, they're for Eri. Go away."

"There's no harm in us looking, right? It's not like we're going to go around telling other students and heroes that Midoriya is wearing a dress. Chill." Kayama clicked her tongue, "Whatever happens in the teacher's lounge, stays in the teacher's lounge."

"It better." Nezu grumbled, "You better leave Izuku alone and not harass him over this."

"Aww, come on! I can't even tease him in lessons?" Kayama whined, and Nezu glared at her. She pouted, "Okay, okay, no teasing, got it. But seriously, he looks good in like... everything. Even with the bandages; those usually clash with everything."

"Of course." Nezu spoke as if it was obvious, "He's Izuku."

* * *

Sato was humming to himself in the kitchen, as he carefully measured out the weight of flour he needed. It was a weekend, and he wanted to do some baking. All the other students liked to eat whatever he made, and Sato was really happy that people enjoyed his hobby.

He didn't hear any footsteps, but he noticed that Midoriya had also come into the kitchen, with Shinsou behind him. It was odd, since Midoriya almost _never_ entered the kitchen, and didn't even seem to have any food in the refrigerator. He only came into the kitchen to get hot water for coffee, but Midoriya never really drank coffee in the afternoon. Shinsou liked to grab snacks every now and then, but Sato seriously doubted that was the reason why the two were in the kitchen.

Midoriya looked around nervously, before he turned to Sato, "Excuse me?"

Sato looked up at Midoriya, "Are you... talking to me?"

Midoriya nodded, and glanced to the flour in the bowl in front of Sato, "I... do you... uh..."

Sato just waited patiently as Midoriya tried to speak up, with Shinsou silently encouraging the boy; he knew that Midoriya never really talked much and he didn't want to stress him out too much.

"Do you... know any... apple based food... that children might like?" Midoriya finally managed to get out.

Sato scratched his head, "Well... there are candy apples? They're pretty sweet, so most children like them. Why?"

Midoriya just blinked at him, "What's a... candy apple?"

Shinsou tilted his head, "You don't know what a candy apple is?"

"I've... never had one before." Midoriya muttered under his breath, as Sato explained, "Basically, it's an apple that's covered in a layer of sugar candy coating. Why are you asking, though?"

Midoriya looked away, "I... I looked through the program... for the school festival... but I didn't really... find any apple-based snacks that... Eri might... like..."

"Oh." Sato nodded. He didn't really need Midoriya to explain more; just like with the beauty pageant, Midoriya was trying to do everything he could to make her happy, even if it meant talking to people and asking about things he wasn't knowledgeable about. Sato grinned, "I know how to make candy apples, and given that your arms are still injured, I don't really think you should be making anything. Don't worry about it, I can make some before the School Festival, and you can give it to Eri, okay?"

Midoriya froze up, and glanced at Shinsou, who just nodded at him. Midoriya turned back to Sato, and nodded slightly, "Thank you."

"No problem." Sato smiled, "Get better soon, okay? Then you, me and Eri can all make candy apples together."

* * *

Moashi, Togata, Sasaki and Awata were sitting in the break room at the agency, eating as they took a break from trying to sort out all the paperwork. Sasaki hated letting it pile up, but they all needed a small break after the raid on the hideout of the Eight Precepts of Death.

Togata's phone vibrated, as the blonde peeled himself away from his salad to check his messages. He blinked in confusion, as he squinted at the screen, not really sure what he was looking at. He asked, "Uh... Centipeder, Bubble Girl, Sir, what do you think looks better?"

Awata leaned over his shoulder, munching on a burger, as Togata turned his phone around. She noticed that there were a bunch of pictures of a person with green haired in a bunch of dresses, "Who's that? Finally got yourself a girlfriend?"

Moashi and Sasaki inspected the first picture as Togata looked at her, unimpressed, "I do not have a girlfriend. That's Midoriya."

Sasaki was drinking some tea, and nearly did a spit take, "Midoriya?"

Awata eyes widened, as she practically snatched the phone out of Togata's grasp, "Midoriya!? He's so cute!"

"Why is he wearing a dress... though... or a bunch of dresses..." Moashi muttered, confused, as Togata sighed, "Apparently, one of his classmates entered him into the beauty pageant at the School Festival, so they're picking what to wear for him."

"And he didn't complain?" Moashi asked, "Then again... given his personality, I doubt that he would be complaining anyways..."

"Well..." Togata scratched his head, "He only agreed to enter because of Eri."

"No one can say no to her." Awata laughed, "She's too pure. It's actually pretty cute that the only thing she had requested had been related to Midoriya."

Awata scrolled through the photos, "I think he looks good in that short pink Chinese dress. It is Chinese... right?"

"It's too short for him. It barely covers half of his thighs." Sasaki muttered protectively; Nezu may be Midoriya's guardian, but Midoriya technically was still working as an intern under him, and he was going to make sure the kid wore something appropriate, "He should wear something longer."

"I think the dark green dress with all those black fluffy frills and the lines is better." Moashi spoke up, as Awata poked the taller hero, "They're called highlights, Centipeder. Not lines!"

"I don't know. I don't go around buying dresses." Moashi defended himself.

"Can't he just wear formal clothes?" Sasaki asked, exasperated; he had managed to get a brief glance of the pictures, and had not seen a single picture where Midoriya was just wearing something that wasn't a dress, "I'm not against him wearing a dress if he wants to, and I admit that he does look good, but it seems like his female classmates aren't even considering the possibility that he could just wear fancy formal clothing."

"Sir, you can't be serious." Awata turned to look at Sasaki, "It's a beauty pageant. He's _supposed_ to look pretty! And while he could wear formal clothing, he's going to be competing with a bunch of girls, who are _definitely _going to be wearing dresses to something like this. Midoriya's definitely cute enough to pull off these outfits."

Togata just sweatdropped, "I just thought the sleeveless red one with the frilled collar was okay... since it's pretty similar to the outfit Eri wears..."

Awata just ignored the blonde as she flicked through his phone, "Ah! This light blue shirt goes really well with that mini skirt... and the flower patterns go really well! I think this one is the best!"

Sasaki just sighed. At least, the mood in the agency seemed to be lighter, since Midoriya was alive and recovering; knowing that Midoriya had gotten two spikes through his torso just made everyone worried and upset.

He shifted his hand, pressing lightly against the wound by his side. It hadn't been too serious, but the only reason why he didn't get a spike through the gut was because Midoriya had pushed him away. If he had actually gotten hit by that spike... would he have survived? Would he have had enough determination to want to live on, knowing that the future could be changed?

* * *

Togata had managed to bring Eri to the dorms two more times before the festival started, and the girls had still not been able to find something for Midoriya to wear. While Midoriya preferred napping in the black sleeping bag in the common room, he had taken to just locking himself in his room whenever possible since Ashido liked to drag him off to dress him up. Plus, he also had to do some tweaking; with Nezu and Maijima's permission, he and Hatsume were able to rig up something that would allow him to move Aoyama around the gymnasium, and he could control it via a remote. He just needed to ensure that it wouldn't blow up; when you worked with Hatsume, you could never be too sure.

Luckily, the dressing up only occurred when Eri was around, so Midoriya just put up with it.

"So... the festival is coming soon. Have you guys decided on an outfit?" Togata asked, as Eri nodded, "Yes! Izuku looks really pretty in it!"

"What's he going to wear? Have we seen it before?" Sero asked, as he played some racing game with Awase, and Ashido grinned sneakily, "Not telling you! And it's a new outfit that you guys haven't seen, so it's going to be a surprise!"

"Wait... so you guys are actually serious about making him join the beauty pageant?" Awase raised his eyebrow, and Ashido nodded, "Yes! Trust me, he looks really good!"

"Well... good luck." Awase spoke up, keeping his attention to the screen, "You're going up against Kendo, that pretty third year from the Big Three, and the winner of the past two years beauty pageant, Kenranzaki Bibimi."

"Why do you know Kenran... uh.. Kenzi... uh... her name, but not Hado-senpai's?" Uraraka asked, as Awase sighed, "Kenranzaki. And trust me, Fukidashi has a crush on her, so with the School Festival coming up, he just talks about her. A lot."

"Well... she'll definitely be a favourite." Kirishima spoke up, before patting Midoriya on the back, "But don't worry about it; he'll be fine. Right, Midoriya?"

Midoriya just turned away from Kirishima, remaining silent, as Eri grabbed Midoriya's hand.

* * *

"The gym's closing soon!" Kirishima called out, "Let's do a final check and one last run-through!"

Ashido clapped her hands, "Here we go!"

The Dance Team ran through the routine, as Ashido called out, "Now! Off stage!"

Ojiro started tying the rope around Aoyama's waist, and Midoriya pressed a button on the remote, and the machine that was attached to one of the rafters lifted Aoyama into the air.

"That looks good!" Ashido called out.

"Before we started... I was worried that we'd seem amateurish, but the Band and Dance teams are both better than amateur level, huh?" Sero admitted, "Mina is an unexpectedly mean coach too!"

"Yeah." Kirishima nodded, "Because she likes dancing, she's really serious about it, right? The band team weren't the only ones stirred up by those words."

"I'm getting nervous..." Yaoyorozu sighed, as Jiro spoke to Bakugou, "Don't improvise weird stuff during the actual performance. It'll confuse some people!"

"Whatever!" Bakugou spat as Kaminari muttered, "Those words hurt!"

Tokoyami patted the electric blonde's shoulder, "Kaminari, it's not just you."

"It's already nine o'clock! Students should only be here until nine!" Inui growled, slamming the doors of the gym open, and Kirishima sighed, "Shoot... let's go back..."

Even though they were forced to go back to the dorms, some of them were still unable to sleep, and were still awake at eleven at night.

"Wooo! I can't sleep!" Kaminari cheered, as Mineta yelled, "I'm at max excitement!"

"Quiet down! Some people are sleeping!" Ashido snapped.

"I wonder if everyone will get excited with us..." Iida murmured, as Jiro tried to cheer them up, "It's better to not think about stuff like that... Getting embarrassed or nervous is the worst. Once you get on stage, all that's left is to have fun!"

"You were super embarrassed, though!" Kaminari yelled, and Jiro whined, "That was different!"

"What Jiro says works for a lot of things, huh?" Uraraka laughed, and Aoyama nodded, "When you think of others, it ends up helping you, too!"

Midoriya was inspecting the rope, making sure that it wasn't frayed; he didn't want Aoyama to end up dropping to the ground because of his carelessness. Luckily for them, the rope was of really good quality, and it was still as good as new. He just checked it again, just in case.

"Now... I should really be going to sleep..." Ashido yawned, and Kirishima nodded, "Well, then, we'll probably do this again tomorrow, but night owls! We're a little early, so let's definitely make this a success!"

* * *

_**A/N Yes, Fukidashi Manga having a crush on Kenranzaki Bibimi is actually canon. Check the wiki.**_


	92. Chapter 92 - Lay your burdens

Kayama clapped her hands, "Are we all good? Remember, once that alarm rings, even if it's a false alarm, the festival is over, so in the event that a villain does manage to get past all the defences, call us, and we'll clear it up before the alarms are triggered."

All the students from the hero course nodded. Before the festival started, they were all required to assemble in the gym for a briefing regarding the School Festival. While they had increased security by getting Inui to patrol the perimeter of the school, and by getting other heroes like Death Arms, who were native to Musutafu, to help them patrol the city, they were certain that UA was rather secure. However, they also wanted the students to know what to do in the case of a villain attack.

Togata and Aizawa were the only ones not at the briefing, but they had gone to pick Eri up, and Aizawa was briefing Togata on the way to the hospital.

If the alarm rang, the hero course students should help to evacuate the rest of the students, but if a villain just seemed to appear out of nowhere, such as having a teleportation quirk, the students should immediately contact any of their teachers, and they were allowed to try and take the villains down while evacuating the other students.

"Hey, Midoriya, is your arm better?" Kirishima asked, as Midoriya massaged his shoulder, "It's... not so painful... I guess..."

Jiro was just staring into space as the hero course students left the gymnasium, giving the 1-A students time to set up their performance.

"Jiro... you're thinking about something... aren't you?" Yaoyorozu asked, and Jiro laughed, "Yeah... my parents both have music based jobs... and from young, I've been learning how to play instruments to follow in their footsteps of becoming a musician. But I realised that... it wasn't what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a hero, I wanted to fight for other people, but I also didn't want to waste the music that they taught me... and I love music... I didn't want to tell them, but I had to, when I applied for UA. My parents were... they're great. They accepted my choice, said I could do what I wanted, and... think about what I could do for others with my music. I just... never really thought that being a musician and a hero were that similar."

"Like I said, your hobby is awesome!" Kaminari grinned, and Jiro nodded, tearing up slightly, "Yeah... I'm just... really grateful for this opportunity."

"Just kill everyone with music. That way no one can complain." Bakugou snapped, "Stop crying. Damn it."

"That's just Bakugou speech for "That's why we're going to make this performance awesome!", right, Bakubro?" Kirishima yelled, "Plus Ultra, right!"

"Shut up, Shitty Hair! Fuck off!" Bakugou snapped.

* * *

"There are more people than I thought..." Uraraka muttered from behind the curtain, and Kaminari laughed, "Everyone seems to be in a good mood this morning."

"They've been looking forward to it, stupid." Jiro hissed, as the lights went out and the curtains opened, eliciting cheering from the crowd.

"There it is!"

"First years, do your best!"

"Show us what you've got, first years!"

"Yaoyorozu! Yaoyorozu! Yaoyorozu!"

"Oh, that's right, Yaoyorozu was in that commercial with Kendo, right? She also has some fans." Togata spoke up, carrying Eri so that she could see the stage, "Eri, can you see?"

"Yeah..." Eri replied, staring at the stage, completely dumbfounded by the sheer number of the people in the gymnasium. Midoriya was right beside them, wearing a black hoodie, with the remote control right in his pocket.

"Now, I wonder how it'll go." Aizawa grumbled, as Yamada whined, "What do you mean "I wonder how it'll go"? I'm super looking forward to this!"

"I don't care about you. Shouldn't you be on patrol before the announcements for the beauty pageant?"

"Come on, I'm only going to watch a little! Just a little! Hitoshi's in it, you know!" Yamada replied.

"A band and dance performance?" Togeike grumbled, "Even if you do a decent job, in the end, you're just satisfying yourselves, aren't you?"

"I don't see Midoriya." Agoyamato muttered, as Togeike replied, "We're not here to criticise him; he was originally from General Education and was dumped into 1-A. And he was injured in that attack. I doubt he can perform, and he's probably saving his energy for that beauty pageant that his classmates probably forced him into."

Jiro took a breath, and opened her eyes, and the lights on the stage dimmed. Bakugou yelled, "Let's go, damn it! All of UA, let's kill them with our sound!"

He released an explosion into the air, and 1-A started their musical performance, blowing everyone away. Ashido and Ojiro jumped into the air, as Jiro yelled, "Thanks for coming today!"

Midoriya was having trouble seeing the stage, given that he was being blocked by some people, and tried to tiptoe to get a better look at the stage, as Jiro started singing, "What am I to be? What is my calling? I gave up giving up, I'm ready to go!"

The greenette tilted his head in confusion; he hadn't heard the entire song before. _Gave up... giving up?_

"The future's left unseen, it all depends on me. Put it on the line to follow my dream, yeah!"

_Does anyone have the right to put everyone's future on the line for a dream?_

"Tried all my life, I've tried to find, something that makes me hold on and never let go, ohhhh!

All his classmates jumped into the air, and Midoriya started thinking. Ever since he had been declared quirkless, he had always been searching for a way to become a hero. Had he found something to hold on to? To push him on?

He didn't really have an answer.

"Hero too, I am a hero too! My heart is set, and I won't back down! Hero too, strength doesn't make a hero! True heroes, stand up for what they believe! So wait and see!"

Shoji threw Aoyama into the air, and the blonde spun around, firing off his lasers in quick succession, eliciting more cheers from the crowd.

"Human fireworks!"

Eri looked around in awe as the blue light danced over everyone, and Ojiro quickly caught Aoyama as he fell, rightening him, before rushing backstage, sticking a thumbs up to the crowd. Midoriya quickly saw the signal, and put his hand in his pocket, grabbing the remote and waiting for the next signal.

"What do they think of me? Who do they think I'll be? I could not care less, I don't wanna know! Am I doing right? Am I satisfied? I want to live my life like it's meant to be, yeah!"

Those had all been questions Midoriya had been asking himself for his entire life, and yet... he didn't have answers to any of them.

"Tried all my life, I've tried to find, something that makes me hold on and never let go!"

Uraraka, Ashido, Asui, and Hagakure all crouched down and raised their arms, bringing attention to Mineta, as Iida chopped his arms around robotically; Agoyamato and Togeike were really trying their best to not laugh at Iida's comical movements.

"Ohhh!"

Todoroki activated his ice quirk, making some ice platforms that cooled the air around them, creating mist, as Koda released a few birds into the gymnasium. Yaoyorozu created some party poppers on her arm, releasing streamers throughout the gymnasium. Ojiro ran back out onto the stage, and Midoriya pressed one of the buttons on the remote, causing Aoyama to be pulled into the air.

"Hero too, I am a hero too! My heart is set, and I won't back down! Hero too, strength doesn't make a hero! True heroes, stand up for what they believe! So wait and see!"

Most of the students were already pumped up by all the singing and dancing on stage, and were starting to dance and sing along. Kirishima ran around on the ice platforms, releasing glitter, and Sero shot out some tape, catching all the glitter and waving them around as Midoriya moved Aoyama around the gymnasium with his remote, using his vantage point in the audience to see where best the lighting should go as the blonde fired off his lasers, the light reflecting off the glitter and being refracted by all the ice.

"People will judge, for no reason at all!"

_Of course they would. It's illogical. _

"Yeah, they might try, to say your dreams "dumb", don't listen!"

_That's what they always say. But what else can you do when everyone around you says it? _

"They may look down on me, and count me out! I'm going my own way! They may look down on me, and count me out! I'm a hero, I've got music!"

_You have music, Jiro. All of you are doing this, making everyone happy. __But what do I have?_

"Hero too, I am a hero too! My heart is set, and I won't back down! Hero too, strength doesn't make a hero! True heroes, stand up for what they believe!"

Asui lashed her tongue around Uraraka, and lifted her into the crowd, allowing her to use her quirk on some of the audience members, causing them to float up into the air.

"Yeah I'll be! Hero too, I am a hero too! My heart is set, and I won't back down! Hero too, strength doesn't make a hero! True heroes, stand up for what they believe! So wait and see!"

_What do I believe even in?_

"I have met so many heroes in my life, gave me the strength and courage to survive, gave me the power to smile everyday!"

Hagakure was using her quirk to make herself sparkle, as Jiro finished off the last verse, "Now it's my turn, to be the one to make you smile!"

"Woah!" Eri raised her arms into the air as she smiled, a smile of pure, unadulterated happiness, laughing and cheering along as she was released from the shackles that Chisaki had placed on her, her psyche finally being freed from the last remains of the shadow that Chisaki had cast on her.

"The future really is unseen, huh, Midoriya?" Togata smiled at the green haired boy, "Sir had seen a terrible future, but somehow... you've managed to change it. You've done what Sir couldn't do for years. And Eri... she's smiling!"

Eri turned, looking down at Midoriya and Togata. Togata smiled back at her, almost close to crying from happiness, and Midoriya tried to smile, not wanting to kill the mood, but he just couldn't.

His classmates had created his performance to make everyone happy, and it was obvious that everyone was enjoying it; his classmates, all the students that hated 1-A and had come just to judge and criticize them, even Eri.

Everyone was enjoying it, everyone but him.

Clearly, the problem wasn't with the performance, or with anyone else; the problem was with him.

He didn't even remember how to be happy.

Midoriya turned away from Eri, pretending to be more interested in the crowd, not wanting to show Eri a side of him that would definitely make her upset.

Eri didn't deserve anything that Chisaki did to her.

She deserved to be happy.

He didn't.

_Did he?_

* * *

"Hey, good work!" Togata grinned, waving at the 1-A students, as Asui struggled to untie the rope from around Aoyama's waist. The others had already changed out of their dancing outfits, not wanting to ruin them as they cleaned up.

Eri rushed up to the students, smiling brightly, "You know what!? At first, there was a loud noise and it was really scary! But then, everyone was hopping along to the dance! And then there was a flash and the guy in the armour disappeared! Then it got cold and the armoured guy was in the air as a spinning light! And a girl's voice said "Woah!" and I said "Woah!" too!"

Iida smiled back at her, "I'm glad you had a good time!"

The other students were scooping the ice over to the basins, where Bakugou was blasting them to bits and Todoroki was melting the ice so that it all went down the drain cleanly. Midoriya had gone over to Asui, taking a ridiculously sharp pocket knife out and cutting through the rope easily.

"Class 1-A!"

"We had a lot of fun!"

"Oh, great! Thanks!" Kirishima smiled as the audience members left the gymnasium.

"Yeah... it was fun..." Agoyamato muttered, "Good job."

Bakugou glared at him, as Togeike yelled, "I'm sorry!"

"We watched it to criticize it! I'm really sorry!" Agoyamato admitted, before both he and Togeike ran off.

"They didn't have to come to say that..." Kaminari sweatdropped, and Bakugou grinned victoriously, "We won!"

"I wonder if they're some of the people Aizawa-sensei was talking about who were stressed." Kirishima muttered, before grinning, "If they were, then Iida, our feelings reached them!"

"Yeah!" Iida nodded, "But no matter what their reason was, it was because they watched us! I'm sure there are those who didn't watch! Let's not let this end today and let our feelings -"

Iida was cut off by one of the other students, "It's fine, isn't it? We heard about what you guys wanted to do when you planned this!"

"We got it! Now, we'll tell the others!"

"I mean, it was really fun!"

"Those of us who watched it will pass on your feelings!"

"That'll be great!" Ashido cheered, and Iida bowed, "Thank you for your kindness!"

"I don't like it." Bakugou growled, "Find the guys who didn't watch and bring them here! How dare they not come!"

"It's fine! Come on, stop it, jeez!" Ojiro tried to hold Bakugou back, "Kirishima help control your boyfriend!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Kirishima snapped back, as Bakugou struggled against Ojiro's grip, explosions popping off his palm.

"You're like the only person that Bakugou wouldn't blast!" Ojiro said, as Kirishima countered, "That's only because of my quirk!"

"Hurry up and finish cleaning up all the ice!" Mineta yelled, and Bakugou glared at the purple boy as Kirishima asked, "Oh, sorry! Mineta, you've been on edge this whole time!"

"If we don't hurry, then we won't be able to get good seats for the beauty pageant!" Mineta yelled.

"Speaking of which..." A student spoke up, "Midoriya! Good luck! You're really brave to participate in it!"

"He is!" Shinsou nodded, gesturing to Eri, "He's participating because he wanted her to be happy."

"Oh, right!" One of the other students nodded, "Could we ask a question? You had a human disco ball, right? We were all really surprised when he was moving all around, but the ones that were missing from the stage didn't really have power based quirks, so we were just wondering what was going on!"

"Oh, oh!" Ashido bounded up, "Did you know that Midoriya made some tech that allowed him to make Aoyama move around the gym! He was standing in the audience and controlling it!"

"He was? That's awesome."

"Hey, Midoriya! How do you feel?" Kaminari grinned, "All of us were awesome, right?"

Midoriya just turned away from Kaminari, "Yeah..."

He glanced up at the wall of the gym, at the camera that had been stuck onto the wall. He was going to need Hastume's help with getting it off later, when they removed the tech from the rafters of the building.


	93. Chapter 93 - Where the skies end

Tetsutetsu raised his sword, prepared to cut Shoda down, but Monoma jumped in, parrying the steel boy away. He pointed the sword at his classmate, growling, "My name is Romeo! Ghost of Azkaban, Count Paris! Return Juliet to me!"

_Damn... even with a sword with a longer range and all that practise, I still feel like Tetsutetsu could just cut me up._ Monoma thought,_ And these are fake swords. How on earth does Midoriya do it with knives that have an even shorter range than these swords_?

Tetsutetsu lifted his head, "Romeo... You heard about your father from Gandalf... right? That he was the king of Gondor. That was a lie."

Monoma gasped, as Tetsutetsu threw his hood off, "I am your father!"

The blonde dropped his sword to the ground comically, and yelled, "You're lying!"

* * *

"Whoops!"

Death Arms paused as he was patrolling the area, almost running into someone wearing a trench coat and a mask, "Excuse me!"

"Please be careful!" Tobita confidently replied, trying not to make the hero suspicious, "You were about to ruin the aftertaste of the Gold Tips Imperial."

"I'm sorry." Death Arms apologized, wondering why the voice sounded so familiar, as Tobita turned to Aiba, "Come, let's go, Honey."

"Honey?" Aiba asked, confused, before realising that it was a disguise, "Yes, I'm Honey!

"Gold Tips? Isn't that some kind of tea?" Death Arms asked, turning to the small house that was located next to the hardware store, "Is it a cafe or something? I didn't know that. You can't tell."

Tobita couldn't help himself, and turned around, "If you didn't know what Gold Tips Imperial was, then you wouldn't not have thought that! Are you... someone who understands? It's wonderful, even heroes are enjoying some tea!"

"Um... I've seen and heard about it. I really don't know that much... I'm not much of a tea drinker." Death Arms admitted, not really sure what was going on, _I feel like I've heard this voice before..._

"Well, that's perfectly fine!" Tobita replied, "You should try it some time!"

Death Arms blinked; he had just watched some video about a villain and tea a few days ago, since all the heroes were supposed to be on the lookout for some Gentle Criminal...

But he couldn't really do anything at the moment; he needed to be sure that this was actually the Gentle Criminal, and not just some old couple who wanted to drink some tea.

"Now, if you excuse me..." Tobita turned around, as Death Arms spoke up, "Please wait. Is this like a ritual for you?"

"Ritual? What are you talking about?" Tobita asked, turning around, placing his hand on his mask, and Death Arms growled, "We saw your videos. You mentioned that before you commit one of your criminal acts, you choose the brand based on the size of the job. You're planning to infiltrate UA's School Festival, aren't you? You mean an alarm both figuratively and literally."

"La Brava. Start filming." Tobita muttered, as Death Arms hissed, "Leave UA alone. They're just kids; let them have some fun."

"You're very perceptive. La Brava, there's been a change of plans. From this moment on, no matter what happens, don't stop the camera!" Tobita replied, preparing to take his coat off, as Aiba nodded, "Of course, Gentle. But are you going to fight? Here? Do you think that's a good idea?"

Tobita merely smiled, and took his overcoat off with a flourish, "Dear listeners! The grand adventure of a man of extraordinary talent is starting! Don't be so dazzled that you'd look away! I am the gentleman thief who will save the world; Gentle Criminal! My plans have shifted. In this current predicament, I'll keep this brief. This time, I tried going into UA!"

"You won't be saving anyone!" Death Arms snapped, preparing to fight, "I won't let you do that!"

Death Arms lunged forward, but was suddenly stopped by an elastic sheet.

"I put this up as I took off my overcoat!" Tobita proudly claimed, "If you've watched my videos, then you should already know that my quirk is Elasticity! I bestow elasticity to the things I touch! Even if it's air! Gently Rebound!"

Tobita repelled Death Arms backwards, before turning back to the camera, "I don't like resolving things through violence."

"You're acting so violent it's almost nasty, Gentle." Aiba sweatdropped, as Tobita replied, "I'm also in the midst of surprise and confusion right now, La Brava. I'm sorry, hero! But I will overcome all odds to complete my mission!"

Death Arms pushed himself up, "If you're going to apologize, then leave the kids alone!"

"That is not something I can do!" The villain yelled, as Death Arms chased after him. Tobita turned around, pressing his hand onto the ground, turning it elastic, "Gently Trampoline!"

The elastic ground sent Death Arms flying awkwardly, as the villain muttered to himself, "When I was a student, I, too, worked hard to put on events. I'm sure you want to allow those students to hold an event that they worked hard on, but you can't win against my mustache and my soul! This scheme is a big step towards me becoming a legend. Please do not get in my way."

Activating his quirk on the air, Tobita and Aiba bounced away, "Farewell!"

Tobita turned to the camera, "Dear listeners! I tried going into U.A, but now, it will switch to being a race against the clock!"

It wasn't long before Death Arms landed back on the ground, and growled, "Damn it. I need to stop him."

He took a few steps back, using the elastic ground as a trampoline to properly propel himself through the air, after Tobita and Aiba. The two villains were escaping using more air trampolines, but since the effects of his quirk tend to linger for a few minutes before dissipating, Death Arms could use those same air trampolines to give chase.

Since Tobita and Aiba prioritized flashiness and elegance over efficiency, Death Arms was able to catch up, and he tackled Tobita, sending them both crashing into a nearby construction site.

"Gentle!" Aiba yelled, as a passerby noticed the crash.

"Don't worry about it, mister! We're just filming something here!" Aiba called out, not wanting to get the elderly passerby involved in the fight, "Do you think you can tell your neighbours?

"What channel? When will it be on?" The passerby asked curiously, as Aiba jumped away.

* * *

"What's with those clothes, Kendo!" Monoma laughed, as Tetsutetsu smiled, "Oh, that looks good on you!"

"Isn't it too sexy?" Awase asked, as Kendo grumbled, "Hey, boys, don't just walk in like this."

"That appearance! It's hard to believe that's the look of someone who's sold her soul to violence!" Monoma continued mocking, as Kendo sweatdropped, "Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"A compliment!" Monoma proclaimed, "After all, the one who entered you was me! Since you're popular after being in the commercial, I'm sure that you'll win! If you win, then 1-B will be even more "Plus Ultra"! Most importantly, during that time, I would be free from your powerful fist!"

Monoma laughed, and Yanagi just stared at him in confusion. Kendo sighed, "Well, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to aim for the top."

"Hey, hey, wait!" Hado smiled, walking up to them, "Why is Kendo so sure to win? We don't know that yet!"

"Looking forward to competing with you, Kendo!" Hado pranced up to Kendo, and the orange girl replied, "I'm looking forward to it, too!"

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Oh my? Speaking of victory while disregarding me?"

"I'm the one graced with perfect beauty!" Kenranzaki danced out, twirling, laughing, and Kendo and Hado looked at her in disdain, while trying to keep the smile on their faces.

"It's a fight among women..." Awase muttered, before he turned to Midoriya, who was just sitting on the corner of the room, "Hey, Midoriya!"

Midoriya looked up at the mention of his name, and Hado smiled, "Ah! Midoriya! You're a boy, but you're also really cute! I look forward to be competing with you!"

Midoriya just blinked, and Awase could almost see the gears turning in his head as he processed what Hado had said, before the greenette nodded.

"A boy!" Kenranzaki glanced at him, "Well, you're no competition either! I'm the one who will win the beauty pageant!"

"Don't be so rude." Tetsutetsu piped up, "Hey, Midoriya, it's really manly to be entering a competition like this, okay?"

Midoriya just nodded, not really sure how else to react.

* * *

Death Arms pushed himself up, and looked around; he had lost track of Tobita when they both crashed into the construction site, and he needed to stop the villain as soon as possible.

"Well, this is an unexpected situation." Tobita drawled, suspended in mid-air as he hung onto a girder by his jacket, "However, I will not lose my composure! I will definitely make my plan succeed! I have the resolve to do it! A gentleman does not lose his composure! That's right! I am Gentle Criminal!"

"You're no gentleman!" Death Arms growled, "What are you planning!?"

"What am I planning?" Tobita asked patronizing, "Please, don't lump me with those people from the League of Villains. I'm not trying to kidnap or stab anyone. All I want is to sneak into the school festival. That's all. Let me go, hero. I promise I'll do no harm."

Death Arms growled, "You do know that they're on an emergency alert, right? Even before you sneak in, if someone like you is found, the alarm will sound. The entire thing will be cancelled, and you'll be caught immediately."

"Oh, in that case, it'll be fine." Tobita smiled, "My partner has a way to disable the alarm sensors. It won't be cancelled. Our plan can succeed. It's a win-win situation! Before it becomes too troublesome, I would like to continue on my way."

"No! You're staying here!" Death Arms growled, and Tobita sighed, "We'll never agree. While the aftertaste of the tea remains, I'll have you go to sleep, hero!"

Tobita created an elastic air sheet underneath him, and used it to propel himself upwards. He activated his quirk, making all the girders elastic, as he jumped around the construction site, leaving the hero helpless as to how to proceed.

"Gentle, it's sad, but you should retreat -" Aiba called out, as Tobita flipped himself up onto a steel girder, "No, La Brava. Not yet."

Seeing as Tobita was no longer moving, Death Arms ran in his direction, but Tobita merely just plucked out the bolts that were holding the now elastic girder up, and started jumping on it, "Whoops! You must listen to what I say! I cannot cancel the effects of my quirk of my own volition. Things return to their original state gradually. Steel beams regaining their firmness while still keeping some unnatural bounce! And the one I'm standing on, with all its bolts removed! At this rate, the steel beam will fall. It is quite dangerous!"

Death Arms tensed up, and peered over the edge of the building, noticing the elderly passerby, who was still trying to figure out what was going on, as Tobita smirked victoriously, "You're a hero, right? You can't ignore a falling steel beam."

Tobita leapt off the girder, as Death Arms ran forwards, jumping off the building as he tried to put himself between the passerby and the falling girder.

"Get away from here!" Death Arms yelled, before turning his attention back to the construction site, only for the falling steel girder to be reflected off an elastic air sheet, causing the girder to land within the construction site, well away from the passerby.

"Please stay down there!" Tobita peered down, smiling, before grabbing the arm of the nearby crane and turning it elastic, "Grab on, La Brava!"

"That's harsh, Gentle! Playing dirty!" Aiba spoke up, but Tobita used the crane as a slingshot, launching himself and Aiba towards UA as he replied, "Our plans have changed, La Brava! But if they're on their guard and I still manage to sneak in, then I will become even more well-known as a man who accomplished a great feat!"

Death Arms just growled under his breath, and grabbed his phone, dialing UA's number, "Sir... the Gentle Criminal is headed to UA. I'm trying to stop him, but he can move through the air, and I don't have any proper ranged attacks... yes... Present Mic would be helpful... thanks..."

* * *

"They stuffed too much in!"

"It was amazing in a lot of ways!"

"I couldn't help laughing!"

The students were all crowded around the large stage that had been set up, cheering as the beauty pageant started.

_"Kendo, who can blast you away in one hit!"_

Kendo easily chopped through several boards, accidentally ripping her dress in the process, before showing off some more moves.

"Crap!" Ashido yelped, turning to Uraraka, "I didn't know that they also had to be performing! What do we do?"

"I don't know..." Hagakure muttered, as Reiko watched the performance, sitting on Shoji's shoulder. Ryuto was sitting on Tokoyami's head, enjoying the show with Dark Shadow.

"We can just yell at him to do something when he comes on, right?" Kaminari spoke up, "He's the last one. We can think of something before then."

"But after Kendo, it's Kenranzaki, then Hado-senpai, then Midoriya already..." Uraraka hissed, "We don't have much time."

_"She tears her gorgeous dress for this martial arts demonstration! The perfect coexistence of strength and beauty!"_ One of the students yelled over the microphone; Yamada had suddenly been called off for patrolling, and someone had to replace him as the announcer of the beauty pageant.

_"What a wonderful performance!"_

The students were all cheering as Kendo disappeared backstage.

_"Next, we have a third year, Kenranzaki Bibimi!"_

Kenranzaki rushed out, wearing a red kimono. She paraded around in a golden vehicle that was modeled after her, "How dull! You don't know anything, do you?"

_"Support Course third year and beauty pageant queen! She uses advanced techniques in order to show off her face! A stunning performance!"_

Uraraka sweatdropped, "That's a bit... over the top..."

"What kind of performance is this?" Eri asked, as Togata carried her, equally stunned by the vehicle, "... It just got harder to tell, right?"

"Dazzling splendor is the goal of beauty!" Kenranzaki spun around, before going backstage.

"Oh... third year... not bad..." Monoma mocked, as Kirishima turned to Tetsutetsu, "I heard everyone liked your play! Good job!"

Kirishima and Tetsutetsu both activated their quirks on their arms, bumping them together. Tetsutetsu grinned, "You too! I heard Midoriya's participating in this too."

"Yeah. He's super manly like that." Kirishima smiled.

_"Next, we have another third year, Hado Nejire!"_

Hado floated onto the stage, as the students started cheering again, wearing a simple, fluffy light blue dress.

"Nejire! Come on!" Haya clenched her fists, as Amajiki stared at the ground, shakily sticking his thumb up, "Hado... people are just animals... Just think of them as mammals, and you'll feel more relaxed..."

"Nejire lost last year because she tried to be flashier than Kenranzaki." Haya said, "Kenranzaki's strength is being flashy. Nejire has her own strength!"

Hado floated into the air with her quirk, leaving a glowing, golden trail behind her, spotting Eri, Togata, Uraraka and Asui in the crowd. She floated around, dancing around elegantly, and smiled to herself, "Everyone looks so surprised! It's so strange!"

"Looking at her like this... Hado really... looks like an innocent fairy." Amajiki muttered, watching as Hado spun around and twirled gracefully, drawing a glowing rose in the air.

"So pretty..." Kendo gaped, as Hado landed back on the platform.

_"What a magical dance in the air! She pulled me in!"_

"Come on... we need to think of something for Midoriya..." Ashido tapped her feet nervously.

_"Finally, we have a first year, Midoriya Izuku!"_

A green haired figure walked out onto the runway towards the stage, and everyone fell silent.

Midoriya was wearing what looked to be a loose mint-green wrap dress kimono, with a light sakura pink sash and sleeves that were decorated with light yellow flowers. One sleeve was longer than the other, and he had grey knee-length stockings, as well as matching mint-green boots, with a light grey mesh cape that were embroidered with cherry blossoms.

His collar was still around his neck, and his chest, shoulders and arms were still bandaged up; heck, his entire right arm was still wrapped tightly with bandages. But they didn't ruin the look at all.

"Izuku!" Eri called out, smiling as she waved her arms about, before turning to Togata, "He looks good, right?"

Togata mutely nodded, still stunned, and Ashido grinned, raising her hand to give Eri a high-five.

Shinsou bit his lip, trying to stop the red from spreading across his face as he kept his eyes glued onto the greenette. As much as he knew that Midoriya was a badass and could kick pretty much anyone's ass if he wanted to, he couldn't help but think that Midoriya looked like an adorable, ethereal god that could barely hurt a fly.

"He's cute." Kaminari admitted, as Tetsutetsu spoke up, "Damn! He looks so good, though! So manly! I approve!"

"I know right." Kirishima grinned, "The girls chose a really good outfit."

"He looks... nervous..." Iida muttered, "Izuku's never been good with attention."

"Ochako! We need to think of something!" Hagakure whispered urgently, "He's almost at the stage! And he has to do something to perform!"

Midoriya finally reached the stage, and 1-A could easily tell that Midoriya was nervous; he was glancing around, not really sure what he was supposed to do, and Awase muttered, "I... don't think he's too comfortable with all the attention, though..."

Ashido and Uraraka started yelling something as they waved their arms about, but right at that moment, the crowd started cheering, drowning out their voices. Midoriya looked at them, not really sure what they were trying to say, and tilted his head in confusion, but that just made him look even more innocent and cute, causing the cheering of the crowd to get louder.

"He's so cute!"

"You sure he's not a girl? He's rocking that dress!"

There was a shout from somewhere in the distance, and it was pretty obvious that it was Yamada's voice; the air had been slightly tinted yellow, and who else could be so loud?

Suddenly, Midoriya looked upwards, seeing a dot in the distance, which got everyone else's attention. The dot became bigger, and Midoriya realised that it was falling towards the stage, and promptly jumped out of the way, landing elegantly as something crashed into the stage.

"What's that?" Shinsou muttered, trying to get a better look as the dust cleared, revealing Tobita and Aiba.

"Gentle, are you okay?" Aiba asked, pushing herself up.

Tobita scratched his head, and rightened himself, "I didn't expect that hero to be able to hit us from so far away. La Brava, is the camera still rolling?"

"Yes, Gentle." Aiba smiled, and looked around.

Midoriya just glared at the two villains, as Tobita noticed that he was on a stage. With a flourish, Tobita raised his arms, smiling, "Ah! We made it into UA! Looks like our plan worked anyways."

The students were still standing there, not sure how to react to the eccentric man, as Midoriya let out a growl, and lunged forwards, aiming a foot at Tobita. Tobita didn't even react, as Midoriya was stopped midway with what seemed to be an elastic sheet.

Midoriya briefly analyzed the elastic sheet that Tobita had put up; the villain's quirk made things elastic, he could tell that much from the videos that the villain had put up. But there seemed to be a limit to the villain's range; from how the air sheet was stretched, Midoriya could see what part of the air made up the elastic air sheet, and what was normal air.

"Ah! I just put this up!" Tobita grinned smugly, "As you can tell -"

Tobita was immediately cut off as Midoriya shifted his foot, using the heel of his shoe to create some leverage on the elastic air sheet. He used his other leg to propel himself upwards, using his momentum to flip over the top of the elastic air sheet, his movements barely hindered by the flowy dress he was wearing. He unhooked the heel of his shoe from the elastic air sheet, intent on punching Tobita, but the villain managed to evade in time.

The alarms hadn't sounded, but Midoriya knew that was because Tobita and Aiba had both entered UA from the sky, literally dropping in out of nowhere. But he needed to ensure that Tobita was confined to that area, or he could end up triggering the alarms and ending the School Festival prematurely.

"Impressive!" Tobita complimented, "No one has ever countered my Gently Rebound like that before, and so elegantly too! Excellent! La Brava, this is all being streamed, right?"

Aiba nodded, as Tobita landed back on the stage, keeping the camera focused on the duo's fight, "Yes, Gentle!"

"Togata-senpai, take care of Eri." Yaoyorozu called out, "Everyone, these two are villains! Please get away from the stage!"

"Got it!" Togata wrapped his arms around Eri tightly, "Don't worry, okay?"

"I already called Midnight-sensei and Aizawa-sensei!" Kaminari spoke up, pocketing his phone, "Everyone, this way, please!"

"He has knives on him?" Haya asked, surprised, and Amajiki nodded, "Yeah. We need to lead everyone away!"

As the hero students in the crowd started to evacuate the other students away from the stage, Midoriya just growled, and lunged forwards, but the villain just dodged swiftly. Midoriya landed on his arms, flipping himself around, attempting to kick Tobita again, but the villain just jumped to the side. The greenette hissed, stopping his foot mere millimeters from the stage; if his foot had made contact, he was most likely going to break the stage, and he couldn't afford to do that. Wincing from the strain put on his torso, Midoriya immediately swerved his foot to the side, whacking Tobita in his side.

Hissing in pain, Tobita stumbled away, and tried to create some distance between himself and the greenette on an air trampoline, but much to his surprise, Midoriya whipped out a knife from his sleeve and threw it at the elastic air, creating a tear in it and rendering it useless.

Tobita started leaping around, creating more and more air trampolines to ricochet off, but Midoriya easily remembered the positions of the elastic air sheets, and swerved to the side, tripping Tobita up, before jumping into the air, bouncing off the air sheets to tackle Tobita as the villain was getting up.

Tobita pushed himself up; as good as Midoriya was, he wasn't very heavy. Midoriya tried to attack again, and the villain was just barely able to evade it, but Tobita was quickly realising that he couldn't use his quirk to fight against Midoriya; the boy could easily get past any elastic sheets he put up, and if he started using the elastic trampolines, the green haired boy would just use them against him.

All he had was hand-to-hand combat, but Midoriya excelled him in that by a long shot. It was taking everything Tobita had to dodge Midoriya's attacks, and compared to what the boy had done when fighting Chisaki, he could tell that the boy wasn't even going all out; he was probably still recovering, if the bandages were any indication.

Midoriya lunged forwards, before swerving to the side, gracefully kicking Tobita in the stomach. Tobita gasped in pain, clutching his stomach, and Midoriya used that opportunity to trip Tobita up and pinned him to the ground.

Seeing how much Tobita was struggling against Midoriya, Aiba started to tear up. Tobita had risked everything for this plan, but just a few minor mishaps had caused the entire plan to be messed up. And now that they had landed in UA, they couldn't just escape; there were many hero course students in the crowd, and they had even called more heroes.

They needed to use her quirk.

"Gentle!" Aiba yelled, "I love you!"

"Thank you." Tobita glanced at her, giving her a small smile as her quirk activated, and Tobita's body was sparking with pink energy. Midoriya blinked, not really sure what was going on, as Tobita pushed himself up, easily overpowering the boy, and jumped to the side.

"Sorry, young man." Tobita apologised, "I don't like using brute force, so I usually cut scenes like this."

Tobita lunged at Midoriya, much faster than before, and the boy was barely able to react as he was hit in the chest, sending him skidding backwards. Midoriya managed to regain his balance, and growled in pain, and Tobita lunged at the boy, but this time, Midoriya barely managed to use his right arm to block the attack.

Tobita jumped away, surprised that Midoriya had managed to adapt to the power boost of Lover Mode, and rushed at Midoriya again, combining his power boost with his quirk to create more air trampolines to bounce off, but despite the speed at which he was moving, Midoriya was still able to elegantly dodge and evade Tobita's attempts to take him out.

Taking out a knife, Tobita attempted to attack Midoriya, but the smaller boy whipped out another knife from the sheath on his thigh, parrying away Tobita's blade.

"My love... my love wasn't enough..." Aiba sobbed as she apologized, as Tobita growled, "No one has proved that your love isn't enough!"

Kayama and Aizawa finally arrived at the scene, having to push their way through the huge hoard of students, and seeing the heroes, Tobita knew that he didn't have much time left to get out of this.

In desperation, Tobita threw the knife at Midoriya, but the boy just swerved to the side. He raised his leg as the knife flew past him, pushing up the hilt of the knife, causing it to flip around midair, before kicking the knife at Tobita, just barely missing the villain's cheek.

Amajiki quickly created clam shells with his quirk, shattering the knife, as Shinsou walked forward, towards Aiba, "Hey."

"What -" Aiba whirled around, as Shinsou activated his quirk on the girl, "Now, take a nice nap."

Aiba immediately fell unconscious, and Amajiki turned his arms into octopus tentacles, catching the girl before she fell. Shinsou grabbed the camera, and turned it off, as Tobita turned hsi attention to the two students, "What did you do to La Brava!?"

"Knocked her out. That's all." Shinsou replied, goading the villain, "You going to fight us next?"

Tobita slammed his mouth shut; he didn't know what Shinsou's quirk was, but Aiba was taken out by replying to him, so it would be in his best interests to not talk to the lavender haired boy.

But that distraction was all Midoriya needed to turn Tobita's speed against him, digging his knee into the villain's gut as Tobita rocketed towards him.

"Sorry, we're late!" Aizawa muttered, erasing Tobita's quirk and causing all the elastic air trampolines to dissipate, before using his capture weapon to grab the villain, smacking him into the ground.

Kayama quickly activated her quirk, releasing a small amount of gas to make Tobita pass out, before she turned to the students, "Sorry about that. We got a call that Gentle Criminal was here. We were helping Ectoplasm, Snipe and Hound Dog survey the perimeter to ensure that there weren't any other villains, and Mic got called out to try and deal with Gentle before he even got to UA."

"It's fine..." Amajiki muttered, before turning to Midoriya, "He was the one that occupied Gentle for so long."

Midoriya was crouched on the ground, panting heavily, and Shinsou climbed up onto the stage to help Midoriya up, "Hey, Izuku, you okay?"

The fight hadn't been that long; in fact, it was even shorter than the performance they had earlier in the day. But Midoriya was already panting, clearly exhausted and drained from the short fight, despite the amount of stamina and energy the boy usually had.

Midoriya coughed out some blood, but his entire body was shaking; he had overexerted himself, his entire torso was aching, his right arm was throbbing with pain, and now that the adrenaline rush had died down, he could feel his heart pounding rapidly, blocking out any other sounds.

He tried to stand, but his legs gave way under him, but Shinsou managed to catch him in time.

"Nope. You're not okay." Shinsou muttered, supporting the boy, as Aizawa quickly checked over Midoriya, "He doesn't look too injured, but coughing out blood isn't good. Go get him to Recovery Girl."

Shinsou nodded, scooping the boy up and rushing back to the UA main building, as Kayama took charge of the situation and turned around to address the rest of the students, "Alright, it's fine, everyone, please leave this area and enjoy the rest of the School Festival! We'll get this sorted out soon and get back to you."

* * *

_**A/N Gentle having a knife is also canon, apparently.**_

_**Also, I drew Izuku in his dress (Curse my friends for getting that idea stuck in my head, making me draw it at 4am in the morning), but I can't post it here. I think you'll find it if you search this fic on AO3 or Wattpad.**_


	94. Chapter 94 - A piece of it with me

"His fight with Gentle did aggravate some of his old wounds, but overall, he's fine. He's just tired, and hasn't fully recovered yet. His arm took a bit of damage, but I healed it up already." Shuzenji said, "Don't worry about him."

Shinsou gently ran his fingers through Midoriya's fluffy hair as the tired greenette sat on the bed, gazing around absentmindedly. Iida had brought his clothes to the infirmary after the fight, and based on the chattering from outside the infirmary, Shinsou could tell that several of his classmates were crowded outside.

Shuzenji turned to address the students crowded outside her infirmary, while giving Midoriya some space to change out of the dress, before dismissing him, allowing them to enjoy the rest of the festival. Apparently, due to Midoriya containing the fight in a small area, and Kaminari alerting the teachers quickly to deal with the situation, the alarms hadn't been triggered, which had been a loophole that allowed UA to continue on with the festival despite the villain attack.

It didn't take too long for Midoriya to change, and they walked out of the infirmary, where the other students were all chatting amongst themselves. Eri was standing next to Togata, and the second Midoriya exited the infirmary, she ran up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist, "Izuku! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine." Shinsou replied, "So... did we miss anything?"

"Not really." Ashido replied, as Midoriya returned the dress to her, "I think Kirishima and Bakugou went to the obstacle course or something."

"There's a few more hours left to the School Festival. We should go check out the other stalls too." Uraraka grinned, "I heard one of the stalls has really good crisps!"

_"Vote for one of these contestants! Results will be announced at five in the evening! It's the closing event!"_

"Oh yeah! We should go vote too." Kaminari piped up, "I honestly can't choose between Hado-senpai and Midoriya... Hado's performance was mesmerizing, but Midoriya looked really good, and was really badass too. Mina, who are you voting for?"

"I'm voting for my boy, Midoriya. Duh." Ashido grinned, "He looked awesome and he kicked ass."

Midoriya just covered Eri's ears, as Togata chuckled under his breath at how protective Midoriya was being. It was honestly adorable. Reiko and Ryuto were settled in Midoriya's hood, the latter having grown a bit too big to completely hide himself in the hood.

Kaminari and Ashido spent some time going back and forth, before the pinkette turned to Togata, "Senpai, who will you vote for?"

Togata pouted, "Honestly, I can't really decide between Hado and Midoriya. Both of you guys were equally splendid, right? But it's Hado's third year and she really wanted to win against Kenranzaki... Eri, who will you choose?"

Eri looked up at the mention of her name, smiling brightly, "Izuku!"

Ashido quickly bent down, and took a picture of Eri's smiling face, squealing, "So cute!"

"Anyways, we should go check out the other stalls." Iida spoke up, "All the students put a lot of effort into them!"

Midoriya nodded tiredly, as Kaminari patted Shinsou on the back, gesturing towards his phone. The lavender haired boy frowned in confusion, and fished his phone out of his pocket as he followed his classmates, noticing that he had several messages from the electric blonde.

Shinsou curiously unlocked his phone and opened up the direct messages that Kaminari had sent him, only to find a couple photos of Midoriya wearing his dress on the stage, before he had to fight Tobita. Shinsou immediately turned red, and shut his phone off.

Midoriya noticed his weird behaviour, and glanced at the purple haired boy in confusion, before turning his attention to Shinsou's phone as the taller boy stuck it in his pocket harshly, muttering, "It's nothing."

Shinsou glared at Kaminari, who just giggled and shot him a thumbs up.

* * *

The first thing they had done was to vote for the contestants of the beauty pageant. Unlike previous years, where each student would put down a vote for who they wanted to win, the students had to rank all the contestants from first to last, and the votes would be tallied where the higher rank a contestant received, the more points they got.

They had gone around several of the stalls, and had come across a stall selling frozen treats and other snacks. Yaoyorozu had gotten some juice for herself and Eri, and Uraraka had gotten herself some strawberry snacks. Iida and Shinsou had picked out some vanilla ice cream, and had spent a few minutes coaxing Midoriya to choose something while Jiro, Todoroki, and Koda placed their orders. Togata seemed to be looking for something, but didn't seem to find what he wanted.

Midoriya eventually gave in, and chose a sour lime flavoured popsicle. He did like sour stuff over some of the sweeter choices. It hadn't taken him too long to finish the popsicle, though compared to his peers, he had actually spent a long time on his snack.

"Izuku, stop."

Midoriya paused, and turned around, looking at Shinsou in confusion as he chewed down on the popsicle stick, before swallowing some of the splinters.

"You shouldn't chew on the stick." Shinsou said, as Midoriya chewed on the popsicle stick a bit more in confusion, signing, _"But I usually eat the stick."_

Iida frowned, chopping his arms, "You're not supposed to eat it. They're not good for you!"

Midoriya tilted his head in confusion, _"But everyone told me that if I'm going to eat a popsicle, I should eat the stick too, because it produces less trash."_

Uraraka growled, "Who told you that?"

Midoriya looked away, still chewing on his popsicle stick, _"My foster parents, the other children that lived with them, and my old classmates."_

"Izuku, listen to me." Shinsou reached up, and tried to take the popsicle stick, "Come on, let go of it."

Midoriya immediately obeyed, letting go of the popsicle stick, and Shinsou immediately threw it in the nearby trash can, "It's not good for you, okay? Everyone who told you to eat it, they're wrong."

"Yeah." Uraraka huffed, before reaching into her bag and taking out a small packet of sour candy, "Here. I saw that you picked something sour, so I thought you liked sour food."

"Where did you get that from?" Togata asked, as Uraraka pointed to a candy shop right by the corner, "There. There's a huge variety of sweets and candy there."

"Alright!" Togata grinned, "Take care of Eri for a second, let me just check it out."

Eri was too occupied with her drink to notice that Togata had disappeared for a minute, only to come back dejected, mumbling under his breath, "There are no apples."

* * *

They had gone through 1-Cs haunted house, checked out more food stalls, and watched as Tokoyami and Shoji attempted to go through the obstacle course. Then Bakugou made some random comment about being faster than everyone else, which led to a race between all the members of 1-A that somehow served as entertainment for the rest of the students, who were all cheering for different people.

As much as Midoriya wanted to try it, pretty much everyone in 1-A refused to let him try it out, stating that he would probably win anyways and it wouldn't even be a competition. Plus, he had to take care of Reiko, Ryuto and Eri, especially when Hado heard about the commotion and wanted to compete with Togata, even dragging Haya and Amajiki into it.

Tetsutetsu had somehow stumbled in, and ended up wanting to compete with Kirishima to find out who was more manly, with Monoma mocking 1-A and Kendo, having changed out her dress some time ago, karate-chopping Monoma and knocking him out, before there was an announcement that they were going to announce the winner of the beauty pageant soon.

Kenranzaki and Kendo had somehow tied for third place, while Hado was the winner, with Midoriya as a close second, losing to Hado by only two points, though the green haired boy seemed to be the only one who was rather confused by the outcome.

Being the last event of the School Festival, the students had to go clear up all the stalls and the classrooms that they had used.

"Thanks for today! It was fun!" Togata grinned.

Eri was gazing at the ground, reluctant to leave, and Midoriya squatted down in front of her, pulling out a candy apple from the bag that Sato had given him.

"A candy apple? They were selling them?" Togata asked, surprised, "I couldn't find any!"

"I... asked a friend... he made it." Midoriya quietly replied, and Aizawa asked, "Sato?"

Midoriya nodded, as Eri curiously took the sweet that Midoriya had offered her. The candy apple had a small plastic wrapper around it, and she carefully peeled the wrapper off, before taking a small bite.

Almost immediately, her face lit up, as she smiled brightly, "It's even sweeter!"

Midoriya looked away, "Sato said... that we can make candy apples together..."

"Really?" Eri looked up, her eyes sparkling, as Aizawa sighed, "Well, you should be able to see her soon. We need to go now, or there would be a huge traffic jam."

Eri looked back at the Erasure Hero, "Okay."

She turned back to Midoriya, and carefully slipped the wrapper back onto the candy apple, before giving Midoriya a huge hug, "I want to make more candy apples with you."

Midoriya just mutely nodded, as Togata picked Eri up and put her in the car, helping her with the seatbelt, before getting into the car, with Aizawa at the wheel. The greenette watched as the car drove off, before turning back to the school and walking back inside.

He quickly made his way towards the gymnasium that 1-A had used for their performance, as Hatsume walked out. The pinkette spotted him, and grinned, bouncing up to him, "Midoriya! I was just looking for you! I already got Power Loader's help with taking that tech you needed for the performance down, and I also got the camera."

She took the camera out of her pocket, opening one of the compartments and slipping a memory card out, "Here. Remember what you promised me."

Midoriya nodded, and Hatsume grinned, "Alright! I wanted to see the performance, you know? Because everyone said they were looking forward to it! But I needed to work on my babies so I can show them off, so I ended up missing it! But anyway it's not too urgent!"

* * *

"Today was a lot of fun, huh?" Sero smiled.

"We did awesome!" Uraraka cheered, as Hagakure grinned, "Yaomomo, they were all cheering your name!"

"I really wish we could somehow see the performance..." Jiro sighed, slumping into one of the chairs in the common room, "I think that we did really well, but I think we can also improve on it. Also... I kind of want to show my parents... we don't even have a picture..."

"That's a pity." Tokage grinned, "We had to prepare for our play, so we didn't get to see it either!"

"I heard your play was really good too." Shoji spoke up, and Bondo nodded, "Yeah. We might have stuffed some Star Wars into it, too, but it was only one line."

"We added too much." Awase muttered, "It was stupid."

"Hey, we did great!" Tetsutetsu smiled, patting Awase on the back.

"Who cares?" Bakugou spat, moving to grab some water from the kitchen, "As long as we all killed all those shits with music, we won! We aren't doing it again!"

"Bakugou, come on, chill." Kirishima whined, lying in one of the bean bags, "It was pretty fun! Hey, can you get me some apple juice? There's a small bottle in the fridge!"

"Whatever." Bakugou grumbled, "Shitty Hair, it's a fucking kid's drink!"

"It's manly!" Kirishima replied, as Bakugou exited the kitchen, throwing Kirishima's apple juice at him. Kirishima caught the bottle, and started chugging his apple juice, as Midoriya entered the common room.

"Oh, hey, Midoriya." Kaminari greeted, as the greenette nodded in acknowledgement, as Kaminari noticed that he was holding something, "What's that?"

Midoriya didn't respond, as he walked over to the television. He quickly glanced over the side, looking for a port, before finding the one he wanted.

He quickly stuck a thumb drive in, and grabbed the remote, switching on the television. He peered at all the buttons on the remote, not really sure what to press; he didn't want to end up messing up and destroying the television again.

It took him some time, but through trial and error, he found the input selection he wanted, and opened up the file in the thumb drive. A video popped up on the screen, revealing a completely dark stage.

"Don't tell me..." Jiro's eyes widened, and she leaned forwards as the video continued playing, with the curtains opening, and Bakugou starting the performance off with an explosion.

"Midoriya... how?" Jiro turned to Midoriya, as the other students crowded into the common room to watch the performance, "How did you record all this while standing in the crowd?"

"I didn't." Midoriya muttered, turning away, his voice barely audible over the singing and cheering from the video, "I got Hatsume's help... mounting a camera on the wall, while we were... installing the machine reel... that was used to move Aoyama... You guys worked... really hard... I thought you might have... wanted it recorded... I'm sorry, this was probably the wrong thing to do -"

"No, Midoriya. This is amazing!" Jiro's heart melted; Midoriya thought he had done the wrong thing and while it wasn't visible, he was clearly dejected.

Shinsou gently grabbed Midoriya's arm, "We really wanted to see the performance, and some of 1-B wanted to see it too. We just didn't know you had recorded it. You didn't do anything wrong, okay, Izuku?"

"Midoriya." Jiro called out, giving the boy a smile, "Thank you."

The greenette just turned to her, and nodded, before walking over to his bean bag and curling up in it, turning his head so that he could look at the screen, as Reiko and Ryuto snuggled up with their human.

For once in his entire life, he finally did something right.


	95. Chapter 95 - I'm in the solitude

"Hey, Midoriya, you're pretty famous!" Kaminari grinned, shoving his phone at Midoriya, leaving the boy with no choice but to read the article that Kaminari had shown him. He was already pretty peeved at the blonde, given that both he and Ashido had decided to prank the entirety of 1-A by sticking cling film on every door frame and hallway.

It wasn't a harmful prank, but it was really annoying to have to slice through all the cling film.

He didn't even get the chance to read the article before Yaoyorozu piped up, "Midoriya was already pretty well known after he defeated Chisaki, and apparently, Gentle was streaming his attempt to infiltrate UA. The police already took down the video, but uh... people kept reposting it."

Midoriya just blinked, quickly reading the headline before Kaminari took his phone back, as the electric blonde bounded into the kitchen for some soda.

Jiro stretched, and yawned, "So people are being nosy again?"

"Yeah." Ashido replied, scrolling through the comments under the various videos, "They're more surprised that Midoriya can actually fight in a dress. But now they're just mostly debating whether Midoriya's a girl or a boy."

Midoriya blinked in confusion, as Uraraka tilted her head, "Uh... what?"

"Exactly." Ashido huffed, "Can't a guy be cute too? What, just because a person wears a dress means they're a girl?"

"Who cares!?" Bakugou spat, "If they have so much time to think about shit like that, then they have the time to do proper stuff. Fucking people wasting their fucking time and then fucking complaining that they have too much shit to do and whine about it."

Midoriya didn't really want to listen to the conversation, and headed to the kitchen to grab some hot water for his instant noodles, as he heard Yaoyorozu commented, "At least some people agree that he looks good."

"Of course he looks good." Ashido whined, scrolling through more comments as she flopped onto the couch, "Uh... Kaminari, can you pass me some chips?"

Kaminari flung open one of the cupboards, "Oh, sorry Mina, we're out of chips."

"Already?" Ashido sat up, "Why!? How?"

"We're going grocery shopping later." Sato spoke up, checking the flour in the cupboard, "If you want anything, just tell us before we leave."

* * *

"Tch. Fucking extras." Bakugou grumbled, looking around. Whenever they went on shopping trips, the students would always get a lot of glances from passers-by, since UA was a pretty popular school and the students had been attacked on various occasions. But today, for some reason, they seemed to be getting a lot more looks than usual, especially towards the green haired boy.

"Must be because of his fight with Gentle spreading." Shoji replied, subtly shifting himself so that he was blocking Midoriya from the view of several girls who were squealing very loudly over how cute Midoriya was; it was clear that Midoriya didn't like the attention one bit, as much as he was trying to ignore it.

Bakugou glared at several other passers-by as he held the grocery bags, grumbling, "All those fucking nosy people can go die. And Stupid Pikachu and Pinky are going to get diabetes if they keep eating these fucking Doritos and gummy bears."

"I mean... you were the one that wanted to come on this grocery trip." Sato sweatdropped, as Bakugou snapped back, "Cause if those fucking idiots came with us, they keep fooling around and wouldn't get any of the proper food we need to cook! Then we'd have to fucking babysit them cause Pikachu keeps getting lost and Pinky is so god damned loud!"

"You're the loud one." Shinsou snickered, holding an umbrella over himself and Midoriya as they grabbed more grocery bags.

"Are you sure it's the groceries that are pissing you off, or the rain?" Shoji asked, holding several grocery bags while using three of his arms to hold umbrellas over himself, Bakugou and Sato.

"Probably the rain. At least we brought umbrellas, or Bakugou would be even more angry." Shinsou muttered, "Thank goodness we checked the weather forecast."

"Shut up, Eyebags." Bakugou spat.

Ryuto had been nestled in Midoriya's hood, looking around curiously, as Reiko was tucking in one of the compartments Midoriya had sewn into his hoodie, allowing her to peek out of the front. Suddenly, Midoriya heard a quiet, barely perceivable whine, and he paused, looked around cautiously.

"Izuku? You okay?" Shinsou asked, as Shoji looked around, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Sato asked. Reiko seemed to hear the whine as well, jumping out of the warm comfort of Midoriya's hoodie to start looking for the source of the sound. The whine was heard again, this time louder, and the other students paused in their tracks.

She disappeared under some bushes, before meowing loudly. Midoriya squatted down, peering under the bushes, and patted around, before gently pulling out a small cardboard box that had a small puppy inside, covered in dirt and leaves. Reiko hopped into the box, and gently swiped the leaves away with her paw, licking the puppy all over.

Midoriya reached out for the puppy, but the puppy just yipped and half-heartedly tried to bite the greenette's fingers off. Reiko purred, and licked the puppy comfortingly, as Bakugou placed his groceries on the ground and squatted down, growling, "Let me do it."

Bakugou immediately picked up the puppy with a gentleness that was never associated with him, and held it up to his face. The puppy growled, before deciding that the blonde boy was decent enough and waved its stubby little paws about weakly, whining.

"I guess he... or she... likes you? I can't tell." Shinsou muttered, as Bakugou growled at the lavender haired boy, "Shut up."

Holding the puppy with one hand, Bakugou peeled off his jacket and bundled the puppy up in it. He gently shifted the dog around so that he could hold it properly and securely with one hand, before picking up his groceries and grumbled, "What the fuck are you fuckers looking at? Let's just get back to the stupid dorms."

_"Wait."_ Midoriya signed, _"If we're going to take care of the puppy properly, we need to get proper dog food. We should stop by that pet rescue center first."_

"Whatever he signed." Bakugou grumbled, "Just hurry up."

* * *

It didn't take too long until the students got back to the dorms, and Kaminari opened the door, letting them in.

Bakugou promptly shoved his bags at Kaminari, "Take it!"

"Woah! You okay there, Explodey?" Kaminari asked, stumbling from the sudden weight, as Bakugou crouched down, and unwrapping jacket from the puppy as it yipped, trying to shake some water from its fur.

"A dog?" Ashido pranced up, and Sato walked towards the kitchen, turning to Koda, "We found it on our way back, under some bushes in the rain. Koda, do you think you can help Bakugou with it?"

Koda nodded, immediately identifying the puppy, "He's a pomeranian, around six weeks old. You did a good job, using your jacket to keep him warm. But we need a towel."

Uraraka immediately zipped off to his room to get one, as Iida grabbed his phone to call Aizawa, and Ashido grinned, "He kind of looks like you, Blasty."

Bakugou narrowed his eyes and growled, "Fuck off, Pinky!"

The pomeranian barked at Ashido just as Bakugou said that, though it was much more cute than threatening. Uraraka finally came back with the towel, and squatted down in an attempt to dry the pomeranian off, only for the puppy to bare his little teeth, yipping.

"Give me that, Glasses." Bakugou grumbled, taking the towel and gently drying the pomeranian off.

"Told you the puppy likes you." Shinsou grinned cheekily, and Bakugou turned around, raising a hand threateningly, "You want to go, Eyebags?!"

"Did you get dog food?" Koda asked, and Midoriya nodded, handing him a small pack of kibble, before he moved to put the rest of the groceries away. Koda immediately rushed off to prepare some food for the puppy, and the now dry pomeranian was padding around the common room, patting Shirou's tail. The cat wasn't having any of that, but Reiko just growled at him threateningly, patting the pomeranian's fluffy head.

Iida put his phone down, "Aizawa-sensei said that we should keep the puppy for now, and he'll drive some students to the vet tomorrow to ensure that he's fine. He also said that if anyone wanted to keep him, they would have to get their parents permission first, and that he wanted an email from their parents to make sure they are aware of this."

"So... are we keeping him?" Ashido asked, reaching out to pet the pomeranian, but he just barked at her, before padding up to Bakugou, sitting at his feet. He looked up at Bakugou, wagging his tail as he patted Bakugou's leg with his stubby little paws.

Bakugou huffed, looking down at the pomeranian, before taking his phone out and taking a picture of him. Bakugou tapped on his phone for a few seconds, before calling someone and setting it on speaker mode.

_"Katsuki! Why did you send us a picture of a dog!?"_ Mitsuki's voice rang out over the phone, and Bakugou snapped back, "That's not a dog, you old hag! That's my dog! I'm keeping him! And Aizawa-sensei wants an email so I can keep him!"

Everyone sweatdropped as Mitsuki replied, "Your dog? Okay. Make sure you take care of him, okay? You better take care of it properly!"

"Shut up! I'll kill you!" Bakugou ended the call, and Iida sighed, "I'm going to text Aizawa-sensei..."

"You're mine now." Bakugou picked up the pomeranian, holding him at face level, Ashido grinned, "So, what are you going to name him?"

"King Explosion Murder." Bakugou replied, with a completely straight face, and Kaminari and Sero fell to the ground, laughing hysterically, "King Explosion Murder!? Come on, Explodey, you can do better than that!"

"FUCK OFF! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Bakugou roared, and the pomeranian yipped at the two laughing boys.

"How about Pom Pom?" Hagakure suggested.

"No! Lord Explosion Murder, then!" Bakugou roared, but the duo just laughed even louder.

"He's so fluffy! Can I hold him?!" Kirishima excitedly asked, and Bakugou gently held the pomeranian out for the redhead, "You better not drop him, Shitty Hair."

Kirishima gently took the pomeranian from Bakugou, and the puppy didn't seem to mind the redhead too much, yipping excitedly as he wagged his tail.

"He's so cute!" Kirishima gushed, holding the pomeranian and staring at him, before looking at Bakugou, then back at the pomeranian, "Your first name is Katsuki, right? Let's name him Kacchan!"

There was silence, before half the class erupted into laughter.

"Excuse me, what?" Bakugou muttered, far too busy processing what Kirishima had to said to be angry,

"Look! He's blonde, like you!" Kirishima grinned, "You're both loud and garner a lot of attention easily, and you're both really cute and fluffy! And he really likes you! And Kacchan is a cute name!"

Kirishima seemed to realize what he had just said, and clamped his mouth shut, but Bakugou didn't seem to notice, and took the pomeranian back from the frozen Kirishima. He turned the pomeranian around so that he could look at him face to face, and asked, very seriously, "You're really scary and menacing, right?"

The pomeranian yipped excitedly.

"You'll kill anyone that comes in your way."

The pomeranian yipped again, wagging his tail.

"Do you want to be called Kacchan?"

The pomeranian gave a few more excited yips, before licking Bakugou's cheek, wagging his tail so hard that Jiro feared that it would fall off, and Bakugou huffed, satisfied, "Okay. His name is Kacchan."

Ashido squealed, and quickly snapped a picture, before showing it to the blonde, "You two are so cute!"

"PINKY! DELETE IT!" Bakugou roared, placing Kacchan down gently, before turning to Ashido menacingly. The pinkette squeaked and ran away, Bakugou chasing after her with Kacchan at his feet.


	96. Chapter 96 - Never my place in time

Aizawa originally hadn't been too sure what to do with the pomeranian that the students had found, but Bakugou was actually pretty responsible compared to some of his classmates, despite being so explosive and vulgar. He had gotten an email from Mitsuki, stating that she was aware of Bakugou's ownership over the pomeranian, and through Iida and Shinsou, had found out that the puppy had been named Kacchan, by Kirishima.

He sighed as he drove Bakugou, Midoriya, and Koda back to the dorms; Bakugou, because he was Kacchan's owner, and Koda and Midoriya, because they were the two that knew the most about animals and were probably going to be teaching Bakugou how to care of his new pet.

Kacchan was deemed a bit malnourished, but with proper food and care, he would be fine. There didn't seem to be any other underlying health problems with him, so the veterinarian just gave them some proper food for the pomeranian and let them leave without any other problems; Bakugou just got a small dog bed for Kacchan with his allowance before they left.

Luckily, the little pomeranian didn't seem too troublesome to take care of. The students clearly liked him, he got along well enough with Yuwai, Reiko and Ryuto, and Shirou just ignored him for the most part, and pomeranians were relatively easier to take care of compared to other dog breeds.

Though, there was another problem. Bakugou couldn't bring Kacchan with him to class, and unlike Yuwai, who was pretty content with hanging out in Koda's room during lessons, Kacchan was really affectionate as from what Aizawa could tell, really liked attention. Not to mention that the dog wasn't exactly trained yet, so in the students' absence, he might end up making a mess. They were going to try and start with Kacchan's training, and Kayama did offer to take care of the puppy while she wasn't teaching.

At least, the pomeranian did seem to understand basic commands, and would listen when Bakugou called him over, and oddly enough, he seemed to listen to Reiko readily enough, stopping whatever he was doing when the feline patted his head. Kacchan had also seemed to warm up to both Koda and Midoriya, no longer being so aggressive towards them.

Aizawa groaned internally as he stopped the car outside of the dorms, letting the students out of the vehicle. At least, he wasn't the one taking care of the dog. Plus, they had Koda, who could talk to and understand animals, and Midoriya, who knew how to take care of more active, unconventional animals like Ryuto.

What could go wrong?

He took the statement back. Something would go wrong, it just wouldn't be the pets' fault. Given that his class was filled with problem children, something would definitely go wrong. The question was just, when?

* * *

Midoriya shuddered subtly as he listened as Ectoplasm tried to teach the class differentiation, only to have to explain concepts over and over again because half the class had no idea what he was talking about.

He knew it was nothing; he was just uneasy because neither Reiko nor Ryuto were by his side, but regardless, no matter how much he tried to push the feeling away, he just couldn't ignore the emptiness in his heart. He had left the two animals in the dorms so that they could accompany Kacchan and ensure that the energetic little puppy didn't break anything by accident.

Sure, they were both safe and sound in the dorms... but Midoriya couldn't help but worry. He had never been separated from them for too long, and it was just odd to not have Reiko's reassuring presence by him, or Ryuto nested in his hair or on his shoulder.

He tried to forget it, and tried to focus on his work. Instead of giving him university level stuff, Ectoplasm opted to just give Midoriya the rest of the work that the students would have to do for the rest of the year. Shuzenji had deemed his right arm well enough for simple tasks like typing and writing, though Midoriya had been doing relatively fine with just his left hand, and given that Midoriya was still technically under Sasaki's care as an intern, it was likely that he was going to end up missing lessons in future. It was just easier to finish all the work first, instead of having to catch up on all the work later.

And it wasn't like Sasaki wasn't giving Midoriya anything to do. Through Togata, the pro hero had given Midoriya some information to analyze and to write a report about, without any set deadline, thinking that it would keep Midoriya's mind occupied long enough until he recovered, but no, even with one hand, Midoriya had typed the entire thing up in half a week and sent it in.

Obviously, Sasaki wanted to take the boy's mind off patrolling, and just gave him more information to analyze.

Midoriya idly scribbled in his answer on a worksheet, before. He shouldn't think about it too much. Overthinking causes way too many problems, and was just a waste of time.

* * *

A loud explosion rang out.

"The fuck was that?!" Bakugou roared, standing up and storming to the laundry room, where smoke was billowing out of the door and into the corridor. Kaminari and Ashido stumbled out of the room, coughing, as the pinkette whined, waving her hand in a desperate attempt to disperse the smoke, "The hell, Kami?"

"Where's the fire extinguisher?" Uraraka asked, as Dark Shadow dutifully fetched it from the end of the corridor.

"Excuse... me..." Kaminari coughed, "The washing machine blowing up is not my fault!"

Bakugou quickly flung open the window so that smoke didn't fill the laundry room, and Dark Shadow quickly extinguished the remains of the four washing machines that had somehow exploded. Kicking opening one of the washing machines that was definitely overloaded, Bakugou stared at the charred mess, before roaring, "PIKACHU! YOU DUMB FUCK! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU _NOT_ TO WASH SO MANY GOD DAMNED CLOTHES AT THE SAME FUCKING TIME!?"

"But the washing machine didn't give me any warning!" Kaminari whined, as Kacchan yipped at him, "It usually beeps if I put too many clothes in, and then I remove some!"

"YOU DUMB ASS!" Bakugou growled, "And you know that your clothes have too much god damned static electricity cause of your fucking quirk! You clearly didn't rinse your fucking clothes before shoving them into the stupid fucking machine, right!?"

"Oh yeah... I knew I was forgetting something..." Kaminari sheepishly sweatdropped, as Ashido groaned, "Kaminari! I had perfectly good clothes in there! You're lucky I still have spare uniforms and other clothing or I'd kill you!"

"Who else was washing their clothes?" Iida asked, making some notes on his phone, "I contact Aizawa-sensei, he said that over the weekend, Midnight-sensei offered to bring the students with affected clothing out to buy replacements, and the school would provide extra uniforms to them as well, stating that unlikes the rooms, that were specifically tailored to each person's quirk, they had added generic washing machines to each dormitory without thinking about how the quirks of the students would affect them, like Kaminari's quirk. But the affected students would have to hold out until then. They'll be replacing the washing machines in a few days, but we can borrow 1-B's washing machines if we have to."

"Ah, fuck it." Bakugou grumbled, "If that dumb shit had just soaked his clothes _LIKE I FUCKING TOLD HIM TO_, this wouldn't have happened, you dumb fuckers."

Yaoyorozu opened one of the washing machines, before speaking up, "Some of my clothes were destroyed, but I'm not really short on them, since I have a lot of spares. But a shopping trip sounds nice."

"Same. Except I don't have as many spares as Yaomomo and I would prefer to have more clothes just in case." Ashido piped up.

"So... Ashido, Kaminari, and Yaomomo. Anyone else?" Iida asked, and Kaminari spoke up, "Two of the washing machines were in use before Mina put her clothes in, and then I put mine in, so there should be one more person."

Midoriya just stared at the washing machines; he had just put his clothes into the washing machine a few minutes before Ashido went into the room. He didn't have a lot of articles of clothing, and only used the washing machine twice a week, shoving all of his worn clothes and uniforms inside and using the dryer function to dry them immediately.

He didn't know anything about specially scented washing powder or any of the special settings or anything like that; he just used the generic detergent that most of his classmates used, shoved his clothes in at whatever setting it happened to be.

Sure, his uniforms came out slightly crumpled, but it wasn't like the uniform wouldn't be crumpled once he wore them. Plus, the teachers weren't complaining, and ironing them was a waste of time.

But since he always shoved all his clothes in and washed them at once go...

He supposed that was his fault. He should have split them into two batches. All he had left was his hoodie, the shirt he wore under his hoodie, and shorts he currently had on; he didn't own any long pants besides his uniform pants.

Midoriya gently pushed his way into the room, moving to check on the washing machine he had left his clothes in. Maybe if he was lucky, his clothes would be fine. He opened the door, slumping slightly as he stared at his charred clothes; he hadn't been so lucky.

"Ouch." Uraraka peeked in, "At least... we don't have to worry about the uniforms... right, Izuku?"

"Izuku... do you have any spare clothes to last until the weekend?" Iida asked, and Midoriya lowered his head, meekly replying, "... No."

"I'm so sorry, Midoriya." Kaminari apologized, as Iida spoke up, "I can lend you some of my clothes!"

"Tenya, no." Uraraka shook her head, poking Iida's shoulder, "Your shoulders are way too broad. Your clothes won't fit Izuku."

"True..." Iida slumped, dejected, as Yaoyorozu piped up, "You don't have any spares? I can make some spares for you! They won't have any designs... but -"

Midoriya quickly whirled around, and hastily shook his head; he wasn't going to make Yaoyorozu waste her quirk on him.

"Izuku." Shinsou spoke up, turning away from the laundry room, and Midoriya turned to the lavender haired boy, "Come on. I'll lend you some of my clothes. There should be some that fits you."

Snickering internally, Ashido gently pushed Midoriya out of the laundry room, "That's awesome! Then over the weekend we'll get you some really good looking clothes!"

* * *

Aizawa sighed again; Kaminari had blown up the washing machines by accident. Aizawa was actually surprised that it had taken the hero course students so long to finally blow something up outside of training. Luckily, it was just the washing machines, and not something essential like the electricity or the kitchens.

They could go a week without washing their clothes; Aizawa had been in the dorms while the students were sending their stuff to UA in preparation to move into the dorms, and most of them had more than enough clothes to last a day or two while they replaced the washing machines.

He wasn't so sure about Midoriya, though. As far as he knew, Midoriya didn't own a lot of clothing, and the chances that he would actually let Yaoyorozu make him some clothes to last until the weekend was unlikely.

But it was more likely that his classmates would end up lending the greenette some of their clothes, since Kirishima, Todoroki, Kaminari, Sero, Shinsou, and Tokoyami had pretty similar body types to Midoriya.

He'd just deal with the clothes problem later, if the students hadn't sorted it out on their own. For now, he had to fill up the damned paperwork regarding the washing machines.

* * *

The first thing they did was to check Midoriya's room before heading to Shinsou's. The greenette's closet was eerily empty, having washed all of his clothes at one go, and Shinsou was seriously wondering how on earth Midoriya lasted so long with so few articles of clothing.

Luckily, Midoriya did have some spare boxers and innerwear, so it wasn't _that_ much of a problem.

Flinging open his own closet, Shinsou dug around for a bit, pulling out some of his smaller shirts that he thought might fit Midoriya; Uraraka and Todoroki had also gone to their own rooms to check if they had anything they could lend the greenette, and Sero, Kirishima, and Kaminari offered to lend Midoriya more clothes if they didn't have enough.

Most of his shirts were a bit too big for Midoriya, but the greenette usually wore shirts a size too big for him anyways, so it didn't really matter.

"You usually like to wear hoodies... right?" before pulling out a purple hoodie. Yamada had thought it was funny to wear something of the same colour as his hair, but it was actually pretty comfortable. Shinsou handed it to Midoriya, "Here. Try it. It might be a bit too big for you, though."

Midoriya carefully pulled off his hoodie, taking care to not injure his bandaged arms, before pulling on the purple hoodie that Shinsou had given him. It was a bit too big for him, but it was comfortable enough, so the greenette didn't really mind. Reiko and Ryuto, both sitting on Shinsou's bed, gave their chirps of approval, as Shirou just curled up on Shinsou's pillow, not really interested in what was going on.

"Do you prefer shorts or long pants, Izuku..." Shinsou dug around a bit more, pulling out some pants and turned around, before staring at Midoriya. The hoodie was _definitely_ too big for him, and it went all the way down to his thighs, way past his shorts and almost reaching his knees, seemingly not sure what to do with the oversize hoodie. Shinsou was at a complete loss for words because Midoriya was just _too damned adorable._

"Hey guys! I found some stuff that Izuku can wear!" Uraraka chose that moment to burst into the room, carrying some shirts, with Todoroki, Koda and Iida behind her, before noticing Midoriya in Shinsou's oversized hoodie. Todoroki spoke up, "I have some shirts too."

Noticing Shinsou's red face, Uraraka giggled, intent on further embarrassing her friend, "I see you also found stuff for Izuku to wear. You look cute, Izuku!"

She turned to Shinsou, laughing, "He's cute, right?"

"I... uh... yeah..." Shinsou stuttered, "You look cute, Izuku."

"I'm not cute." Midoriya muttered, still somewhat confused, tugging on the hem of the hoodie experimentally, but Uraraka just snickered under her breath.

Iida just sighed at his immature friend's reaction.


	97. Chapter 97 - I cut you into pieces

Shuzenji deemed Midoriya healthy enough for training, and given that he was still working as an intern in Sasaki's agency, she also allowed him to participate in patrols and fights. She was pretty sure that Sasaki also didn't want anything to happen to the boy, and would ensure that he would take care of himself.

UA had already fixed up the washing machines, and Aizawa had to be called out of homeroom in the middle of the week for some mission, so Kayama opted to take that opportunity as the substitute teacher to chase the students back to the dorms and to drive the students with destroyed clothes, as well any other students who wanted to go shopping, though they had to keep it a secret from Aizawa.

Needless to say, Kayama, Hagakure, and Ashido were having a lot of fun picking out shirts that they thought would look cute on Midoriya, but the greenette just wanted to get a few more hoodies and plain shirts. He was very insistent that he didn't need a lot of clothes, and just got the cheapest articles of clothing he could find, though the cheapest t-shirts had random words like "shirt" and "pants", so Midoriya just chose those.

Why there was a shirt with the word "pants" printed on them, Midoriya would never know, but he didn't really care.

That didn't stop Kayama from sneaking a hoodie with cat ears, and some other shirts into the shopping basket, much to Midoriya's confusion.

Reiko did seem rather amused as Midoriya tried to return the clothes he was positive he didn't pick out, but Kayama just told him to keep them, refusing to let him return them.

* * *

"So! Welcome back, Midoriya!" Awata cheered, almost flinging herself at Midoriya to wrap the kid up in a hug, but Moashi pulled her back in time, "Bubble Girl, calm down. But all the same, it's great to have you back, Midoriya."

Awata just smiled, "It's been a really long time, right?"

Midoriya just nodded, handing Sasaki another analysis report and Togata smiled proudly to himself. Once he had heard that Shuzenji had given Midoriya the go-ahead for patrols and fights, he had gone over to the 1-A dorms to ask Midoriya if he wanted to go to the agency for some hero work. It was obvious that Midoriya would agree to some action, but the greenette had left both Reiko and Ryuto back in the dorms so they could help Kacchan settle in.

The hero commission wanted all the heroes to step up on their workload, and for the more well-known students, like the four first years and the three third years who had participated in the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death, to go out more on patrols. With Enji as the new Number One hero following Yagi's retirement, it was clear that they needed to fill the gap before the Hero Billboard Chart rankings were officially announced.

Tatsuma was being swamped with paperwork due to being in one of the top ten, and currently, she was teaching her interns about how to more efficiently finish them. Meanwhile, Toyomitsu was also temporarily out of service as he built up his fat to the right proportions, and he was currently working out a diet plan for Kirishima in hopes that it might help him with his Hardening. Amajiki was experimenting with more exotic foods, but had gotten sick with a mild case of food poisoning.

"Welcome back." Sasaki nodded, gently patting Midoriya's shoulder, "It's been some time since you last patrolled, let's go to that mall that's a few blocks from here."

"Oh! Come on, let's go!" Togata grinned, "You haven't been there before, that place is awesome! Except that there might be a few thieves here and there... so we should be on the lookout and catch a villain! Power!"

"I'm just really glad you're okay, Midoriya!" Awata spoke up, "Those injuries you got were pretty bad! But -"

"Please stop talking, Bubble..." Moashi muttered, but Awata just ignored him, But now you're here, all healed up and ready to go!"

Sasaki just pushed his glasses up, "We'll just take it easy for the next few days, alright? Now, you two, get changed. We'll head out in a few minutes. After the mall, maybe we can go meet Eri."

* * *

Awata looked around the mall warily, watching people bustle around, as Sasaki spoke up, "The police said that there have been sightings of criminal gangs here lately. We should all be on the lookout."

Surveying the group, Sasaki said, "Centipeder, you take the ground floor. Lemillion, you take the second floor, and I'll take the third floor. Awata, Hakryuen both of you take the fourth floor. This mall only has four floors, so we should be able to cover the entirety of it."

"Yes sir." Awata nodded, "Come on, Hakryuen. Let's go. The escalator is right there."

Togata, Sasaki, and Moashi headed off to their respective floors, and Awata looked around, "Hmm... it's a bit noisy today. But I guess malls are more crowded on weekends... right?"

Midoriya nodded, as he tapped the communication device in his ear.

_"Hello? These are working, right?" _Moashi asked, and Awata replied, "Yep."

_"Good. Now, be careful, and if you see anything suspicious, report back immediately."_ Sasaki said.

"Let's split up." Awata suggested, "You take this side, I take that side."

Midoriya nodded, and Awata briskly walked over to the other side of the mall just as a loud crash from the lower floors rang out.

_"Sir."_ Togata said, _"There__ are two villains here, trying to rob a jewelry store. They're heading to the west wing now. I'm chasing after them, but it seems like there are a few more of them on the ground floor."_

_"Got it. I see them. I'm going after them"_ Moashi replied, as Sasaki spoke up, _"Alright. You two go and catch them. We'll keep a look out from the upper floors -"_

Midoriya spotted a few villains on the fourth floor, and he rushed over, quickly taking them out without too many problems. He was in the midst of tying them up when Togata said, _"Sir, there are more of them. I think there are a few on your floor too."_

Sasaki replied, _"Understood. I have a visual of them."_

_"__Hakryuen is dealing with a couple villains, and there's a few where I am too." _Awata reported.

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing scream rang out. Midoriya quickly looked up, only to find that there was a villain wielding a knife as he held onto a child that looked to be only four or five years old, and Awata was standing over a couple fallen villains.

"Come closer, hero, I dare you!" The villain snarled, pressing the knife against the child's neck, "Come closer and I'll toss the child over the edge."

From his vantage point, Midoriya was sure that the child was petrified; he was shaking uncontrollably, and was close to tearing up as the villain took a step away from Awata, inching closer to the railing. A crowd was starting to form, watching as Awata hesitated, not really sure what to do without risking the child's life.

"Let the child go." Awata took a step back, "Leave him alone."

"Then go away!" The villain snarled. Midoriya froze up, not really sure what to do, as Moashi asked, _"I got the villains over on my side. Bubble Girl, what's going on?"_

Seeing as Awata was in no position to reply, Midoriya muttered, "There's a villain holding a child hostage."

_"Understood. Centipeder, try to get a good vantage point from the ground floor."_ Sasaki ordered, as Awata tried to reason with the villain, "Put the child down."

"Like hell!" The villain spat, before holding the boy over the railing, his knife accidentally nicking the boy in the arm. The small boy started screaming and crying hysterically as he was dangled over the edge but his neck, wriggling about.

The villain grinned menacingly, "Get away from me! Or I'll drop him!"

"Stop!" Awata yelled, stepping backwards, "Leave him alone."

"Hmm... how about no." The villain snarled, letting go of the child's neck, and the child screamed as he fell towards the ground. Gasps and yells rang out, and without even thinking, Midoriya ran towards the railing, jumping over it and dived after the child.

Midoriya plummeted downwards, after the screaming child, dimly hearing Awata screaming his name as he reached out, grabbing the kid. He quickly pulled the boy towards himself, wrapping his arms around him protectively, as they fell to the ground like a brick.

The greenette flipped himself over in midair, taking the brunt of the impact as they slammed into the ground, rolling a bit to disperse the impact. Luckily, Midoriya only suffered a dislocated shoulder from the fall, and the kid wasn't too badly injured; Midoriya knew how to land in order to reduce the impact of the fall.

Groaning internally, Midoriya let go of the child, shoving his dislocated shoulder back into place, and pushed himself up. He gently pulled the boy to his feet, before checking him for any injuries. Besides from the small cut on his arm which was caused by the villain, he wasn't injured, and Midoriya looked around.

_"Hakryuen! Are you okay!?"_ Awata called out, leaning over the railing; she had already taken care of all the villains once he had let go of the kid.

Midoriya looked up, and nodded, as Moashi spoke up over the intercoms, _"Lemillion and Sir are dealing with the arrest of the villains."_

Midoriya knelt down, face to face with the child, asking quietly, "Where are your parents?"

"I... don't know..." The child muttered, as Awata spoke up, _"I'm coming down immediately. Stay put, Hakryuen."_

A woman's voice called out, "Kokaru? Where are you!?"

"Mama!" The child cried out, turning towards the source of the voice, as a woman pushed past the crowd. Kokaru ran towards his mother, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Kokaru! I was so worried about you! Don't run off like that!" The woman berated, before turning over to Midoriya, "Oh. It's you. The quirkless child that somehow got into the hero course."

Midoriya nearly flinched at the pure venom dripping from her words, as the woman checked her child all over,

"You have a cut?" His mother asked, before whirling around to face Midoriya, "You let my child get hurt!"

"Hey, be reasonable." A passerby spoke up, "It's just a scratch!"

"You shut up!" The woman screamed, cradling Kokaru protectively, "Just a scratch!? What if it was poisoned?! Or if my kid got an infection!"

"Then you wouldn't be screaming at him and would be getting him to a doctor." The passerby countered, "Leave the teen alone!"

"No." His mother growled, as Togata phased through the crowd, Awata following behind him, "Ah! Hakryuen! There you are! Bubble told me what happened, you alright?"

"You got my child injured!" The mother growled, "What kind of hero are you, letting a child get hurt like that!? What do you have to say for yourself!?"

Togata froze up, not really sure how to deal with a woman like this, as Awata interjected, "Hey! Stop blaming him for something that isn't his fault! Your child got injured on my watch, leave Hakryuen alone!"

"Shut up!" The woman screamed, jabbing her finger into Midoriya's chest, "This is his fault! This is why quirkless people shouldn't become heroes! If you have no power, you can't do shit!"

Midoriya's heart dropped.

Awata growled. If it had been any other hero, she was positive this woman wouldn't be so pissed off; she was only being so mean because Midoriya was quirkless, discriminating against him due to his lack of a quirk.

"Honey!" A man pushed his way through the crowd, "Honey, please, calm down!"

"This so-called _hero _got Kokaru injured!" The woman screamed at her husband, pointing at Midoriya, as another passerby yelled out, "It's just a small scratch! Calm down! Jeez!"

"It's my child! Not yours!" The woman screamed back, "If you had a kid of your own, you'd understand!"

"Stop being so unreasonable! He's just a kid too!" Another passerby piped up, "Stop grilling him!"

"If you're so concerned about your kid, how did you even lose him in the first place!"

"Honey, please." Her husband tried to pull at her arm, "This isn't helping anyone."

Kokaru meekly spoke up, "Mama... He... saved me. Please don't be so mad..."

The woman glowered at her son, "Kokaru, he's a bad influence! I already told you so many times that you can't be a hero due to your quirk, and yet, you still ran away from me to watch a hero fight!"

"But... my sister..." Kokaru was immediately shut up by his mother, "I told you before! She has a powerful and versatile quirk, so it wouldn't be so dangerous for her! All you can do is make sparkles out of thin air!"

Kokaru flinched back at his mother's sharp tone, and his father immediately wrapped his arm around his son, "Calm down. You're scaring him."

"Scaring him? Scaring him? He got injured because this damned hero can't do his job!" The woman yelled, as a young lady spoke up, "He fell down four floors to save him! Four floors! What else do you want?!"

"Honey... that's enough. He saved Kokaru's life... we should be more grateful instead of -" Her husband tried to reason with her, but the woman wasn't having any of it, "Grateful? He allowed Kokaru to get injured on his watch!"

"I told you, that's on me! Leave Hakryuen out of this." Awata interjected, as the crowd parted for Moashi and Sasaki, "Excuse me, what's going on here?"

"I tell you what's going on, that little shit let my child get injured!" The woman yelled, as her husband tried to pull her away, "I'm so sorry about this, heroes."

"What do you have to be sorry about? How dare you back down!" The woman turned to her husband, growling, as Awata quickly relayed everything that happened to Sasaki.

"He already did his best to save the boy." Sasaki pushed his glasses up, already rather pissed off at the unreasonable woman, "He's my intern, and thus, is under my care. If you have any complaints, you should be talking to me, not shouting in his face. If you need medical care for your son's injury, we can sort them out, but please leave my intern alone."

"Well, tell him that his best isn't good enough!" She spat, pointing her finger accusingly at Midoriya, "People with no power shouldn't ever become heroes. Because they can't! They're not good enough, they're not strong enough, and they should stop trying to do something when they clearly can't do anything."

Midoriya felt his heart cracking, wounds that had been sewn shut being ripped open again.

_Useless._

_Worthless._

_You can't do anything._

He should be used to this; he's been called useless all his life, by his foster parents, all the kids he lived with, pretty much anyone he went to school with.

_So why did it hurt so much?_

"Stop being so damned unreasonable!" Another passerby growled, "He's just a kid!"

"Stop grilling him just because he doesn't have a quirk, damn it!"

Sasaki's glasses glinted, and he patted Togata on the shoulder, subtly gesturing towards a fast food restaurant, "It's almost time for lunch. You bring Hakryuen and go grab something to eat, I'll settle the bill later."

Togata nodded, immediately understanding that Sasaki wanted to get Midoriya out of there as fast as possible while the adults dealt with the matter, and grabbed Midoriya's arm, immediately steering him away from the crowd, away from the lady had was screaming at him.

But the damage had already been done.


	98. Chapter 98 - It fills me with despair

"Hey, don't take it too hard, okay?" Togata grinned, patting Midoriya on the back, "Some people are unreasonable sometimes. Don't listen to them."

They entered the fastfood restaurant, and Togata sat down at a relatively large table, picking up a menu, "Hey, Midori, you want anything?"

Midoriya didn't respond, and just slumped into his seat, dejected. He stared into space, deep in thought, before Togata nudged him gently, "Midoriya? You okay?"

He still didn't get much of a reply, and Togata scratched his head. He knew Midoriya was probably upset over that woman's comment; anyone would be hurt by a brash comment like that. Amajiki would also get depressed by comments like that, but at least, he knew how to cheer his friend up. He just didn't know how to distract the greenette, or cheer him up.

"Hey, Midori, I'll just order you some soda, okay? Sounds good?" Togata pressed on a bit more, trying to see if that would get Midoriya to react, but the boy just sighed and looked away.

Togata sighed internally, and put the menu down. He didn't know how else to cheer the smaller boy up.

* * *

_"Honey! Honey, please, calm down!"_

_"This so-called hero got Kokaru injured! _

_"It's just a small scratch! Calm down! Jeez!"_

_"It's my child! Not yours! If you had a kid of your own, you'd understand!"_

Kaminari walked into the common room, staring intently at his phone.

"Hey, Kaminari, what drama are you watching?" Jiro asked, as she scrolled through the news on her phone with one earphone jack plugged in, listening to some music.

_"Stop being so unreasonable! He's just a kid too! Stop grilling him!"_

_"If you're so concerned about your kid, how did you even lose him in the first place!"_

_"Honey, please. This isn't helping anyone."_

Kaminari paused the video, "Uh... are you talking to me?"

"Duh. Who else?" Jiro rolled her eyes, as Shinsou looked up from his phone. He had just contacted Kamihara about the possibility of doing his work studies with him, but sadly, Kamihara was busy with his new team-up with Takeyama and Nishiya, and wasn't able to have him for work studies as well, but he did wish the lavender haired boy the best of luck for his work studies in the future.

"Oh... I thought... you guys might want to see this." Kaminari spoke up, connecting his phone to the television, "Apparently, this was uploaded just a few minutes ago... and it's about Midoriya. It's not good."

"Midoriya?" Jiro asked, confused, as Shinsou blinked, "What happened to Izuku?"

"I HEARD IZUKU! WHO DO I NEED TO KILL!?" Uraraka shouted, running down the stairs, as Iida chopped his arms, "No running in the dorms! And killing is not appropriate behaviour for a hero!"

"No killing. Yet." Todoroki spoke up, turning his attention to the screen.

"... Just watch this." Kaminari rewinded the video.

The video started with some villain holding a child over a balcony, somewhere on the fourth floor, as the recorder was standing on the ground floor. There was some shouting, before the villain dropped the child.

"Oh shit." Jiro muttered, and Iida was too shocked to even scold her for her language.

Suddenly, they watched as Midoriya leapt off the railing, catching the child as they both fell to the ground. With a roll, Midoriya hit the ground, and the students could tell that Midoriya had dislocated his shoulder from the impact. The greenette didn't seem to care too much, and just popped it back into place, and stood up, before a woman pushed her way through the crowd.

Apparently, she was the mother of the child Midoriya had just saved.

She said something as she tended to her child; it was too soft for the phone to pick up on it, but the first audible sentence stunned them all, _"You let my child get hurt!"_

"Dude. That's not manly at all." Kirishima complained, and it seemed like he had the same idea as one of the passersby had the same idea.

_"Hey, be reasonable. It's just a scratch!"_

"She's complaining about a scratch? Is she for real!?" Uraraka growled, "I can't even see it!"

_"You shut up! Just a scratch!? What if it was poisoned?! Or if my kid got an infection!"_

"Her reasoning is... reasonable?" Iida tilted his head, completely confused, "But her reaction... is... rather over the top. She could just have said that nicely. There's no need to shout."

_ "Then you wouldn't be screaming at him and would be getting him to a doctor. Leave the teen alone!"_

"Exactly!" Uraraka grumbled, as Togata burst into the scene, _"Ah! Hakryuen! There you are! Bubble told me what happened, you alright?"_

"Togata-senpai!" Kirishima cheered, as Yaoyorozu and Koda came down the stairs. Yaoyorozu spoke up, "Why are you all screaming?"

"There's an unreasonable woman yelling at Midoriya." Kaminari replied, as Yaoyorozu frowned slightly, "Unreasonable?"

_"You got my child injured! What kind of hero are you, letting a child get hurt like that!? What do you have to say for yourself!?"_

"What injury?" Koda asked, peering at the television, "I don't see... anything..."

"Apparently, it's just a small scratch." Jiro muttered, unamused, as Awata butt in, _"Hey! Stop blaming him for something that isn't his fault! Your child got injured on my watch, leave Hakryuen alone!"_

_"Shut up! This is his fault! This is why quirkless people shouldn't become heroes! If you have no power, you can't do shit!"_

"Oh fuck. You didn't have to go there!" Shinsou snarled, "That's just being mean!"

_"Honey! Honey, please, calm down!"_

_"This so-called hero got Kokaru injured!_

_"It's just a small scratch! Calm down! Jeez!"_

_"It's my child! Not yours! If you had a kid of your own, you'd understand!"_

Jiro was completely speechless.

_"Kokaru, he's a bad influence! I already told you so many times that you can't be a hero due to your quirk, and yet, you still ran away from me to watch a hero fight!"_

The child muttered something, but his mother just yelled at him, _"I told you before! She has a powerful and versatile quirk, so it wouldn't be so dangerous for her! All you can do is make sparkles out of thin air!"_

"No. She's just a Karen." Ashido spoke up, and Sero and Kaminari nodded.

The father wrapped his arm around the small boy, _"Calm down. You're scaring him."_

_"Scaring him? Scaring him? He got injured because this damned hero can't do his job!" _

_"He fell down four floors to save him! Four floors! What else do you want?!"_

"Four floors?!" Yaoyorozu frowned, "Why on earth is she complaining about a scratch!?"

_"Honey... that's enough. He saved Kokaru's life... we should be more grateful instead of -" _

_"Grateful? He allowed Kokaru to get injured on his watch!"_

"She just hates him because he's quirkless." Uraraka huffed, "At least the rest of her family seem somewhat sane."

Yaoyorozu gaped, "I knew the discrimination against the quirkless was bad... but I didn't think it was _that bad_."

"Noisy extra." Bakugou growled, exiting the kitchen, "Stop complaining about a scratch, you useless fuck."

Kacchan barked in agreement, as Sasaki and Moashi arrived on the scene.

"I tell you what's going on, that little shit let my child get injured!"

"I'm so sorry about this, heroes."

"What do you have to be sorry about? How dare you back down!"

"Crazy dick head." Bakugou spat, "Fucking psycho shitty asshole son of a bitch."

"I don't approve of his foul language, but for once, I agree with you, Bakugou." Iida pushed his glasses up.

_"He already did his best to save the boy. He's my intern, and thus, is under my care. If you have any complaints, you should be talking to me, not shouting in his face. If you need medical care for your son's injury, we can sort them out, but please leave my intern alone."_

"I hope we don't have to deal with such unreasonable people in the future." Yaoyorou said, "This is terrible."

"Trust me... there are always those people who would -" Shinsou was cut off as the woman pointed at Midoriya.

_"Well, tell him that his best isn't good enough! People with no power shouldn't ever become heroes. Because they can't! They're not good enough, they're not strong enough, and they should stop trying to do something when they clearly can't do anything."_

"THAT WAS UNCALLED FOR!" Uraraka yelled, and Koda had to hold her back before she attempted to hit the television.

"Totally unmanly!" Kirishima jeered, "That's just plain rude! Leave Midoriya alone!"

"Holy shit... I thought it was bad... but I didn't think she'd say something like that..." Sero muttered, as the rest of the comments by the unhappy crowd were drowned out by the complaining students from the 1-A dorms.

"Dammit... " Shinsou growled, "She just had to say something like that."

"Those words would hurt anyone... but to someone like Izuku, who already thinks he isn't good enough..." Todoroki muttered, "Tenya, you sure we can't kill anyone?"

Iida looked like he was considering the possibility, but replied, "Sadly... no. But this is all over the internet, and I don't think a lot of people are happy with what she said either."

"Yeah." Kaminari scrolled through the comments, "A lot of people are complaining, saying how she's rude and that Midoriya was doing a good job for a student. But... uh... there are also several comments..."

"Give me that." Ashido huffed, snatching Kaminari's phone away, reading out several comments, "Oh shit. "Hahaha, Deku's useless as usual!" And "Fucking Deku can't do shit!"! Who on earth are these people!?"

"Hey... guys... remember that letter from that time we got attacked in school?" Kirishima piped up, "That card. They also called Midoriya... Deku. If you look at the kanji they used... it means someone who can't do or achieve anything..."

"But who would call him something so mean?" Yaoyorozu asked.

* * *

"Hey... Can you... uh... help me with something?" Togata asked, walking into the 1-A dorms. The entire class of students were gloomy and angry, and while Togata had no idea what had gotten 1-A so riled up, they were probably the best people who could help his precious little kouhai.

"With... what?" Uraraka asked, as Togata continued, "We were patrolling, and there was this lady who said some... _really_ mean stuff to Midoriya."

"We saw." Todoroki replied, "On a video."

"Ah. That's... at least you know what I'm talking about..." Togata scratching his neck, "Sir sent us back to UA while he and the rest of the agency dealt with this... We visited Recovery Girl, since Midoriya dislocated his arm from the fall, not sure if that was on the video you watched... and I think he's talking to Nezu now. But I was just wondering if you could... cheer him up? He's pretty upset over it; he didn't want to eat anything."

"Yeah. We'll do that." Iida nodded, "Thank you for telling us."

"No... thank you guys..." Togata sighed, "I have no idea how to make him feel better."

"We shouldn't mention what happened." Shinsou said, "It would just make him feel worse."

* * *

"Izuku... how's your arm?" Nezu asked, as Midoriya opened the door to his office. The boy stepped into the office, closing the door behind him gently, before settling down on the couch. Nezu walked up to him, hopping up to sit next to him, "Izuku... are you okay?"

Midoriya bit his lip harshly, as the woman's words flooded through his mind, blocking off any other thoughts.

Seeing as Midoriya wasn't talking, Nezu wrapped his arms around the boy, "If you don't want to talk... it's fine. I'm not going to push you to talk if you're not ready. But I'll always be here for you if you want to talk, alright?"

Midoriya just mutely nodded; he figured it'd be rude if he didn't reply. He understood where Nezu was coming from; his deceased parents were the same, never prying him to talk, just waiting patiently until Midoriya felt comfortable enough to talk about all the bullying and the mean comments he got from his classmates.

He understood parental love. But that was it. No one else would ever care about him.

As much as he wanted to believe that his friends in UA would also care about him, he knew it was only a matter of time until they got bored of him. That's what all his "friends" did; they pretended to be friends with him, humoured him, until they decided they were done playing with his emotions, and threw him away like an old, broken toy, unwanted and unloved.

_It just hurts too much._

But he couldn't tell Nezu. He couldn't reveal all his fucked up thoughts to the only person who he accepted would ever care about him. Nezu had a school to run, one of the best, if not, the best hero school in the country. He had a lot of stuff to do, and he didn't deserve to bear the weight of the emotional burden that Midoriya was carrying.

It was just irrational to tell Nezu.

Midoriya let Nezu hug him for a little longer, before finally finding his voice, "I... I would... like to... go back to my room."

"Alright." Nezu nodded, "Today was a rough day. You go rest up, okay?"

* * *

The door creaked open, and Midoriya entered the dorms.

"Oh my god, Midoriya?" Ashido yelled, practically tossing her phone away as she rushed to the door, "Whatever that shitty woman said, don't listen to her!"

"Mina! We just said not to mention it!" Sero sighed, pulling her away, but Midoriya just ignored her and headed to the staircase.

"Wait!" Uraraka called out, "Izuku, are you okay?"

Midoriya continued walking, ignoring her, as he made his way to his room.

"Midoriya!" Ashido called out.

Shinsou sighed, "He's still upset, though I'm not surprised."

"I think we should give him time to calm down." Iida spoke up, "We can check on him later."

* * *

Midoriya closed the door behind him, dumping his bag to the ground as he sank to his knees. Reiko and Ryuto perked up when he entered the room, but Midoriya ignored them as he crawled into the darkest corner of his room, not even bothered to switch on the lights.

His curtains were drawn, and the only light that entered his room was the light of the setting sun that came through the small gap in his curtains.

"Useless... worthless..." Midoriya curled up into a small ball, leaning against the wall as he shook.

_"You really thought we wanted to be friends?!"_

_"Fucking Deku. You should just hang yourself, you know?"_

_"You worthless Deku, who would wanna be friends with you? You might as well take a swan dive off a roof and wish you were born with a quirk in your next life, loser!"_

He didn't know how long he sat there, drowning in his thoughts and memories as the sun set. He was suffocating in his own thoughts, having absolutely no control over his feelings as the pressure crashed into him like a tsunami.

"She's right. I'm not good enough." Midoriya muttered, pulling out a knife from the sheath on his ankle, rolling up his sleeve, and plunged the blade into his arm.

"Useless."

The blade sliced through his skin.

"Can't do anything right."

Blood spilled out of his wound.

_Worthless._

Another stab.

_Not good enough._

He dug the knife deeper into his flesh.

_Not strong enough._

Yet another stab.

_My best isn't enough._

The red, crimson liquid continued to spurt out from the wound.

_I don't deserve to live._

He plunged the blade into his arm again, much deeper this time, protruding on the other side of his arm.

But the pain wasn't enough to drown out the pain in his heart.

And he continued to mutilate his arm, digging his blade into his flesh, over and over, more and more blood spilling out onto the floor like a waterfall.

_"Izuku? Izuku, are you alright? You okay in there?"_

He didn't even hear the words that were right outside his door.

His door creaked open.


	99. Chapter 99 - All the weight of the world

Shinsou stood outside of Midoriya's door.

They had just finished dinner, but Midoriya had spent all his time cooped up inside his room. They had originally wanted to invite him for dinner, but they figured that he wasn't in the mood, and Sato had left a small portion of food for Midoriya.

Most of the students were either watching television, or had gone back to their rooms. Kaminari wanted to have a game night, as was currently trying to get permission from Aizawa to do so. Shinsou figured it might be a good time to ask Midoriya if he wanted to eat before that started.

He knocked on the door, "Hey, Izuku, you hungry? Sato left some food for you."

No reply.

Shinsou frowned, and knocked on the door again, slightly louder this time, "Izuku? You okay? If you don't want to eat, can you at least say something, please?"

Still no reply. Shinsou was starting to get worried. Midoriya didn't talk a lot, but usually, if he didn't want to leave the room, he would at least tell them that he wasn't hungry, or that he was doing something.

But all he got was silence.

_Maybe he's sleeping._

It was a possibility, but Shinsou didn't think that was it. Midoriya had a tendency to overthink, and the last thing he would be doing was to sleep. He would be thinking about what that woman had said, and -

Shinsou reached out, and grabbed onto the doorknob, and turned it. To his surprise, he was able to turn it fully, and he bit his lip.

"Izuku? Izuku, are you alright? You okay in there?"

Still no reply.

He had a bad feeling about this. If Midoriya was doing work, he would usually lock his door in case Kaminari and Ashido or anyone decided to barge into his room for no reason. There was no reason for Midoriya to not lock his door, and yet, not reply.

He pushed open the door, his eyes adjusting to the darkness of Midoriya's room, and just stared, stunned at what he found.

Midoriya was sitting in a corner of his room, looking down lifelessly as he dug his knife into his arm. He pulled it out, only to repeat the motion, over and over again, as blood spilled down on the floor. Ryuto was standing next to him, a rather large pack of bandages in one of his talons, not really knowing what to do, as Reiko was fiddling with his phone, desperately trying to unlock it.

Shinsou's heart dropped, and he quickly closed the door behind him, locking it, before flicking on the lights, "Izuku!"

Midoriya didn't notice Shinsou's presence, until the lavender haired rushed up to him and literally ripped the knife out of his hands. Midoriya looked up, somewhat dazed, as Shinsou cradled his injured arm gently, inspecting the damage. Midoriya's arm was covered in a multitude of cuts, each of them sinking deep into his flesh, and the floor was covered in blood.

Using one arm to protect Midoriya's injured arm, Shinsou gently pulled Midoriya to his feet, supporting the smaller boy as he led him to the bathroom. Shinsou turned on the tab, and ensured that the water wasn't too cold, before carefully guiding Midoriya's injured arm under the running water.

Midoriya was barely fazed, even though water coming into contact with a wound like that would cause most people to be screaming like banshees.

After deeming the wound clean enough, Shinsou led Midoriya to his bed, kicking the knife away. He quickly rummaged through Midoriya's closet, and grabbed a few clean towels; he knew where the towels were after the entire fiasco with the washing machines. He pressed one up against the deep gashes on Midoriya's arm, and gently applied pressure on it, not wanting to hurt Midoriya even more by accident.

Shinsou glanced up at Midoriya's face, noticing that the greenette looked exhausted; probably from the events of the day, Shuzenji's quirk, and the blood loss.

The lavender haired boy noticed that blood was quickly seeping through the towel, and he grabbed another towel, quickly reapplying pressure to the wound.

"These cuts are rather deep... and they're still bleeding... we might have to call Recovery Girl to help you -"

"No... stop... Don't tell her... please..." Midoriya muttered weakly, "She'll tell Nezu..."

"They're going to get infected. I don't think I can use antibiotic creams on these." Shinsou grabbed another towel and pressed it against Midoriya's arm, "I promise I won't tell anyone else... but neither of us are qualified nor have sufficient materials to treat this."

Midoriya slumped down as Shinsou removed the towels that the blood had seeped through, "I think the bleeding has slowed slightly... but still..."

Ryuto fluttered up onto the bed, holding the pack of bandages in his talon, and Shinsou grabbed the bandages from the avian. Ripping the plastic covering off, Shinsou gingerly wrapped the bandages around Midoriya's arm, making sure it wasn't too tight or too loose.

"That should do... for a while... the blood would seep through it eventually..." Shinsou murmured, "Izuku... we need to see Recovery Girl..."

"... I'm sorry..." Midoriya weakly muttered, his entire body shaking, as Shinsou replied, "You're just overwhelmed by your feelings right now. You have nothing to be sorry for, Izuku. I know what that woman said really hurt you, and that you'd take them to heart. Some people are just like that, okay, Izuku? They're just mean and they hate on people for no reason. and that's no fault of yours."

"She's right... I'm useless... even now, I'm being a burden..." Midoriya slumped down even further, looking downright miserable as Shinsou reached out, gently running his fingers through Midoriya's fluffy curls comfortingly; if Midoriya was saying something like that, he probably wasn't thinking straight if he was admitting this to him.

"You're not a burden, Izuku. You'll never be a burden. After what she said, anyone would be upset. But she's wrong. You don't deserve the pain she's putting you through now. Your best is more than enough. It's not your fault, okay?"

There was a knock on the door, and Uraraka's voice rang out, _"Izuku? Are you okay? Hitoshi, are you in there?"_

Midoriya tensed up, looking visibly alarmed, as Shinsou turned around, "He's fine! Just tired."

_"Ah, that's great!"_ Uraraka replied, "Aizawa-sensei approved of our game night! And Kaminari found some really cutesy game. A visual novel or... what else did he say it was?"

_"A dating simulator?"_ Koda offered, and Uraraka continued, _"Yeah! A dating simulator. Kaminari was wondering if you guys wanted to join?"_

"Izuku? You want to join?" Shinsou turned to Midoriya, and the green haired teen desperately nodded; after what he had done, he didn't want to be alone. He wanted some company, even if he wasn't too sure if they were genuine with their intentions.

At least, in the presence of other people, he wouldn't risk pulling out another knife and decimating his other arm.

"Yeah! Izuku's down for joining." Shinsou called out to Uraraka, "How long until they start playing?"

_"Two hours."_ Uraraka replied, _"We're starting at ten."_

"Alright." Shinsou nodded, as Uraraka spoke up again,_ "Hey... Izuku... I don't know if you can hear me... but... you're doing great, okay? Don't listen to whatever bullshit that woman said. If you didn't intervene, that child would have been really badly injured. She shouldn't have said such terrible things about you, and everything she said isn't true. None of this is your fault and... you shouldn't blame yourself for it."_

Midoriya didn't seem to believe her words, and Shinsou gently pulled Midoriya in for a hug, wrapping his arm around the shaking greenette.

_"If it makes it better... Ashido called her a bitch. And another word that starts with a c, but Tenya scolded her for it."_ Todoroki said, and Uraraka muttered, _"I have no idea how you can say that with a straight face. But we'll see you guys later, Hitoshi, Izuku?"_

"Yeah." Shinsou called out, and they could hear the sound of footsteps leaving.

"I know it hurts, but we'll find another way around this, okay?" Shinsou said, gently patting Midoriya's head.

Midoriya didn't react for some time, and the duo just sat there in silence, before Midoriya shifted his head slightly, speaking so quietly that it was barely a whisper, "... Can we... go see Recovery Girl? Now?"

"You sure you're ready?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya nodded stiffly. Shinsou quickly checked on Midoriya's arm, noticing that a few specks of red were already starting to seep through the bandages, and he quickly wrapped another layer of bandages around his arm.

Shinsou's hand accidentally brushed against Midoriya's hoodie, and the lavender haired boy could tell that it was slightly damp. Shinsou was pretty sure it wasn't water, and glanced at his hand, noticing that it was slightly red.

"Uh... I think you stained your hoodie..." Shinsou muttered, "Do you... want to change?"

Midoriya noticed Shinsou's hand, and looked down at his hoodie, "I... suppose so..."

Shinsou grabbed the bloodied towels and walked over to where Midoriya had been sitting as he hacked away at his arm, doing his best to clean up the bloody mess on the ground. After deeming it clean enough, Shinsou stood up, turning to Midoriya, "Give me the hoodie and go pick something out. I'll try to wash away the blood before they dry up."

Midoriya gingerly peeled off his hoodie, before noticing that his shirt was also stained with blood, and took it off as well. Shinsou grabbed everything and walked over to the bathroom, quickly rinsing through all of Midoriya's clothes and towels. Luckily, the soap seemed more than enough to wash the stains out, but he couldn't really tell with Midoriya's clothes; they were all black and hid the stains well, but Shinsou supposed that it would hide the stains in case he wasn't able to wash them out.

After hanging everything out to dry, Shinsou grabbed another towel and proceeded to wipe up the remains of blood on Midoriya's floor. He quickly rinsed the towel and washed his hands, before noticing that Midoriya had already swapped out his pants for a more comfortable pair of grey sweatpants, wearing the purple hoodie that Shinsou had loaned Midoriya a week prior. He wasn't wearing a shirt under it, if the bandages on his chest were an indication of anything.

Midoriya looked away, weakly mumbling, tugging on the sleeve that covered his sliced up arm, "...It's comfortable..."

"No, it's fine. You can keep it if you like." Shinsou replied, "Ready to go?"

Midoriya nodded, and Shinsou unlocked the door. It was oddly quiet, but Shinsou guessed it was because most people were either showering or lounging in their rooms, having their quiet time before they were all dragged out for the 1-A game night.

He supposed it would be easier for them to visit Shuzenji if no one was around to ask any questions. Reiko and Ryuto whined, and Midoriya scooped them up with his good arm and deposited them gently in his hood.

"Come on. Let's go."

* * *

There was a knock on the door, and Shuzenji sighed; she was just about to go out for dinner. There weren't any lessons, and she was just hoping she didn't have to deal with another papercut for the umpteenth time that week.

"Yes? Come in." She called out.

"I hope we're not bothering you..." Shinsou spoke up, pushing up the door and letting himself and Midoriya into the infirmary.

"Hello, Shinsou. Midoriya." Shuzenji greeted them, "Is there anything you kids need?"

Midoriya glanced at the ground nervously, and Shinsou nudged him gently, before the greenette walked up to Shuzenji. He gingerly rolled up his sleeve, and Shuzenji frowned when she noticed the bandages covering his arm.

He started unravelling the bandages, and Shuzenji could see some blood seeping through the bandages. They hadn't been there when she had seen him just a few hours ago, and she wondered what could have caused such an injury in that small time frame.

Midoriya finally finished unravelling the bandages, and Shuzenji was left staring at Midoriya's mutilated arm. She just sat there, stunned at the sheer multitude of red, angry gashes that littered Midoriya's arm.

"... I'll heal that up..." Shuzenji muttered, still dumbfounded, quickly using her quirk to heal the wounds. Some of the smaller cuts healed up immediately, but the larger ones still remained. They had closed up slightly, but they were still red and slightly swollen around the edges of the gash.

"That's that maximum amount of energy I'm willing to expend. I don't want to drain too much of your energy, or it'll be bad for your health." Shuzenji coaxed Midoriya towards the bed, "I'll disinfect those and fix them up, but do you kids mind telling me how on earth you got such an injury?"

Shuzenji already had her suspicions on how Midoriya obtained those injuries, but Midoriya's next words still hit hard, "... I did it myself..."

The smaller boy was shaking, and Shinsou gently sat down next to Midoriya. Shuzenji set about disinfecting Midoriya's cuts, speaking up, "Well... it's very brave for you to get help."

"... Hitoshi found me... and told me to come here..." Midoriya muttered, and Shuzenji nodded; she was well aware that Shinsou had the exact same problem when he had been younger, since she had been the one treating the lavender haired boy when Yamada found out. Shinsou hadn't been as self-destructive as the green haired teen was currently, though.

"I see." Shuzenji nodded; she had finished disinfecting the injuries, and was currently dressing Midoriya's cuts. She figured that out of all the students in 1-A, Shinsou being the one to find out was the best; he had been in the same situation before, and would know how to react to it. He wouldn't panic like all the other students, and Midoriya trusted him enough to listen to him.

Reiko and Ryuto popped out from Midoriya's hood, watching as Shuzenji bandaged Midoriya's arm.

"Do you want to shower? There are some spare clothes." Shuzenji offered, but Midoriya weakly shook his head, "I... already showered before I left the agency..."

"Alright." The school nurse nodded, "I suppose you wouldn't want me to tell Nezu, right?"

Midoriya tensed up, and Shuzenji sighed, "I won't tell him, but only this once, okay? Promise me you won't cut yourself anymore, or find any ways to hurt yourself. Taking it out on yourself isn't going to solve anything, and hurting yourself doesn't help anyone. If you ever feel the urge to turn to self-harm again, come talk to me, okay? Or anyone else you trust."

The greenette weakly nodded, and Shuzenji let them leave, "I heard you're having some game night or something. You two go back to the dorms and enjoy yourselves."

"Yes, ma'am." Shinsou nodded, "Thank you."

"No worries." Shuzenji smiled, as Midoriya and Shinsou both exited the room. She knew she should probably confront Midoriya about his emotional and mental health, and whatever that woman had said didn't help his case at all, but she had to be patient with Midoriya. Issues like these were sensitive, and if they pushed too much, Midoriya would just close up again.

The first stages of recovery were the most difficult, and the world wasn't making it any easier. But getting help was the first stage to recovering, and Midoriya had already done that. They just had to be patient.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Kaminari waved, as he fiddled with the wires, trying to connect his laptop to the television.

"Hey, Kami." Shinsou gently closed the door behind him, as Midoriya stood in the doorway, tugging at his sleeve awkwardly.

"The others already stocked up on snacks and drinks; if you guys want anything, go check the kitchens." Kaminari replied, "You might want to hurry, though. Mina said she wanted to come down early and hog the snacks."

"Gotcha." Shinsou replied, "Just curious, though. What are we going to be playing? I heard from Ochako, Koji and Shoto that it's a dating simulator... or something."

"Yeah. Visual novel, I found it on Steam; it's a pretty popular game, and apparently it's free. It has really good reviews and ratings, and we watched the trailer just now. It seems fine; cutesy, high school setting, with cute girls and all." Kaminari said, "It has "Psychological Horror" and "Horror" as a tag, oddly enough, and it says something like the game isn't suitable for children or people easily disturbed, or something."

"What?" Shinsou raised his eyebrow, confused. He had heard about dating simulators and visual novels before; Kaminari had talked about those genres of games often enough that everyone in 1-A probably knew what they were. But why on earth was a dating simulator, of all kinds of games, tagged as "Psychological Horror" and "Horror"?

"I mean, it _is_ kind of weird? But it was probably tagged wrongly, and there are people who are weirded out by romance... I suppose? I mean... women are scary. Sometimes. If you piss them off. And they are super unreasonable." Kaminari shrugged, before turning to Midoriya, "Speaking of which, that mom whose kid you saved today? Super unreasonable. Ignore her. You're awesome, and don't let Karens like her tell you otherwise."

Midoriya just nodded tiredly, confused. What on earth was a Karen anyways?

"Anyways, I read the comments, and most of them say that the game is good. Iida looked at the trailer before he went to shower, and he approved of it too." Kaminari added, "So we're good to go."


	100. Chapter 100 - Falling through

**A/N if you guys haven't read Problem Time, go read it first XDXD**

**Also, go play DDLC for yourselves, or watch a playthrough XD**

* * *

"Hey guys! Welcome back to Problem Time!" Ashido grinned, waving at the camera that was positioned on a tripod, "Is everyone here?"

"Wait... we're recording?" Yaoyorozu asked, and Kaminari nodded excitedly, taking a sip of his soda, "Yeah. If you guys don't mind."

"So... what are we playing?" Shoji asked, sitting on one of the couches. Tokoyami was sitting next to him, Dark Shadow settled on the bird headed boy's shoulder, purring, as Sato sat on his other side, munching on some chips.

Ashido, Sero, Bakugou, and Kirishima were on the other couch, with Kacchan lying on Bakugou's lap, barking excitedly. Sero originally wanted to invite Tokage and Awase to join them, but they were apparently having a massive pillow fight in their dorms. Mineta had grabbed one of the chairs from the kitchen, given there wasn't enough space; 1-B had borrowed all their spare mattresses for the pillow fight.

Ojiro and Hagakure were sharing a bean bag, as Yaoyorozu and Asui shared another one. Jiro and Kaminari were sitting by the coffee table, where Kaminari's laptop was, also sharing a beanbag.

The remaining beanbags had been stolen by Koda and Uraraka, who had squashed them all together for Iida, Todoroki, Shinsou, Midoriya, and themselves, though they did let Midoriya hog the black one since he seemed to like it so much.

"Doki Doki Literature Club!" Kaminari smiled brightly, "Let me just read out the Steam Page for you guys."

Kaminari quickly read the description of the game out, "And uh... it ends with "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed." But I'm sure it's nothing."

"I feel like I should be disturbed by that." Sato sweatdropped, looking around uneasily, as Tokoyami muttered, "What a mad banquet of darkness."

"I watched the trailer... It seems okay. A lot of pink." Iida spoke up, as Kaminari played the trailer, the words "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed." flashing across the screen, before the rest of the innocent-looking trailer played.

* * *

Midoriya just stared at the trailer; there was clearly something wrong with it. If there were only four characters in the game, why did only Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki have those special, close up shots. Monika didn't have an image like that in the trailer, and based on how the description was written, it seemed like she was the one who had written the description.

There was something deeper to this game, and he was pondering over it before Mineta piped up, "Sayori has small boobs."

"Oh my god, shut up!" Ashido snapped, glaring at Mineta harshly, "Iida, can we ban him if he keeps acting like this?"

"I..." Iida frowned, not really liking Mineta's attitude but also disliking the notion of isolating a classmate, "Mineta, please stop making such crude comments. Or you would not be allowed to participate in these activities."

Mineta didn't look too happy about it, but he just huffed and turned away, "Whatever."

Shirou curled up, and Reiko glared at him, before turning her attention back to Ryuto. She nuzzled the bird, and Ryuto chirped, settling down comfortably on Midoriya's lap. Midoriya sank further into the bean bag, and tugged awkwardly at the sleeve that hid the bandages, before grabbing his water bottle.

Shinsou sipped on his coffee absentmindedly, as Iida berated him for drinking coffee.

Midoriya just stared at the trailer blankly, as Shinsou shifted around a bit in their shared bean bag, patting Shirou on the head gently. The feline just purred and decided to take a nap, and Reiko glared at him before turning her attention back to Ryuto.

"So... we can start now?" Ojiro asked, and Kaminari opened the game up, "I opened up the game just now to check that it was the correct one, and there was just another warning about the game not being suitable for children or those easily disturbed."

They had to name their character, and Bakugou wanted to name him "King Explosion Murder", but he was eventually named "ProblemTime" after the class youtube channel. They also got Uraraka, Ashido, Jiro, Yaoyorozu, and Aoyama to voice the lines of the five characters, before starting the game.

Kaminari was just clicking to progress the dialogue, and the story was... pretty underwhelming. Apparently, the protagonist was supposed to join this literature club, and somehow, every single girl liked him. Kaminari occasionally made saves, and the students took turns to choose words to construct the in-game poems.

"Why isn't there a small Monika?" Todoroki asked, immediately noticing that there were only three stickers present, as Ashido peered at the poem making screen, "You're right... that's odd."

Midoriya glanced at the screen, ponding over Todoroki's statement.

First in the trailer, then with the poem making, and he wasn't too sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but while all the others wore white socks, Monika was wearing black stockings that went over her knees, though they weren't very visible due to how close she was standing in comparison to the other characters.

Plus, all the other characters had sprites that caused them to face the protagonist side-on, Monika had a very prominent sprite that looked directly frontward at the protagonist. And while the music in the game was decent, he found it weird that there was only one soundtrack so far that didn't have any pianos, either as the main instrument or as the base, and it was the very first soundtrack that appeared before Monika's introduction.

There was definitely something suspicious about Monika, and he had a bad feeling about her.

* * *

The rest of the game seemed rather normal. Bakugou wasn't too interested, and opted to spend his staring at his phone, and Midoriya nearly fell asleep at several points; he was tired from fighting, from Shuzenji expending his energy to heal his self-inflicted wounds, and the blood loss didn't really help matters.

There were some minor conflicts between the characters, and Monika kept acting suspiciously by breaking the fourth wall, saying things like _"Load me."_ and _"Sometimes you'll find yourself facing a difficult decision. When that happens, don't forget to save your game!"_

Ashido concluded it was because Monika was a tutorial character, and thus, couldn't be dated, which was why she didn't have a sticker, and she was talking about game mechanics.

It seemed convincing, but Midoriya suspected that there was more to Monika; it didn't explain why she was the only one who made small talk with the protagonist before reading their poem. Plus, Monika directly stated that she played the piano, and Midoriya felt that it couldn't just be a coincidence that the instrument that Monika played, and was purposefully made obvious by the game, was the only instrument that was missing from the one soundtrack before her debut.

Sure, she may be a tutorial character, and may know about the saving and loading mechanics, but that wouldn't explain her second poem, the one about the three primary colours of light, and the three waveforms that made up sound. It was almost as if she had an understanding of the inner mechanics of the game. It didn't help that she had a poem labeled "The Lady who Knows Everything", making it seem like she was the mastermind pulling the strings behind the events of the game.

He was probably overthinking it, though. It was just a game, how complicated could it be?

* * *

It was the day of the festival where everything seemed... off, especially after Monika said, _"You kind of left her hanging this morning, you know?"_

That _totally_ wasn't suspicious at all, and it seems like his classmates were also a bit put off by the statement, though for another reason.

_The protagonist literally left her hanging._

Would they really include something like that?

He doubted it. Maybe he really was overthinking it.

Then, Monika revealed the poem that Sayori was going to perform, and the atmosphere immediately turned chilly.

"Oh fuck." Shinsou muttered, from right beside him. Iida was way too concerned about the context of the poem to scold him for his language.

Kaminari proceeded to read it out, _"Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of -"_

"We get it, you fuck." Bakugou seethed, looking up from his phone to stare at the unsettling poem, "We're not blind! Fucking skip it!"

Kaminari continued reading, _"Get. Out. Of. My. Head. Get out of my head before I do what I know is best for you. Get out of my head before I listen to everything she said to me. Get out of my head before I show you how much I love you. Get out of my head before I finish writing this poem."_

Kaminari scrolled down, _"But a poem is never actually finished. It just stops moving."_

_Just like a dead body..._ A voice whispered at the back of Midoriya's mind.

He knew that feeling well enough. Thoughts swirling around in the back of his mind, thoughts that he so desperately tried to chase out, before they overwhelmed him, drowning him in self-loathing and misery. He unconsciously reached up for his collar, trying to push his anxiety down, as his classmates commented on the poem.

_"ProblemTime? What's wrong?"_

"Oh, like there's _nothing _wrong with that poem." Uraraka deadpanned sarcastically; clearly, all of them were put off by the ominous poem. The protagonist ended up going to Sayori's house to fetch her, but they could all feel a sense of dread.

_"I reach Sayori's house and knock on the door. I don't expect an answer, since she's not picking up her phone, either. Like yesterday, I open the door and let myself in."_

Shinsou just glanced at Midoriya, observing how the greenette stared at the screen, exhausted, but he could tell that Midoriya was clearly affected by it somehow, and not in the way that the rest of his classmates were. Shinsou turned his attention back to the screen; it seemed like the game was near its end, since the protagonist ended up with Sayori, and he could ask Midoriya about it later.

Plus, he was getting a weird sense of deja vu from this.

_"Sayori? She really is a heavy sleeper... I swallow. I can't believe I ended up doing this after all. Waking her up in her own house... That really is something that a boyfriend would do, isn't it? In any case... It just feels right."_

Shinsou glanced at the greenette again; he was definitely getting a sense of deja vu from this.

_"Outside Sayori's room, I knock on her door. Sayori? Wake up, dummy... There's no response. I really didn't want to have to enter her room like this... Isn't it kind of a breach of privacy? But she really leaves me no choice. I gently open the door..."_

_"...Sayo-"_

"HOLY SHIT!" Ashido shrieked, as the image of Sayori's body hanging from a rope tied around her neck appeared abruptly, with the music starting to glitch out. It didn't help that the only instrument in the current soundtrack that hadn't glitched out was the piano, which was the very instrument that Monika played.

Midoriya just looked at the screen. He was actually really bothered by the scene in front of him, having experienced it first hand, but he's had years of practice of keeping a straight face. Plus, he already suspected it from Monika's hanging comment, not to mention the music; she was clearly involved in this somehow.

Midoriya ran his finger along his collar gently. Not only was it a reminder of his failure, but it also hid a scar beneath, a scar that he had received from trying the exact same thing, except Sayori had succeeded where he failed. She had struggled for a while, if the blood on her fingertips were any indication.

"...Asphyxiation..." Midoriya muttered absentmindedly, the correct term popping up in his head in his panic, and Yaoyorozu turned to him in shock, "What?"

"Uh... she died of asphyxiation..." Midoriya tried to explain, mistaking Yaoyorozu's remark of exclamation for confusion, trying to interact with his peers, "When people hang themselves... they either die of... asphyxiation, which is the brain being deprived of oxygen... or by severing the spinal cord."

Analysis was good, right? More analysis and knowledge would help his classmates in the future.

Midoriya took his classmates stunned silence as a sign to continue, "Her table is too far... for her to jump from... so she most likely jumped off a chair... though it seemed to be perfectly in place... by her table... and given how low the ceiling is... the falling distance isn't enough for the body to create enough speed to... break or... dislocate the axis, which is a bone in the neck. So she couldn't sever her... spinal cord with... such a short fall."

Memories flashed through his mind. He remembered running out of air, of his fingers clawing at the rope around his neck instinctively, desperately trying to breathe as his blunt nails scraped against the rope, his fingertips turning bloody as they kept rubbing against the rope, the abrasion damaging and breaking the skin beneath.

In his rising panic, he continued, "If you looked... closely... you can see blood on her fingers... it's likely she tried to... free herself instinctually... and the constant abrasion... of her fingertips against the rope... would cause the skin to break... The rope itself has no blood on it, but it could be... due to an oversight by the developers."

Midoriya slammed his mouth shut; he had said too much. Compared to the others, he was rather desensitized to suicide, but he still felt like throwing up. He had grown up pushing away his feelings, since they were useless, and opted to analyze things instead, but analyzing something like this just made him feel even sicker.

_He could feel the phantom feeling of the rope around his neck._

"Midoriya... how do you know about that?" Kirishima shakily asked, and Midoriya replied, not wanting his peers to see his rising anxiety and panic, "It's common knowledge?"

A close up of Sayori's dead face appeared, though that really wasn't helping to distract him. The words behind her were interesting, though.

_"An exception has occurred. File "__game/ script-ch5 .rpy__", line 307. See for details."_

That line was really odd. He was aware that the game was a program, but wasn't the code supposed to be invisible to the players?

Kaminari just mutedly scrolled through all the text until the line _"This isn't some game where I can reset and try something different." _popped up.

"Our saves! Maybe we can do something..." Kaminari muttered, opening the menu to reload an earlier save, only for a pop-up to appear, _"Error: Sayori .chr does not exist or is corrupted."_

"Wait, what? .chr isn't even a file proper type!" Kaminari asked, and Midoriya found it weird too. As far as he knew, .chr wasn't a file type. Maybe it was a special file type implemented by the developers?

The game restarted on its own, though the text box was filled with gibberish, a clear indication that something was wrong.

Then, the game attempted to load up Sayori's sprite, glitched out, and restarted, this time, without Sayori in it at all.

"OH SHIT!" Ashido shrieked in realisation, "SAYORI'S BEEN DELETED!"

"And the game's trying to function without her, and rewrote itself..." Kaminari muttered, completely in awe, "That is... pretty cool... actually... if you don't count the way in which she... you know... _disappeared._"

Midoriya bit his lip and tried to push his memories away.

"I guess that's where the... Psychological Horror tag... came from..." Shinsou muttered; of all games, why did Kaminari have to choose this one?! And why did Iida approve of it? Sure... neither of them knew about Midoriya's actions earlier in the day, and the trailer itself was perfectly innocent-looking, with no trace of glitching or suicide in it.

He gently tightened his grip around Midoriya; the greenette didn't seem to mind too much, and Shinsou could tell that Sayori's suicide scene was affecting him more than he let on.

"I... really didn't expect that..." Iida said, pushing his glasses up, but he didn't stop them from continuing; it was clear that everyone, while terrified, was intrigued, and were curious as to how the game would be resolved.

* * *

The game continued on, though the glitching had clearly increased, and while the character interactions were slightly different, the plot was largely the same.

Once they reached the classroom, Midoriya's breath hitched. He ignored the fact that Yuri had just glitched out; why on earth was there an image of Sayori hanging herself at the back of the classroom?!

It seems like no one else had noticed it, since they didn't comment on it. Shinsou glanced at him, worriedly, and Midoriya weakly signed, _"Poster"_, and gestured at the television. Shinsou seemed confused, but he still leaned forwards to take a closer look, before reeling back in shock, yelping, "Holy shit!"

"Hitoshi? You okay?" Iida asked, concerned, as Shinsou stared at the poster, clearly unsettled, "You... might want to look at the poster at the back of the classroom."

All the students leaned forwards, peering at the television, before they noticed the poster, though it was promptly forgotten as soon as Natsuki glitched into frame. Natsuki started occasionally speaking in some off-putting, black text, but the students largely ignored it until they got to one line.

_**"My dad would beat the shit out of me if he found this."**_

"My dad would beat the shit out of me for less." Todoroki muttered something under his breath, though it seems like no one but Midoriya heard him. The rest of the game seemed normal, but Natsuki and Yuri were being uncharacteristically nasty towards each other for no reason.

_"Whoa, be careful or you might cut yourself on that edge, Yuri. Oh, my bad... You already do, don't you?"_

Midoriya curled in on himself, and Reiko reached up, patting Midoriya's cheek comfortingly. Midoriya tightened his grip around his sliced up arm, shaking slightly; the way Natsuki mocked Yuri actually hurt, given his actions earlier in the day.

Shinsou gently patted his arm reassuringly, and Midoriya relaxed slightly; it was just a game, right? The developers were trying to mock him on purpose...

He bleakly watched as Kaminari struggled with the glitching. They had gotten another special poem, which spelt out "Nothing is real?"

There were a few more glitches, until Yuri spat, _**"Nobody would care if she killed herself."**_

Midoriya curled in on himself a bit more.

_Nobody would care if I killed myself._

Then, the image of Yuri with her arm covered in cuts appeared, and Midoriya just stared at the screen, his heart pounding in his chest. He bit his lip, as his breaths started coming in fast, and he quickly grabbed his water, gulping it down nervously.

_Calm down, Izuku, calm down._

It took Midoriya some time to finally calm himself down, and he missed out on some of the glitches, though he did notice the fake blue screen of death. The game wasn't really that creepy, despite all the glitching and odd behavior. What Midoriya found unsettling was how the game forced the player to go through a certain route, taking away their ability to choose for themselves.

_Since when did they have a choice?_

_Never._

They had to sit through a session where the player was practically forced to choose Monika, since choosing Yuri's name resulted in a pair of creepy purple eyes to stare back at them.

_"Here's a suggestion. Have you considered killing yourself? It would be beneficial to your mental health."_

Midoriya's heart clenched, as memories flooded his mind.

_"__You might as well take a swan dive off a roof and wish you were born with a quirk in your next life, loser!"_

_"Go and die like the rest of your useless, worthless kind!"_

_"Fucking Deku. You should just hang yourself, you know?"_

Midoriya closed his eyes, forcing them away.

_Go away. I don't want to die yet. Not now._

"Excuse me!?" Iida spoke up, clearly upset; he still remembered the time where Midoriya had almost been killed by Shigaraki and that damned Nomu, before getting a letter telling him to basically commit suicide, "Killing yourself is not beneficial to anyone's mental health! What kind of terrible suggestion is that!?"

Midoriya relaxed slightly.

_He's right. That's a terrible decision._

Iida looked like he wanted to say more, clearly distressed over the entire scene, but he couldn't say much in front of the camera; the world didn't need to know that Midoriya had been suicide baited.

* * *

The rest of the scene played out, as Yuri got increasingly possessive over the main character. Apparently, Yuri had gotten so posessive to the point she wanted to pull open the protagonist's skin and crawl inside of them.

"No no no, oh please, god no." Kaminari grimaced, shaking slightly as he grabbed his arm nervously, "That is creepy as hell! I like my skin intact, thank you very much."

"What a mad banquet of darkness." Tokoyami muttered, and Dark Shadow nodded in agreement.

"Whatever, it's just a fucking game." Bakugou didn't really care whether they accepted Yuri's confession or not, but the bite behind his words were gone; he was clearly creeped out by the game, but was trying not to show it.

They eventually decided to accept Yuri's confession, deciding that it would be the safer route.

"No no no no, oh shit, oh fuck!" Kaminari swore, as Yuri pulled out a knife, and the rest of the class reacted with varying degrees of shock, surprise, and horror. Midoriya could feel that Shinsou had tightened his grip around him, but he barely noticed it.

He had completely frozen up; he couldn't hear his classmates talking, their words being drowned out as the only thing he could do was to process the scene in front of him, his mind racing. All he could do was count the number of times the screen had turned orange and dark, watch as Yuri's blood dried, and see how the life faded from her eyes, analyzing the scene in an attempt to push away his rising panic.

The scene with Yuri's corpse finally faded away, and Midoriya blurted out the first thing on his mind, "There should be more blood."

"What?"

Midoriya shakily replied, mistaking his classmates' shock as the need for an explanation, "She stabbed herself... in the stomach area... and on the left side of her chest... Those areas... contain a lot of major arteries and veins... and due to blood pressure... there should be more blood spurting out the wound... though that would be... hard to integrate into a game... I guess. Being stabbed in the stomach would hurt... due to all the stomach acid spilling out... Did she... want a fast death... or a slow one? Because if she wanted... a fast death... she should have slit the artery on her neck... or her wrist. But there was a... "Sunset" and "Night" three times... so it was the entire weekend... even if... she didn't stab herself in a vital organ or blood vessel... she should have bled to death in less than a day... Even then... dizziness would occur... due to the blood loss... so she would have passed out... even before bleeding out."

He knew that first hand, and it was a terrible, painful experience that would forever be etched into his memory. His old wounds hurt just thinking about it. _If he hadn't had that damned quirk..._

Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Shinsou, Uraraka and Iida tensed up. Of course Midoriya would know all of this; he had been kidnapped by the League, only to return covered in so many injuries that it was a freaking miracle that he had even survived and recovered. The others didn't know the extent of Midoriya's injuries from that incident, but there was also that time where he had gotten beaten up by the Nomu, during the attack on UA, and everyone knew that Midoriya had received really bad injuries from that. They hadn't been as bad as the ones from the Kamino Incident, since he had gotten medical attention relatively quickly, but it was clear that something was bothering Midoriya, since he was rambling so much when he usually didn't even talk.

"Well... it's a game... right? And I guess it's supposed to be horror?" Kaminari forced out a smile, not knowing how else to react to Midoriya's rambling, as he tried to lighten the mood, "Let's just... finish the game... and go to sleep..."

"I don't think I would even be able to sleep." Hagakure whined, as Natsuki puked her guts out. Vomiting was never a good feeling. Monika didn't seem to give a shit, though, and just deleted both Natsuki and Yuri using the console, which was _very_ unsettling, before grabbing a cupcake from the now glitched out Natsuki's tray.

Bakugou was completely pissed off, but it was clear he had a soft spot for his pomeranian, because Kirishima dumped Kacchan on his lap, sparing Kaminari's laptop, and possibly the television, from Bakugou's wrath. The game rebooted, but now, they were all alone with Monika.

"This is bad." Jiro muttered, "Now, she's the only one left."

Midoriya hated this.

This is why he didn't need friends.

All they would do is backstab you the second you let your guard down.

_Would they really do that?_

He wanted to believe that they wouldn't. After all, his classmates were a lot nicer and accepting that all his classmates in his elementary and middle schools, and he did meet Shinsou before, when they were younger. At the very least, he trusted the lavender haired boy, since his own sense judgement was completely screwed up, and if he also deemed Iida, Todoroki, Koda and Uraraka as friends, then Midoriya would trust his judgement.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Reiko's judgement, but she was usually nice to anyone who didn't hurt him.

His classmates did kick up a huge fuss when Monika revealed that she knew that they were recording the game, but that wasn't too surprising. It was a computer program; it just had to check whether certain .exe files were running. There was some sort of jumpscare after that, but it wasn't scary at the slightest; given how many twists and turns the game had, he hadn't been too surprised when Monika reeled back, lying about not being able to do anything before performing her jumpscare.

Kaminari ran through all of Monika's dialogue, and Midoriya nearly fell asleep from how long it took for Kaminari to just click through everything. They couldn't even skip them since Monika disabled the "Skip" button, which was annoying. She did talk a lot about the importance of her character file, even urging them to make a copy of her file for safekeeping.

It was actually getting pretty annoying, how often she talked about it. It just made him want to delete her character file, just to shut her up.

_"But anyway... I know how much you cared about her, so it only feels right for me to share her last moments with you. You know how Sayori is really clumsy? Well, she kind of messed up the whole hanging thing... You're supposed to jump from high enough that the rope snaps your neck, making it quick and painless. But she just used a chair, meaning she kind of just left herself to slowly asphyxiate."_

"I knew it." Midoriya mumbled. He didn't even know why he said that; maybe he was just too tired to think straight.

Kaminari finally got through all of Monika's dialogue, and the class seemed stumped as to how to continue.

Deleting her character file seemed like an option, given how much Monika liked to talk about it. It was like she was _literally_ asking to get deleted. Was her judgement being clouded by her emotions? By her love for the player? By her happiness, for getting the happy ending she desired? By her pride, for having eliminated her competition, and finally winning? Why else would she be flaunting her only weakness around like a mindless idiot?

_"Character File. Delete."_

Shinsou glanced at his signing, processed it, before turning to the electric blonde, "Kaminari, you should delete Monika's character file."

The rest of his classmates didn't object to that suggestion at all, and after following Monika's own instructions, Kaminari deleted her character file. Monika didn't seem too happy about that, but she kind of deserved it.

Eventually, Monika reloaded the game, and they found that she was missing from it, only to realise that Sayori was now sentient, leaving Monika no choice but to delete the entire game.

* * *

Midoriya didn't really like the game. Sure, the concept of it was interesting, but it just hit a little _too_ hard.

He felt sick. Luckily, the next day was a weekened, so if he felt like it, he would just sleep in. Or maybe not; he needed to train more. Maybe he should ask Nezu why he was feeling so bad.

Some of his classmates were trying to figure out the meaning of the game, until Iida fished his phone out of his pocket.

"It's already two thirty in the morning!? All of you, go to sleep! Now! You can talk about the game in the morning when you wake up! But sleep now!" Iida ordered, chopping his arms around, as Ashido walked over to turn off the camera, "I'm surprised it hadn't died yet."

"Ha! Because I'm smart!" Kaminari puffed up his chest proudly as he stood up, "I plugged it in to charge while it was recording! And it automatically sends the recordings to my laptop so it's unlikely run out of space, since my laptop has a lot of space!"

"Nice!" Ashido grinned, and Jiro rolled her eyes, "You're only smart when it comes to games."

Kaminari started whining as Bakugou picked his pomeranian up with one arm, using his other arm to set his alarm, "You fuckers messed up my sleep schedule."

"Aww, come on, Bakubro! It was fun, right?" Kirishima stood up, as Bakugou rolled his eyes, "It's a fucking psychological horror. I'd like to see how on earth that's fun."

Koda nodded; that game had scared the shit out of him. Uraraka gently patted his arm, "It's alright... I don't think anyone was really expecting something like that."

"You okay, Izuku?" Shinsou asked; he had already seen that Midoriya had a problem with self-harm, and while Midoriya wasn't the only one to reach up and rub his neck during Sayori's death, Shinsou had a feeling that the smaller boy was using the collar to hide something, given how often he fiddled with it on a daily basis. He was definitely disturbed by the hanging scene.

"As much as I hate to admit it... Bakugou's right." Yaoyorozu nodded, "It was a good game, but I don't think some of us were ready for it."

"Yeah... that was actually terrifying." Ojiro admitted, "I'm just... going to sleep with my lights on. I'm going to go up to my room first."

"Same here." Sato yawned, standing up, as Tokoyami and Shoji followed suit. Shinsou just finished his coffee, before standing up to throw it away, helping Iida to clear the rubbish his peers had left behind. Ashido and Kaminari were fiddling with their equipment, as Reiko opened her jaw wide, yawning, before curling up on Midoriya's chest, purring.

"We should be getting to bed, Izuku." Uraraka squatted down, patting Midoriya's head, but the tired greenette just sank down further into his bean bag, as Ryuto settled down in the crook of his arm, already asleep. He just needed some time to will the nausea away; he felt that if he stood up now, he'd just throw up there and then, and he'd rather not do that. It would be a hassle to clear up.

"Give him some time..." Todoroki muttered, "I think we all need some time to process what we've seen... "

"Right..." Uraraka nodded, as she helped to switch off the television; Kaminari had accidentally left it on after he and Ashido brought all their recording equipment back to one of the empty rooms, that they had converted into a studio specifically for gaming and editing videos, which they shared with Jiro, given that the girl had mentioned some time before that she might want to try making songs on her own and posting them.

Midoriya closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to calm himself, before finishing up the water in his bottle.

He felt a little better, and he stood up, gently cradelling Reiko and Ryuto in his arms as he used his foot to push his bean bag to the side so no one would trip over it in the morning.

"Good night..." Midoriya muttered, as he headed back towards his room, and Uraraka flashed a bright smile at him, "Good night, Izuku!"

Koda had already gone back to his room earlier to cuddle with Yuwai, and Iida, Todoroki and Shinsou bid him goodnight, and Midoriya made his way back to his room.

* * *

Midoriya gently placed Reiko and Ryuto on his bed, before making a dash for the bathroom.

He shoved his head towards the toilet bowl, emptying out the contents of his stomach, though there wasn't much anyways since he only had some instant noodles that he had for breakfast, having completely skipped lunch and dinner.

His stomach continued to lurched and gurgled, as he heaved violently, but his insides were already empty; the only thing he was able to heave out was acidic bile that burned his throat, reminding him once more of the time he had tried to hang himself.

He spat out more bile and sank to the ground, thoroughly exhausted, an empty pit in his gut. He heaved one final time, coughing weakly, before he stood up shakily, using the bathroom counter to support his weight. He rinsed his mouth and brushed his teeth, but that did nothing to get rid of the burning sensation lingering on his throat.

Midoriya really wished he had water though, but he had a feeling that he would end up throwing that up too. Plus, if he went back downstairs to get some, he had a feeling that he would end up worrying his friends; especially Shinsou, after he was caught slicing his arm to shreds.

Luckily, he didn't get any of his clothes dirty; he's had a lot of experience in throwing up. for some reason, he really liked the hoodie that Shinsou had given him, and he didn't want to ruin it because he was stupid and useless and had no control over his mind.

Midoriya weakly climbed into his bed, taking care not to disturb the two sleeping animals, curling up around them protectively. Reiko opened her eyes slightly and wrinkled her nose, probably trying to figure out what had happened, before she padded over to him, rubbing her head comfortingly against his neck, purring.

The green haired boy just sighed, and tried to fall asleep, doing his best to ignore the burning sensation at the back of his throat.


	101. Chapter 101 - I don't know

Midoriya stared up at the ceiling blearily. He hadn't been able to sleep, and he had already taken several trips to the bathroom in order to empty out the non-existent contents of his stomach.

He was tired, he wanted to just sleep it off, but every time he closed his eyes, he would just envision a rope around his neck, slowly strangling him, or maybe a penknife that he had stabbed into his stomach, or him standing at the top of a building, looking down at the ground, or -

Midoriya shook himself out of his thoughts. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he could see some light passing through the small gap between his curtains; it was probably five or six in the morning. Midoriya rolled over gently, taking care not to crush Reiko or Ryuto, and grabbed his phone. He switched it on, and tried to read the time, but the large, glaring numbers were just swimming off the screen and Midoriya could barely decipher them.

Midoriya groaned, and placed his phone on the ground, before he flipped himself over. He curled up into a ball in a useless attempt to calm his gurgling insides, but in the end, he was forced to dash to the bathroom again to heave more bile up.

* * *

Nezu frowned, as he watched the video that Aizawa had sent him. Apparently, 1-A had a game night, playing some psychological horror game disguised as a dating simulator, and Kaminari had uploaded them onto the 1-A youtube channel before going to sleep. He did have the foresight to censor some of the more... questionable things that Midoriya had said before he uploaded it, and had sent the full, unedited version to Aizawa, concerned about Midoriya's mental health. Of course, that wasn't Aizawa's forte, so the tired teacher had forwarded the email to Nezu and Inui.

Nezu could see how the game upset Midoriya; the boy had admitted to him before that he had attempted suicide before, and then was somehow roped into playing a game that was literally had half its characters killing themselves. And just that afternoon, he had been insulted by some random, stupid woman due to his lack of a quirk.

The principal was pretty sure most of the teachers had seen the video that Kaminari posted, since most of them used the youtube channel to ensure that 1-A hadn't blown their dorms up by accident, and Kayama had been right when she mentioned how pale Midoriya was. The greenette had always been pale, probably due to constantly losing blood due to villain attacks and not having time to sufficiently recover before he threw himself into danger again, but upon rewinding the videos, Nezu could see that Midoriya's face had lost its colour the second Sayori's death scene had played.

Inui had suggested talking to him about it, but Midoriya didn't trust Inui, that much was obvious. And while Midoriya wasn't the type of person to lie, if he didn't want to speak, he would just clam up and not say a single word. And while the teachers did suspect that Midoriya had attempted suicide before, Nezu was the only one with concrete proof from Midoriya himself that he had attempted it on several occasions; if Inui tried to handle Midoriya's case, it definitely wouldn't turn out well.

There was a knock on the door, and Nezu's ears perked up. It was only eight in the morning, and usually, the teachers spent their weekends sleeping in, unless there were meetings planned days in advance. Of course, most of them had probably woken up to check the video that the kids had posted, and had most likely gone back to sleep to deal with it when they were more alive.

Confused, the principal called out, "Come in?"

The door opened, and Nezu found Midoriya standing outside his door. The kid closed the door behind him gently, before his eyes were immediately fixated on something in the corner of his office, and Midoriya immediately made a beeline towards it.

In his confusion, Nezu tried to figure out what had gotten Midoriya's attention, and turned around, spotting the bean bag in the corner of his office. The animal principal had noticed that the students in all the dorms were always using the bean bags, and while he did know that kids liked bean bags, he didn't expect them to spend pretty much all their time sitting in them, so the principal had gotten one for himself to try it out. He had to admit, it was rather comfortable, and he had nearly fallen asleep sitting in it; the bean bag was practically like a bed to him.

He watched as Midoriya practically dove into the bean bag; It was odd, seeing Midoriya act so... impulsively. Midoriya always thought about his movements carefully, calculating the best course of action before he did anything. He very rarely acted on instinct; the only times he had done so was when he was panicking and wasn't aware of his surroundings; and from what Nezu could tell from all the video feeds from his elementary and middle school, Midoriya had always been suppressing the urge to attack his bullies whenever they attacked him, mostly just letting them do as they please to avoid getting into even more trouble with his teachers.

Midoriya kneaded the bean bag around as he curled up, giving Nezu some time to observe his adoptive son. Compared to the video, Midoriya looked even paler, but it could just be because of the lighting, and his eye bags stood out even more. And oddly enough, Reiko and Ryuto weren't with him.

Suddenly, Midoriya seemed to remember that he wasn't alone, and that Nezu was also in the room. The boy glanced up at the principal, before looking away apologetically, "... sorry..."

Nezu gave a small chuckle, and settled down on the couch nearest to the bean bag, reaching his paw out to ruffle Midoriya's hair, "It's alright. You looked tired. Is something bothering you?"

Midoriya stared out of the window for a good minute, thinking, before he turned his gaze back to Nezu, "We... played a game yesterday..."

He had half-expected Midoriya to just shake his head and remain quiet, but he was pleasantly surprised when Midoriya had spoken up; it just really made him happy that his pup was actually trying to reach out for help.

"Yes? Go on..." Nezu gently encouraged the boy, "Take your time."

Midoriya paused, opting to stare at the ground before he continued, "It... bothered me... a lot. There was... this girl... who hung herself... and this other girl that stabbed... herself to death... I just... I don't know..."

The boy curled in on himself, seemingly unsure with how to continue; Midoriya was never good with emotions, or feeling in general. Still, Shuzenji knew about him self-harming, and Nezu knew about his previous suicide attempts. Between the two, Midoriya was definitely much more comfortable with Nezu than he was with Shuzenji.

"I feel... weird." Midoriya finally managed to say, although he figured it was stupid since "weird" was a relative term and probably didn't describe anything at all, "I feel... sick... but I'm not sick..."

"That's alright." Nezu replied, "We saw the gameplay. I'm sure you're not the only one who feels unsettled by a game like that."

"But... I shouldn't..." Midoriya admitted, "... I mean... I did it before... It's not like... it's anything new to me..."

Nezu gently patted Midoriya's head; the greenette didn't seem to mind it too much, "Izuku, you're still a child; no one is expecting you to be shouldering everything on your own. This world is unfair to you, and you were forced to grow up too soon, forcing you to take on burdens that you shouldn't be shouldering. It's normal to get upset, Izuku, and it's okay to feel that way. We just need some time to get over it. And I'm just glad you trust me enough to tell me about stuff like this, it really means a lot."

Midoriya's head shot up, gazing at him with an expression that looked to be a mixture of mild surprise and sadness, before he turned away, clearly not knowing how to react to a reply like that. If he was being that expressive, then he must be really tired; though given the game they had played, Nezu wouldn't be too surprised if Midoriya hadn't slept a wink. He wondered how many of the kids would need some form of therapy after playing a game like that.

"If it's... not too much of a bother... can I... stay a while..?" Midoriya hesitantly spoke up again, started to knead the bean bag again in his nervousness, and Nezu let out a small smile, hopping off the couch.

"Of course you can." Nezu gently wrapped his arms around Midoriya, giving his pup a hug, "I'll just be here, doing some more paperwork. You can stay as long as you like."

* * *

Togata burst into the 1-A dorms, "Hey! Morning!"

The sleepy 1-A students returned his enthusiastic greeting, and Togata laughed, "I saw your gameplay this morning!"

Hado bounded in after him, "The game was so scary! It kind of shocked me too! But you guys finished it!"

Reiko let out a whine and walked up to Togata, pawing at the blonde's leg.

"Reiko? Did you need something?" Togata asked, as Shinsou sighed, "Izuku wasn't in his room, and we have no idea where he is. We tried asking Aizawa-sensei, but he doesn't know either."

"Izuku is missing?" Eri asked, peeking out from behind Togata, as the blonde grinned, "Don't worry about him! I'm sure Midoriya's fine!"

Togata's grin faltered slightly, "He's fine... right?"

"I... hope so..." Shinsou muttered, recalling the events of the previous night, as Kirishima trudged to the kitchen for some breakfast, before noticing Eri, "Eri! I didn't think we'd see you again so soon!"

Eri shyly waved as Uraraka, who had fallen asleep while eating her toast, woke up, noticing the girl, "Oh... hi Eri!"

"We're going to take care of her here at UA." Aizawa sighed, stepping into the dorms, "She can't stay in the hospital forever. I'll explain more when we figure out where Midoriya is -"

The door creaked open, and everyone turned around, seeing Midoriya entering the dorms as he closed the door behind him.

"Where were you, Problem child?" Aizawa asked, and he thought he saw a small scowl flash across Midoriya's face, though he wasn't sure if he imagined it or not. Either way, he probably should stop calling him that.

_"With Nezu." _Midoriya signed; he had tried to take a nap in Nezu's office, thinking that being in a comforting presence would ease his nerves, but to no avail. He wasn't really in the mood to get dissed by his homeroom teacher.

Reiko let out a whine, and padded over to Midoriya, and the greenette picked her up. Ryuto fluttered up onto his shoulder, nuzzling the boy, as Aizawa nodded, "I see. Anyways, Eri will be staying with us in UA. Hado, I don't think Eri's had breakfast yet, maybe you can fix some up for her?"

"Yes sir!" Hado grinned, immediately understanding what Aizawa wanted, and gently led Eri to the kitchen, and Aizawa sighed, "Basically... Eri's been abandoned by her parents, and currently, her only known blood relative is the head of the Eight Precepts, but he's been in a coma for a long time. Eri has nowhere to go, and the source of her quirk, her horn, is slowly growing bigger. So we're taking care of her instead of sending her to an orphanage, and we'll help her find a way to live a proper life with her powers. She's familiar with some of you, so there may be occasions where we are on missions and you'll have to take care of her."

"Got it., Aizawa-sensei!" Kirishima grinned, "We can do that!"

"Right." Aizawa sighed, "You guys can do whatever now, but you have guests later."

* * *

Apparently, their guests were the Pussycats, who had decided to stop by for a visit after dinner. Sosaki handed Ashido some buns in the shapes of cat paws, which the girls found adorable and were really excited about, and Midoriya walked into the common room, having returned from the bathroom after practically emptying his insides out from dinner.

It wasn't that dinner was bad; Sato was a great cook. Midoriya's stomach was just refusing to cooperate with him. Maybe that was why he was so grumpy today, with the lack of sleep and the constant throwing up, though he did his best not to show it.

The Pussycats were going to be coming off their hiatus, though Shiretoko would be stuck doing office work, which Midoriya personally found very insulting. As far as he knew, Shiretoko was a decent fighter, and while she no longer had a quirk to find out her opponents' weaknesses, that didn't mean she was completely useless in battle.

Then again, this was a fucked up quirk filled society. All people, even heroes, were reliant on their quirks, with a few notable exceptions like Shinsou, Uraraka, and Koda.

Then, the Pussycats revealed that they had decided to start up operations again due to their rankings on the Hero Billboard Chart JP.

Midoriya found the idea of the Hero Billboard Chart JP to be absolutely ridiculous. Sure, the idea of having rankings itself was stupid, and it was like having grades in school; no one cares if you come in first or last, you just have to make sure you pass the stupid exams. Rankings were the real reason why heroes sometimes butt into flights when they are unneeded, or why there was some eternal conflict between some heroes, like with Enji and Yagi.

But needing to host an entire event just to display these rankings were just plain dumbassery on the Hero Commission's part. Not only was it a huge waste of time, but each time they hosted the event, the top heroes were forced to participate instead of doing their jobs. Crimes and villain attacks always skyrocketed on the day of the Hero Billboard Chart JP, but apparently, the Hero Commission never seems to get the memo and still continues to host a useless event that wastes everyone's time.

Who cared about rankings? Heroes' jobs were to save people, not look good for the media. In fact, the media themselves are almost like the villains in this society; they corrupt heroes, they sometimes butt into situations before they are resolved, distracting the heroes and resulting in the escape of a villain or more collateral damage, or they're just plain fucking stupid and don't run away from a villain attack, which gives the heroes more factors to consider while trying to detain criminals.

Midoriya didn't want to stick around for the broadcast of the Hero Billboard Chart JP, which his classmates were playing on television, but it would be rude to just walk away when everyone else seemed to be having fun and kill the mood. Plus, Kota was there, and he didn't want to set a bad example for the small boy.

He just curled up in his bean bag, and tried to fall asleep, hoping that his body would just cooperate with him and let him rest.


	102. Chapter 102 - Walk in a straight line

_**A/N Okay, starting from here on out, THERE WILL BE MANGA SPOILERS!**_

_**READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.**_

* * *

Midoriya just stared at his homework, his fingers twitching erratically. The words were all blurring together into a huge, unintelligible mess of black scribbles, and Midoriya sighed, rubbing his eyes blearily. He was completely drained, he barely slept a wink in the past week, but even with all the physical training that he was putting himself through during their training sessions, he was still unable to sleep.

He was hoping that he could go out and do some at Sasaki's agency to try and work off all the excess energy, but Sasaki was currently working on a new case for the Hero Commission and temporarily stopped both him and Togata from going on patrols. They were still interning under him, but they were just restricted to desk work until Sasaki had a good idea of what was going on.

Yamada had caught him losing focus in class once, rubbing his eyes one too many times to try and look at the board properly, and had sent him to Shuzenji to get his eyes checked.

Shuzenji found no problems with his eyes, though she did guess that his blurred vision was due to his exhaustion, leaving Midoriya no choice but to admit that he hasn't been sleeping properly. She did offer him some sleeping medication, but Midoriya had politely declined; he didn't want to be forced to sleep, and he doubted that he would feel rested anyways.

It didn't help that he was also throwing up pretty much anything he ate. His classmates' cooking, whatever takeouts that the class ordered to the dorms whenever no one was in the mood to cook, or even just instant noodles; no more than five minutes after he was finished, he would make a trip to the bathroom to expel everything from his stomach. He couldn't even drink coffee anymore without the risk of him puking it all up.

Midoriya wasn't too worried though. It wasn't like this was the first time its happened; just that it had never been this bad before. But regardless, it should pass sooner or later; he'd just have to hold up until then and catch up on his sleep later.

Midoriya took another look at his worksheet, before sweeping it off his desk. He slumped against his table, exhausted, as Reiko chirped, patting him on the cheek comfortingly. Ryuto was playing with his hair, as Yuwai sat on his desk, nibbling on some lettuce; it had been Koda's turn to go grocery shopping, and had asked Midoriya to take care of the rabbit while he was out.

Midoriya didn't really mind too much; Koda was a nice guy, and Yuwai got along pretty well with Ryuto and Reiko. His only problem currently was that he was far too tired to do just about anything. Maybe he should take up Shuzenji's offer for sleeping medications, or maybe ask Shinsou to use his quirk to force him to sleep.

There was some commotion downstairs, and accepting the fact that he wasn't going to be able to do his homework anyways, Midoriya put his pen down, and exited his room, leaving it open in case one of the animals decided to join him.

He took the stairs down, and made his way to the common room, only to find Enji fighting some Nomu.

* * *

Something about the fight was really bothering Midoriya, and it wasn't about the fact that Enji was getting beaten up by a Nomu; he couldn't care less about that. If Enji wanted to prove he was capable of being the Number One hero, he'll find some way to take it down, and while Enji was a brash person, he wasn't stupid; he'll figure something out, somehow.

The problem was that Midoriya couldn't stop comparing this Nomu to Kurogiri, the teleporter of the League of Villains.

As far as he knew, the Nomus seemed to be classified, in some way, according to colour. There had been a few Nomus in Hosu when he fought Stain, as well as during the attack on the school camp, but as far as he knew, those Nomus were of a lighter colour, like beige and light aquamarine. The hulking Nomu that Shigaraki had claimed to be able to take down Yagi was dark purple, almost black, and this Nomu, the one that was currently smacking Enji into a building, was also almost black in colour.

Almost as if it was trying to prove his point, the Nomu released several light grey and beige Nomus, but Hawks and the other heroes at the scene were able to deal with those much more easily.

Kurogiri shared the dark colour scheme, being made up of dark purple mist.

The Nomu that Enji was facing seemed to have some form of regeneration, but that Nomu from the attack on UA had that ability too, so it wasn't too special. It also had a few other quirks, like muscle augmentation, which wasn't too special either, but it did have some kind of jets mounted on its body, and some sort of storage quirk.

One thing was for certain; this one was smarter than all the other ones they had faced so far. Enji had tried to use one of his Super Moves to obliterate the Nomu faster than it could regenerate, but apparently, it managed to find some way to avoid getting incinerated, and struck back; Midoriya wasn't too sure what it did with all the smoke and the shaky video camera.

This Nomu talked, it had the ability to think on its own, and had impressive deductive skills to make up its own strategies.

Just like Kurogiri.

His brain blocked out all the screaming and panicking civilians, watching the fight intensely as Enji and Hawks grappled with the Nomu, to no avail. Somehow, Enji managed to grab hold onto it, and used what looked like Hawks' feathers to push himself high into the sky.

Though the television, though it was really shaky, Midoriya caught a glimpse of the Nomu, with its hood peeled off, revealing its exposed brain, and glowing yellow eyes.

His mind was running a mile a minute. All the Nomus had exposed brains, and this higher-tier Nomu was no exception. He had no concrete proof that Kurogiri was a Nomu, in fact, he highly doubted it, seeing how intelligent the villain was, but Kurogiri had yellow, glowing eyes, just like the Nomu that Enji had fought.

Nomus were more like zombies, mindless beings that only listened to orders, though this Nomu seemed to be the only one who didn't share that trait. They had no concept of pain, and having such a huge portion of the brain exposed is definitely bad for any living body; it would damage a major blood vessel, and that would probably kill most people -

_Were they previously dead?_

Sure, he had no concrete proof that Kurogiri had an exposed brain, but his entire body was covered in mist. And while most of the Nomus did wear pants, none of them carried any weapons or armour. None of the other members of the League themselves had much equipment either, except that huge magnet from the deceased Hikiishi, and the ridiculous amount of weapons that Iguchi had.

Kurogiri wore a metal neck brace. _Did he snap his neck before?_

Midoriya exhaled slightly, and closed his eyes, trying to process all of his thoughts as a headache started building in his head, probably due to his lack of sleep. He could vaguely sense that Todoroki had squatted down in relief that his father had won, and his classmates were trying to comfort him. Midoriya wasn't good at anything that required emotions, and opted to drown himself in his thoughts; they had two and a half more years until they graduated. Until the League was taken down, the ones who would have to deal with all these Nomus would be them.

And they would only get stronger and stronger. And smarter. He wasn't sure if Koda's quirk would work on them, but if they could speak, then Shinsou could use his quirk to possibly brainwash them. Todoroki could burn them up, Uraraka can use her quirk to punt the Nomus into the sun, Kaminari could shock them senseless and overload their brains, Bakugou could just blast them to bits - almost everyone had some way to counter the Nomus. Maybe they couldn't outrightly defeat them, but they had different abilities that would definitely allow them to draw out a fight to wait for reinforcements.

Midoriya had nothing. He couldn't outspeed or overpower a Nomu, and he didn't have any ranged attacks that could do anything against a Nomu. Sure, he could analyze them, but what was his analysis good for if the Nomu could just pick him off before he even had a chance to catch a glimpse of the monstrous being?

No, he needed to find another way to counter these hulking beasts.

Midoriya knew he couldn't just sneak out to analyze the Nomus; he'd probably die. Plus, it was also a little fishy that the Nomu attacked right when Hawks and Enji happened to be in the same area, but it was already a week after the Hero Billboard Chart JP, and it could just be a coincidence.

If it were up to Midoriya to guess, then All for One could have used his quirk to force several quirks into an individual's body, but given that he was already captured and was currently residing in Tartarus long before this new kind of Nomu appeared, then there should be some way other than using All for One's quirk to make Nomus.

Then there was the fact that none of the other members of the League would be able to make Nomus anyways. Toga, Hikiishi, Dabi, Iguchi, Bubaigawara, and Sako joined the League after Akaguro's arrest, and the Nomus had made their debut right before that, so they were out of the question. Shigaraki was definitely not the one helping out with the creation of Nomus, with that personality of his, and Kurogiri seemed to just be focused on protecting Shigaraki.

There were probably some other members of the League that they didn't know about, and Midoriya didn't have any leads at all, but at least, he had somewhere to start; Shigaraki seemed to be about twenty, so he should start by investigating all the people who had died within the past twenty years, and then expand his search if he didn't find anything conclusive.

But first, he had to finish his homework.

* * *

"Err... has Midoriya seemed... a bit... off?" Ectoplasm raised an eyebrow, and asked.

"I mean, he's rubbing his eyes a lot?" Yamada replied, "And he's pretty pale? And his handwriting is... messier than usual?"

"But with everything going on, I think everyone's kind of stressed." Kayama sighed, "That Nomu fight last week did cause a lot of damage, but at least all the media attention shifted off Midoriya's quirklessness to whether Endeavor can take All Might's place as the Number One hero. Did something happen, Ecto?"

Ectoplasm blinked, "Midoriya got ninety-five percent on his math quiz."

"That is a bit odd; Midoriya is usually good in maths... but he could be careless..." Aizawa offered, and Ectoplasm sighed, "He missed out two whole questions in the middle of the test paper. If it really is carelessness... I have no idea how he managed to do that."

"Come to think of it... he does seem to be lost in his thoughts rather often..." Kayama mused, "I mean, he's still doing really well for homework and stuff... but his mind seems to be occupied with something else."

"I'm blaming that game." Aizawa growled under his breath, "Hound Dog, has any of the students talked to you about it?"

Inui nodded, "Yeah, woof. Some of them have, but most of them have gotten over it already. I haven't talked to Midoriya, but.. you know... I doubt he would come and talk to me."

"True..." Snipe sighed, "Maybe his math quiz is just a one time thing."

"Come to think of it..." Yagi muttered, "Young Midoriya does seem to get tired a lot faster than usual, though that also goes for everyone. I just thought that he was pushing himself too much... but he looks like he hasn't slept for days..."

"But either way, we should still keep an eye on him." Yamada spoke up, "It's not good for his health. He looks like he could pass out at any moment."

* * *

Midoriya slammed his hand onto the table, and groaned. He had another headache the previous night, and had tried to go to sleep, but his brain just refused to let him rest.

Instead of just lying around and doing nothing, he tried to find out everything he could about every single person in Japan who had died in the past twenty years and their quirks, but he was just getting nowhere. Most of the quirks were pretty generic; regeneration, healing, elementals, muscle augmentation. They weren't special, and there were way too many people with quirks like that littered all over the world, both dead and alive.

Midoriya reached up, and massaged his temples, trying to reduce the pounding sensation in his head. It had actually gotten worse after all his hours of staring at his laptop and making notes about deceased people, and now, it was pounding so viciously that he felt like his head was going to split apart.

Grabbing his mouse, Midoriya tried his best to ignore his headache, and continued searching, when finally, something caught his eye.

_Shirakumo Oboro. Quirk: Cloud._

Finally, something that wasn't a damned elemental quirk, a muscle augmenting quirk, or had to do with healing.

Midoriya continued reading. Apparently, this Shirakumo guy had been a student in UA, and coincidentally, had been in the same year group as Yamada and Aizawa. His quirk allowed him to make clouds, but he had died before he even finished his second year, so his quirk wasn't very well documented.

Midoriya felt like he finally found something, he had no idea what to make of it.

Maybe he should question his teachers about him. But that would have to wait until later. They had classes soon, and his brain felt like it was going to explode.

His entire body was aching, and as much as Midoriya hated to spend a lot of time in the shower, he had tried to soak himself in the tub with warm water to try and relieve his sore, tense muscles, but to no avail.

His stomach wasn't helping the situation either. It just refused to let him eat anything without resulting in him puking everything back up. Midoriya had no idea what was going on, but he just ignored it; if he wasn't going to die from it now, then he didn't have to think about it. It could wait until later.

For now, he'll just have to continue researching and analyzing.

* * *

The entire day was practically hell.

His head was pounding like a jackhammer throughout the entire day, and Midoriya could barely process what his teachers were teaching. It didn't help that they had English lessons, and Yamada had been practically screaming for his entire lesson

"Midoriya."

The green haired boy looked up, hearing his name being called, as Aizawa continued talking. He caught something about changing teams, and vaguely understood that he was supposed to be helping 1-A for the first round, then the last team of 1-B... or something? Aizawa's reasoning was that his main fighting style was adapting to better support his allies and to be more troublesome for opponents, but it wouldn't be fair to him if he fought in every fight without taking a break.

Midoriya just groaned internally. His limbs felt heavy, his head felt like it was being stuffed with cotton, everything was simultaneously too loud and too soft at the same time for him to process anything.

He watched as Aizawa and Kan gave instructions to the rest of his classmates, splitting them up into teams, before the Erasure hero told him to join one of the teams.

* * *

_You're overthinking..._

_Shut up. I know that._

The first fight had ended, and 1-A had won, but Midoriya really had no recollection of what was going on. He vaguely remembered Asui talking about using her mucus to trick Shishida, and using Kaminari as a decoy for _something_, but there was always this little, nagging voice at the back of his head, spitting out the weaknesses of both his opponents and allies, but his head was just hurting too much for him to process any of it to make a plan.

"Midoriya, great job, kero." Asui smiled at him, and Kaminari gave him a thumbs up, "Yeah! You took down Rin with no trouble at all!"

Midoriya blinked. He didn't even know if he had fought anyone; his head was foggy, and even breathing felt difficult, almost reminiscent _of that time he tried to hang himself -_

All his muscles were aching like _he had just fallen off a forty story building-_

_Stop that. I don't want to think about stuff like that._

_You say that, Deku... but you know that I'm still you... We want the same thing..._

Midoriya just followed his classmates back to the others to reflect on the match.

* * *

The greenette took a gulp of water, before following his new teammates back to the area where they were supposed to fight in; Midoriya didn't even know which gym they were in right now. There had been three more fights before the current one, and while Midoriya was pretty sure he had been staring at the television to watch the matches, Midoriya really couldn't recall what had happened.

Huh. That was weird. Fuzzy memory was normal whenever this happened, but having absolutely no recollection of what had happened was new.

Rubbing his eyes, Midoriya tried to figure out who was fighting. His team from 1-B consisted of Monoma, Shoda, Kodai and Yanagi, while the 1-A team had Uraraka, Ashido, Mineta, and Shinsou.

Shoda, Kodai, and Monoma's quirks needed contact to be used, though Monoma could easily copy his teammates' quirks before the round started. Yanagi could telekinetically manipulate objects and -

His head was pounding.

_Let me think, damn it._

_Stop thinking so much. You don't need a strategy, just beat them all up. Tear them apart._

_My friends are strong. I don't want to lose... __I don't want to be useless..._

"Midoriya, are you okay?" Kodai asked, noticing the pained expression on his face, but Midoriya just nodded in response. Monoma had gone ahead to try and distract Shinsou, since his Artificial Vocal Cords and Brainwashing quirk made it risky to communicate. It would have been easier if 1-A had a powerhouse on their side, but given that they had a mind controller, someone who could alter gravity, and two others who could alter the terrain, they had to be cautious.

Midoriya was pretty sure that Shinsou could take Monoma out in a one to one fight; Monoma wasn't a bad fighter, but Shinsou was less reliant on his quirk and had more combat experience. But given that the blonde was more reliant on the element of surprise when it came to which quirks he had access too, and he could copy three extremely versatile quirks that complimented each other nicely, so Midoriya wasn't too sure.

Either way, they had to take care of Uraraka, Mineta, and Ashido first. Mineta had apparently tied several of his purple orbs together to try and snag one of his teammates, but Yanagi and Kodai quickly took care of it with their quirks. Shoda looked around, seemingly having a rough idea of the location of their opponents, though they still weren't sure how to properly proceed.

Yanagi levitated a barrage of objects and sent them in 1-A's direction, with Shoda keeping track of them, but for some reason, their projectiles were disappearing.

_Must be Ashido._

They sent another barrage of attacks at 1-A, with Kodai using her quirk to throw their opponents off, while Shoda activated his quirk to further disorientate them. But this didn't seem to bother 1-A too much, and Ashido charged out, flinging acid to dissolve the projectiles before they could hit.

Shoda immediately threw a projectile at her, activating Twin Impact, but Mineta leapt in, using his quirk to trap the debris, before Ashido threw him at 1-B, letting the small boy bounce off all the sticky orbs that the area was littered with. He was moving too quickly, and 1-B could barely dodge him, and for good measure, he pulled out more orbs and threw them all over the place, making it even harder to evade.

Midoriya just hid at the side, trying to think. Everything was fuzzy, and he could barely hear anything over the roaring buzz in his head.

_What should I do... I can't keep up with a speed like that... and if I try to attack directly... I can't throw knives or they might end up hitting my teammates... and I can't take out Ashido since she has acid and she can melt me... my make-shift capture weapon doesn't work either due to Mineta too..._

_What can I do?_

His head was starting to pound even more violently, and Midoriya clutched his head in pain.

_You don't want to be useless, right? You're just standing around, watching your teammates struggle..._

_Shut up. Let me think._

_You want to win, right? But all this time... you've never been fighting properly. We've been conflicting... you've never put all your concentration into a fight... Work with me... Deku._

_I'm not Deku. I'm not useless._

_Then prove that to yourself. Prove that you're not useless._

Almost instantly, his headache faded away into nothingness, and the fuzziness faded away. He could see just how Mineta ricocheted off his orbs, how Shoda was trying to read Mineta's movements, how Yanagi was slowly picking out items to levitate, trying to use them to catch some of Mineta's orbs.

_Now._

Midoriya jumped into the fray, elegantly twisting over Mineta as he bounced around. The greenette pushed himself off the wall, as Mineta seemed to notice him and threw a few sticky orbs in his direction, trying to take him out of the fight first; 1-A knew how good Midoriya was, and along with a disadvantage in numbers, they knew that they had to take Midoriya out first.

_Perfect._

Midoriya twisted in midair, avoiding all the sticky orbs, and threw out a bunch of knives, lodging them into the walls. He glanced at Yanagi, before he leapt at one of the orbs Mineta had left sticking on the walls.

Yanagi immediately readied her quirk; those emerald eyes glowing in the shadows, were practically screaming _"Do it"_.

Yanagi quickly elevated a projectile and attached it to the sticky orb, covering it up and allowing Midoriya to use its natural springiness to ricochet off it, just like Mineta had done. Except now, he had much more mobility, since he could kick off any kind surface, and was not limited to just the areas with orbs stuck onto them, like Mineta. All he needed was a foothold, whether it be from his knives, the ground, Yanagi's projectiles, or Mineta's own orbs, given that Yanagi covered them up first.

His head was clear, he could see everything; he could see all the projectiles that Yanagi was elevating, he could see Shoda using his quirk on some more projectiles, and in the moment of distraction, Kodai had escaped, and was now trying to climb upwards to get a better vantage point.

"Midoriya!" Shoda yelled, throwing a projectile at him, and Midoriya kicked off of it just as Shoda activated Twin Impact, changing his course mid-air and propelling him forwards even faster. He collided into Mineta, knocking him off course, before rebounding. Kodai was trying to trap Uraraka, but she kept levitating, everything that the black haired girl was dropping on her. Midoriya twisted around elegantly, shoving his shoulder against Uraraka, and with that distraction, Yanagi quickly knocked her out with a well-aimed hit on the head.

"Go help Monoma, Midoriya!" Shoda yelled, using Twin Impact on another projectile to get Midoriya to the blonde quicker, while Ashido tried to melt all the projectiles that Yanagi had thrown at her. However, in conjunction with Kodai's quirk, they were quickly able to subdue her.

Midoriya sped in the direction where 1-A had been heading towards; Monoma had gone ahead of them to subdue Shinsou, so it was likely that the others were heading in that direction to help the purple haired boy.

_Was he really that useless?_

His head started aching again, but he managed to find Monoma and Shinsou still staring each other down. Shinsou couldn't really use his capture weapon, lest Monoma started controlling it by using Poltergeist, and Shinsou couldn't use his quirk since Monoma wasn't dumb and didn't respond to whatever the lavender haired boy said. He was just dodging all the projectiles Monoma threw at him, opting to keep his distance for now.

"What, are you that scared of me?" Shinsou taunted, sticking his tongue out playfully for good measure, but Monoma just smirked back, picking up some more projectiles and flinging them at Shinsou with Poltergeist and Twin Impact. He knew that Shinsou was just playing a waiting game, trying to stall out his quirk to use his capture weapon, and it was actually working, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw some green, and his smirk widened.

Midoriya had seemed a bit off all day (very off, if the blonde was being honest), but Monoma supposed that he had managed to figure out what was wrong and cleared his head.

Shinsou just seemed to notice Midoriya presence, and had turned slightly so that he could keep an eye on both opponents, but Midoriya just leapt at him directly. Shinsou lashed out with his capture weapon on instinct, yanking Midoriya upwards, but Midoriya just grabbed onto the capture weapon firmly, using that momentum to flip around, smashing his elbow into Shinsou's shoulder blade.

The lavender haired boy let out a yelp in pain, but Midoriya wasn't done; he twisted around, locking his thighs around Shinsou's neck, and leaned backwards harshly, supporting the rest of his body with his hands as he completely flipped the taller boy over, slamming him into the ground.

"Oww..." Shinsou groaned, sprawled on the ground as he rubbed his head where it had made contact with the floor, and Monoma almost felt sorry for him; Midoriya's last attack was pretty brutal.

But they had a match to win.

"You okay there, you little petunia?" Monoma mocked, walking up to the dazed boy, as Shinsou pushed himself up, muttering, "Fuck you."

"Nah, not interested, save that for little greeny over there." Monoma smirked jokingly, patting Shinsou on the shoulder and copying his Brainwashing quirk while pointing to Midoriya, who was behind him. The lavender haired boy took some time to process what the blonde has said, before his eyes widened in realisation, spluttering, "Excuse me, what -"

Monoma laughed as he activated Shinsou's quirk, ordering him to stand up and march to the jail cell, while Midoriya tried to control the headache that had started to act up again.

* * *

The exercise finally ended, and Midoriya really wished that the teachers would just shut up and end the lesson so that he could go back to his room and try to sleep, though he had a feeling that his body was out to get him and would just refuse to let him sleep this stupid headache off. Yagi occasionally butted in to give his two cents, and Kayama's microphone was really not helping his situation.

It wasn't fun having a headache for two weeks straight, constantly throwing up all his food and not being able to eat for three weeks, and muscle aches and cramps that never seemed to go away despite his best attempts.

Aizawa and Kan were explaining something to the class; Midoriya really had absolutely no idea what was going on anymore. His entire body felt weak, his mind was cloudy, everything going on around him seemed fuzzy.

He could barely see straight; who was that who was standing in front of him? Monoma? Kaminari? Bakugou? Or was it not even a blonde at all? Was there even someone in front of him?

Midoriya felt a familiar urge to throw up, and bit his lip, trying to do his best to push the nauseous feeling down. He managed to do so, albeit barely, before he covered his mouth, letting out a small cough, and pain shot through his entire body from the movement.

Midoriya heard something, but he wasn't too sure if someone was even talking to him in the first place, and tried to respond either way, but another bolt of white-hot pain flared through his entire being, forcing him to cough even more.

His body shook, his vision turned blurry, and his mind turned dark.

* * *

Shinsou rubbed his head where it had impacted the ground; that really did hurt. He didn't hold it against Midoriya though; it was a really good move. Maybe if the greenette was up to it, he could ask Midoriya to teach him that move.

He did find it odd that Midoriya seemed thoroughly exhausted after the first battle; his movements had been sloppy, and he was panting heavily after the short match, but Shinsou just chalked it down to Midoriya trying to get used to the colder temperature. And for some reason, Midoriya was like Todoroki, exuding some sort of heat despite the cold, though it was nowhere as warm as Todoroki's left side, so he probably had higher metabolism and was burning through more resources to keep giving off heat.

Plus, Midoriya seemed to have cleared his head during the last battle. Maybe he was just worried about something.

Monoma turned around as Aizawa was speaking, smirking cheekily, and Shinsou just huffed grumpily, subtly giving the blonde a middle finger. Monoma just laughed under his breath, turning his attention back to the teachers, and Shinsou sighed; he really didn't want to think about what the blonde had said, even though he was sure that Monoma just said that to try and brainwash him.

He heard a small cough from beside him, and turned to Midoriya, noticing that the greenette was covering his mouth with one hand, trying to stifle a cough. Unlike all the other students, who had made subtle changes to their outfits due to the cold weather, Midoriya's hero costume had stayed largely the same; though to be fair, given how Midoriya had a speed-based fighting style, adding any more equipment or clothes would just slow him down, but that wasn't the important thing now.

"Izuku?" Shinsou turned to the smaller boy, "Izuku, are you alright?"

He wasn't too sure if the greenette had heard him, and Midoriya's emerald eyes flickered over to him for a second, before the boy just crumpled to the ground lifelessly.

"Hey! Izuku!" Shinsou yelped, barely managing to catch the boy before he fell, and he gently lowered the boy to the ground. His voice gained the attention of the other students and teachers, and Aizawa immediately rushed over, with Kan and Kayama behind him. The Erasure hero knelt down beside him, checking over Midoriya, "Shinsou, what happened?"

"I don't know..." Shinsou muttered, "He was coughing... I asked him if he was alright, then he just passed out on the spot."

Aizawa gritted his teeth; the boy was as pale as a sheet, his dark eyebags standing out prominently, and his breathing was heavy and uneven. The Erasure hero noticed that the boy had some blood on his lip, and quickly checked Midoriya's hand; the boy had taken off his gloves when the exercise had ended, shoving them in his pocket, and Aizawa could see blood on the boy's pale palm.

The teacher frowned; Midoriya had barely gotten hit at all in either of his fights, so there should be no reason for him to be coughing up blood. Something else was going on, and Midoriya's health was deteriorating; how did they not notice it sooner!?

"Vlad King, I'm going to take him to Recovery Girl. Just wrap up the lesson. Shinsou, Iida, Uraraka, Koda, Todoroki, you guys are closer to Midoriya, stop by the infirmary when Vlad King is done. And grab Reiko and Ryuto, I think Midoriya left them in the dorms to take care of Bakugou's dog." Aizawa gently picked the unconscious boy up, and hurried out of Gym Gamma, making a beeline straight towards the infirmary.


	103. Chapter 103 - Map to a one man maze

"He's caught a cold, and he's running a rather high fever, though having a higher than normal body temperature is, oddly enough, pretty normal for him." Shuzenji sighed, "Not to mention, he's overworked himself to the point of collapsing. His body is completely drained of any energy. According to what you told me about the training exercise, Midoriya's been running on fumes for quite some time. His lapses of concentration in lessons? Being careless in tests and losing focus? His mind is trying to handle too many things at the same time, but his body doesn't have the energy to keep up."

Aizawa turned to the green haired boy, who was lying on one of the beds in the infirmary. He had a cold towel draped over his forehead, with an IV drip connected to his arm.

"If it's just that... why does he need an IV drip?" Aizawa asked, and Shuzenji sighed again, "Apparently, he's severely malnourished as well. He's still too light, and if he doesn't eat, he can't replenish the energy that he's using up."

Aizawa raised his eyebrow in confusion, "I'm fairly sure the boy has been eating. Hitoshi or Tenya would definitely come and tell me if he misses too many meals."

"Hey, Aizawa-sensei!" Uraraka called out, as she ran into the infirmary, with the others trailing behind her. They were still clad in their hero costumes, and had probably rushed here the second Kan let them out of the gym. Reiko let out a distressed rumble, reaching her paws out towards the bed, as Koda set her down gently, with Ryuto fluttering down from the boy's shoulder to nuzzle his human.

"How is he?" Shinsou asked, glancing at the unconscious boy worriedly, and Shuzenji replied, "He's sick, he's overworked himself, and he's suffering from severe malnutrition."

Iida took a few seconds to process everything she had said, before asking in confusion, "I can understand the first two points... the cold temperature in winter causes the flu virus to spread more readily, and I think some of our classmates were sneezing some time ago? Combined with Izuku's tendency to overwork... but malnutrition? I know he doesn't eat lunch... but he does join us every day for breakfast and dinner. And he does eat; some coffee and instant noodles, it's not a lot, but still... he is eating."

Upon hearing this, Shuzenji frowned; if the boy was eating, even if it was a little and unhealthy stuff like instant food, then he shouldn't be having this problem. Something else was wrong.

She asked, "What does he do after he eats?"

"Well... he washes his utensils, then he heads back to his room?" Koda offered, "But that's pretty normal for everyone else."

"He doesn't drink coffee anymore, though." Iida turned to his friends, "Izuku usually drinks coffee in the morning before eating instant noodles, but for the past two weeks, he hasn't drunk any. And oddly enough... he seems to be sleeping less..."

Shuzenji sighed heavily, "I'll have to ask him a few questions when he wakes up. Don't worry about him too much, you kids go back to the dorms and rest. I heard your training session today was rather strenuous."

* * *

Midoriya blearily opened his eyes.

His head was still hurting, like someone had taken a hammer and had directly smashed it into his skull over and over, and he let out a small groan in pain. The room he was in felt familiar, so he wasn't too panicked about that, but there was something on his forehead, and Midoriya tried to reach up to figure out what it was, when a person came into his view.

"Midoriya. How are you feeling?" Shuzenji asked, as Midoriya winced; her voice was just making his head hurt even more. The green haired boy was just too tired to do anything, not even to filter his thoughts, and shakily muttered, "... head... hurts..."

"I see..." Shuzenji replied, before speaking up again, "Would you like some painkillers?"

In most situations, Shuzenji wouldn't have asked, and would have given her patients some painkillers to help clear their head, but in Midoriya's case, she didn't want to; Midoriya clearly hated being drugged, and she didn't want to break the fragile trust that Midoriya put in her.

Midoriya nodded slightly and closed his eyes, not wanting to further aggravate the pounding sensation in his head, and Shuzenji gently injected a small dose of aspirin into his arm. It took some time for it to take effect, until the headache faded away into a dull throb at the back of his head.

Midoriya pushed himself up, blinking as he examined his surroundings.

"What do you remember?" Shuzenji asked, pulling a chair over so that she could sit down, and Midoriya replied, "... I... fighting... passed out?"

"Do you remember who you were fighting?" Shuzenji pressed on a bit more, and Midoriya frowned, ever so slightly, "Hitoshi?... and Monoma?"

"Midoriya, you were teamed up with Monoma, and you were fighting against Shinsou." Aizawa replied, sitting in the corner of the room, and Midoriya turned to face the Erasure Hero, so quickly that his head started to throb; how the hell did he _not_ notice the other man sitting there the entire time!?

"Okay... you said you had a headache, right?" Shuzenji asked, "How long have you been having headaches?"

Midoriya stared at her, almost like she was speaking a foreign language, before he stared at his fingers, like he was trying to count the number of days, before eventually replying, "... since Endeavor... Nomu... fight..."

Shuzenji blanched; that had been roughly two weeks ago.

"And... have you been experiencing anything else? Sleepless nights, diarrhoea, throwing up, or anything like that?"

Midoriya frowned again, still too tired to filter out his thoughts, "... muscle aches... can't sleep... and throwing up... breakfast and dinner..."

"Since when?" Shuzenji asked, and Midoriya stared at his hands again, thinking, "...Game night."

Aizawa froze; the class hadn't had a game night since they played that psychological horror game, and that had been three weeks ago, almost a month. That had to be one that Midoriya was talking about. This kid had been suffering for so long, and no one had even noticed; he had somehow been able to hide everything from Shuzenji, his teachers, and even his friends. No wonder the boy had been coughing out blood, and collapsing out of the blue; he had been starving himself for almost a month, not letting his body rest and recover.

Shuzenji seemed to have come to the same conclusion, and she quickly scribbled down some notes, "Alright... Midoriya."

The green haired boy turned to face the nurse, and she spoke up, "You're staying here for a few days. No lessons, no training, just take a break."

Midoriya looked like he was going to protest, but Shuzenji shook her head firmly, "No buts. You're not behind in lessons anyways, and you can't train if your body is just going to shut down. You're sick, you have a fever, you're overworking yourself, you're malnourished, and if you push yourself even more, you're going to break yourself to the point where I can't help you anymore. I don't like being firm with my patients, even more so with you, but I can't let you continue to destroy yourself. No homework, no research, no analysis, nothing. You're just going to lie here and rest."

Midoriya just slumped forward, staring back at the nurse emotionlessly, before turning away, rubbing his neck, not wanting to argue with the older lady.

Shuzenji's words weren't directed at him, but Aizawa flinched; he remembered getting scolded by the nurse when he was Midoriya's age, and man, it wasn't fun. Shuzenji was nice most of the time, but even the most stubborn of students wouldn't dare to disobey her when she ordered them to rest, and it seems like Midoriya was no exception.

"The kids couldn't get into your room, so they just grabbed some of your stuff that you didn't take out of the dryer." Aizawa held out a small bag, "If you feel like changing."

Midoriya just nodded, before he blinked blearily, rubbing his head, feeling a wave of dizziness rush over him. He flipped himself over gently, curling up around Reiko and Ryuto before falling back asleep.

Reiko nuzzled Midoriya gently, patting his forehead, before reaching a paw out to the towel that had fallen from his forehead, letting out a purr.

"I'll take care of that." Shuzenji grabbed the towel, and moved to the sink to rinse the towel in cool water, "Aizawa, you can leave now, but you might want to warn the other kids that not too many people should visit at a time; they're going to overwhelm the poor kid. I'll be talking to Lunch Rush about what food he might be able to handle, and I'll update Nezu."

* * *

"Good afternoon!" Uraraka cheerfully greeted, walking to the infirmary. Shuzenji swivelled around in her chair, noticing the other boys behind her, and asked, "Have you guys eaten lunch yet?"

"Yes, ma'am!" Iida looked like he was physically restraining himself from saluting, "I would not have let them come here without eating lunch!"

Uraraka and Koda just laughed at their class representative, as Shuzenji gestured towards the bed, "If you're looking for Midoriya, lucky for you, he just woke up around half an hour ago, and his fever went down a little. You'll probably have some time until the sleeping medication kicks in again and he goes back to sleep."

"Alright. Thanks, Recovery Girl." Shinsou replied, shifting over to where Midoriya's bed was. The boy had already changed out of his hero costume, and was drinking some lemon lime flavoured gatorade through one of those really curly straws; Midoriya seemed to prefer sour things, and Lunch Rush thought it'd be cute to give him one of those kiddie straws.

Midoriya looked up blearily, and tensed at the sound of their footsteps, and he blinked, peering at them in confusion. He squinted slightly, and it took him quite a bit of time to figure out who they were before he relaxed, turning his attention back to his drink while training his gaze on them.

"Is he okay?" Koda blinked at the sluggishness of Midoriya's reaction, and Shuzenji nodded, "He's fine. It's just the painkillers for his headache, and the other medications for his flu."

"That bad?" Todoroki asked, "I don't remember the medicine for the flu making me act like that..."

Shuzenji huffed, and countered, "Normally, you wouldn't go three weeks with the flu while pushing yourself past your limit, not sleeping properly and not having proper meals. Right now, he just needs to sleep more and let the medication do the rest."

Midoriya just eyed his friends, not really sure what they were talking about, but he was just comfortable, sitting in silence, in the presence of some familiar company.

It was a good ten minutes until a familiar wave of drowsiness washed over him, and Midoriya didn't bother stopping himself from yawning. He padded around on the bed, trying to make himself comfortable, before curled up, resting his head on his arm as he gazed up at his friends, before closing his eyes.

Noticing this, Iida lowered his voice, and they kept an eye on Midoriya while talking, not wanting to wake him up; Shuzenji said he needed to rest to let his body recover.

Midoriya muttered something unintelligibly in his sleep; with the combination of medicine and Midoriya's own exhaustion, he was probably too drained to have any idea of what he was doing.

"You're too cute for your own good." Shinsou muttered, gently running his fingers through Midoriya's emerald locks, and the greenette purred, unconsciously pressing his head against Shinsou's hand, silently demanding more head pats. The students had to leave soon, since lunch was ending, but Shinsou was more than happy to spend the rest of the time indulging the sleeping Midoriya with head pats.

They finally had no choice but to leave for lessons, and Shuzenji sighed, turning around to face the students, "Nezu popped by earlier, but Midoriya was still asleep before he was forced to rush off for another meeting. With so many things happening now... everything's getting hectic. Take care of yourselves, okay?"


	104. Chapter 104 - Thieves are left to drown

Midoriya just sat on his bed, playing with the hem of his shirt idly.

He had already been cooped up in the infirmary for four whole days, and he was bored, to say the least. He had literally nothing to do; Shuzenji wasn't letting him read anything, or even watch television, claiming that he'd find some way to analyze them, turning those relaxing activities into strenuous ones that would put more pressure on his mind.

He wasn't _that_ bad, right? He just had a lot on his mind and tons of stuff to do.

At least, Shuzenji said that she could let him out later, once classes had ended, since his fever had subsided a day ago. They found that his problem with throwing up was more to do with him being sick and stressed, rather than being some major issue with his stomach, but Midoriya still preferred to eat lighter meals that were easier to digest.

Apparently, Midoriya also seemed to like those jelly packets that Aizawa liked, so maybe the Erasure Hero was actually on to something.

At the moment, he was just waiting for his friends to come around; he actually really liked their presence, and it was literally the only thing he had to look forward to since Shuzenji wasn't letting him do anything else. They had come over during lunch, and Shuzenji said that once they came over after lessons, he was free to go back to the dorms.

In the meantime, he was just bored. Midoriya just opted to stare at the straw that Lunch Rush had given him with his Gatorade; he wasn't sure if it was the same for the first four days he had been in the infirmary, but there was a really curly straw stuck in his bottle.

He wasn't sure what was the point of it being so bendy, though. Sure, he understood having regular bendy straws so it was easier to drink from, but the bendy portion didn't have to be so long; it was just a waste of plastic.

"Stop trying to analyze the straw." Shuzenji sighed, looking like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or be exasperated with him, and Midoriya just took his attention to the open window, scratching Reiko behind her ears gently. Reiko let out a content purr, as Ryuto chirped, landing on the window still; like him, they were restless, and while Reiko seemed content enough running around the infirmary, Ryuto needed to stretch his wings.

Ryuto hopped back into the infirmary, shaking his feathers around, before he glided back to the bed, nuzzling the green haired boy. Midoriya gently ran his fingers through his soft feathers, as the sound of footsteps caught his attention. Midoriya perked up as his friends appeared by the doorway, and Iida smiled brightly, "Hello, Izuku! I'm glad you're feeling better now!"

Shuzenji sighed, "Remember, don't push yourself so much. I can't stop you from training, but please, take care of yourself."

Midoriya nodded, and Shinsou gave her a thumbs up, "Don't worry, we'll take really good care of him!"

The nurse just rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah. You have homework to finish, don't you?

"Yeah..." Todoroki muttered, "We should go back to the dorms and finish that first. You missed a few days of work."

They were just about to leave the room when Shuzenji spoke up, "Hold on. Iida, give me your phone; I'll give you my phone number."

The blue haired boy frowned in confusion, but he still complied, handing his phone over to the older lady. It didn't take too long for Shuzenji to give the phone back to the boy, "Your class, somehow, keeps getting into trouble, and you guys haven't started your first aid courses yet. If you need my assistance for minor injuries, or if you just have some health-related inquiries, you can just message me."

"Thank you!" Iida bowed upon getting his phone back, "I'll be sure to contact you should we need any assistance!"

"Don't worry about it; it's my job." Shuzenji turned back to her computer, "You kids take care of yourselves."

* * *

Since Todoroki had tatami mats, and he somehow had heated flooring, which was awesome in winter, they decided to study in Todoroki's room.

"Alright..." Iida fished out some worksheets from his bag, all neatly divided into folders of multiple colours, "I've been holding onto all of your homework. Present Mic-sensei and Ectoplasm-sensei withheld some of the homework, saying that you didn't really have to do them, but if you want, we can go talk to them about it."

Midoriya just mutely nodded, as he glanced through all the worksheets. When had Ectoplasm started on vectors? He swore Ectoplasm had just been teaching trigonometry. He didn't have a problem with vectors; his memory was just really fuzzy.

The greenette set aside the math homework, and peered over the rest of the subjects. They weren't stuff he wasn't familiar with, though he really didn't remember when the teachers had changed subjects, and it actually didn't take him too long to catch up on all his homework from four days of missing lessons, since there wasn't that much.

Uraraka sank back into her chair, trying to calculate some vectors, to no avail. Koda and Todoroki were peering at the textbook, trying to figure out how to solve the question, and Shinsou was just staring at his calculator in confusion. Midoriya leaned over, trying to see what they were stuck with, and the movement caught Uraraka's attention.

"Wait, you're done with everything already?" Uraraka sighed, leaning back into his chair, "I don't understand any of this..."

Midoriya reached out, grabbing Uraraka's worksheet, and read it over, before noticing she had used dot product instead of cross product. Frowning slightly, Midoriya glanced over everyone else's worksheets, only to realize that besides from Iida, they all had used the wrong type of multiplication.

"Cross multiplication." Midoriya muttered, grabbing the textbook and flipping to the right page, before giving it back to his friends, "Not dot."

Uraraka stared at her worksheet, "Oh... that really messy one that Ectoplasm-sensei just taught today... I don't get it, what does the cross product do again?"

Todoroki stared at his textbook, "Cross product is... uh... the interactions between different dimensions...?"

Everyone else seemed equally confused, and Iida and Midoriya did his best to try and explain the difference between the two vectors to the others. Once they understood the concept behind the vectors, it didn't take them too long to finish up their homework.

"Oh... I get it now..." Uraraka exclaimed, excitedly scribbling on her paper, "That makes much more sense! You guys are awesome! And we're all done!"

Iida was just smiling brightly, as Midoriya turned away, not really sure how to react to the compliment, trying to ignore that heady feeling rushed through his entire being.

"Well... Dinner is starting soon; I think we should get going." Shinsou muttered, neatly stuffing his worksheets into his bag, "I think it's soba today."

Todoroki's eyes lit up at the sound of that.

* * *

Midoriya trudged back to his room; he had eaten some dinner, and for once in what seemed like forever, his stomach wasn't complaining, and now, all he wanted to do was to shower, and just flop on his bed and sleep.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Iida asked, as Midoriya nodded mutely, pushing open his room door, switching on the lights, and just stared at the mess that was his room. He had papers with messy scrawls strewn all over the floor, and worn clothes lying all over the place, but the boy really didn't have that many possessions to create too big of a mess.

Midoriya just sighed, and placed his bag on the ground; he was going to have to clear this up before he went to bed, or he'd end up tripping over something in the middle of the night.

"Izuku... what's this?" Iida asked, shakily pointing up at a wall, and Midoriya looked up, training his gaze on what Iida was looking at.

"Nomu." Midoriya simply replied, collecting all the papers strewn about on the floor, categorizing them according to quirk types.

"Why do you have a sketch of... all the Nomus..." Shinsou muttered, his eyes trailing across the room, noticing the well-made sketches of the various Nomus that had appeared. There was that huge hulking Nomu from the attack on UA, all the light coloured ones from the Hosu attack, that black Nomu that Enji had been fighting, and for some reason, there was a sketch of Kurogiri pinned up to the wall.

Each Nomu had a list of quirks and strengths pinned up next to them, as well as any weaknesses that had been exploited in order to take them down.

"You spent the past three weeks analyzing them?" Shinsou glanced over all the well made sketches, "That's amazing."

Iida accidentally stepped on a piece of paper, and he pulled back his foot, picking up the piece of paper he had stepped on.

_Midoriya Izuku._

_Quirk: None_

_Strengths against Nomus: None_

_Chance of beating a Nomu alone: 0%_

_Chance of beating a Nomu alone, __considering support items etc: 0%_

_Comments: Too fast, too strong, too smart. Defeat is certain._

Frowning, Iida picked up more papers that were strewn on the ground.

"Izuku... What is this..." Iida stammered, reading through all the papers. There was a list of names of all their classmates, each with their list of strengths that could be used to take down or stall the Nomus, along with another set of sketches that included weapons and support items that could possibly be used to help take the Nomus down.

None of them had a "Chance of beating a Nomu alone" score of 0%. Even Hagakure and Mineta, with quirks that most likely the Nomus would just shrug off as minor inconveniences rather than as threats, had a very solid 5% chance of beating them without support items.

Somehow, Shinsou's analysis sheet had a very high chance of 80%, despite having a mental quirk; the Nomus couldn't even respond, and while Iida had no doubts in Shinsou's abilities, he somehow had a higher score than Bakugou and Todoroki, both who had very solid, powerful quirks, and according to Midoriya's analysis, they each had a 50% chance of beating the Nomus.

And while Iida did agree that the minor inconveniences from their quirks could result in defeats given enough planning and luck, it was shocking that Midoriya had absolutely no confidence in his own abilities. Midoriya was an analyst and a strategist; planning ahead was his forte, but it seems like he's already given up the fight before it's even started.

"In less than three years... we're going to be the ones fighting those things..." Midoriya muttered, ever so softly, keeping his eyes glued to the ground, "And they're getting stronger, faster, smarter. None of them will be stupid enough to run headfirst into a knife."

"That's why... you've been so stressed out." Iida murmured, "You're worried... about everything, especially the fight that would eventually become ours."

"Izuku... are you scared?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya froze up, "It's stupid to be scared. Being scared doesn't help anyone -"

"Please. Izuku." Shinsou turned to face the smaller boy face to face, "It doesn't matter if it's stupid or irrational or... anything... Just... be honest... are you scared of... all this that's going on?"

Midoriya just turned away emotionlessly, unwilling to be honest with himself, "If I can't keep up with everyone... I'll be a liability. Just weakness that can be exploited. That's all there is to it. There's no reason to be scared."

_You liar. You know you're scared. That's why you're working so hard now._

_You can't lie to yourself, __Deku.__ I know you the best._

Shinsou could tell that Midoriya was lying; he had stopped picking up his papers, and was shaking slightly. But Midoriya wasn't the type of person to lie. If he didn't want to talk, it was better not to press on, and let Midoriya be the one to make the first move.

"It's okay to be scared... you know? You don't have to bottle everything up." Shinsou sighed, "If you ever want to talk... we're here for you. We just want you to be happy."

Midoriya just stood there, in the darkness, his emerald eyes glinting as he gazed at Iida and Shinsou, before he turned towards his table, carefully filing his papers away, a clear indication that he wanted to be alone.

"Goodnight, Izuku." Iida and Shinsou turned to each other, before they left the room, giving Midoriya the peace and quiet that he wanted.

Reiko nudged his leg comfortingly, as Ryuto chirped, nuzzling the boy's cheek.

A small piece of paper slid to the ground, and Midoriya scooped it up, gazing down at the photo that had fallen to the ground. It was the one that had come in the package that Basilisk had delivered, and Midoriya couldn't help but gaze at the small, green haired boy in the photo, sitting on top of a man with light blue hair with a green haired woman beside them.

Midoriya could remember the day as if it had happened yesterday, the day when he had lost his parents; the fire, the smoke, his own screams in fear, the tears streaming down his face -

After everything that had happened, how could he deserve to be happy?

Especially when everything was his fault.

_There are some things that are just out of our control, Deku. Stop blaming yourself for everything._

_Shut up. Everything that has gone wrong, has all been because of me._

He was going to have to get a frame for that photo soon, another reminder of his utter failure.


	105. Chapter 105 - Even a well lit place

"Ah... weekends..." Uraraka sighed, sinking into one of the chairs in the common rooms, "Feels like with all our training and school work and news on villain attacks... we're always busy somehow."

"You and Tsu have your work studies with Ryukyu, right?" Iida asked, and Uraraka nodded, "Yeah, there's that, but for now, a lot of the agencies with student interns are temporarily suspending the work studies. We're still working under them as interns, technically, but it's more dealing with office work instead of physical patrolling. It seems like all the heroes are busy with stuff, and they don't want to let us students butt in unless they know exactly what they're dealing with. I heard from Kirishima that both he and Amajiki-senpai were taking a break from Fat Gum's agency, though Fat Gum is still trying to help them get better with their quirks. Hey, Izuku, do you still do stuff for Nighteye?"

Midoriya looked up at the sound of his name, and he frowned slightly, before replying, "... some analysis... that's it... no patrols... even Togata-senpai complains about having nothing to do..."

Ryuto was busy fiddling with the television remote, while Reiko held the remote steady, so it wouldn't fall off the table.

"I mean... with the emergence of that new Nomu that gave both the Number One and Number Two heroes a run for their money... It's no surprise that hero agencies don't want to take the risk." Shinsou groaned; the lavender haired boy was lying down on the couch, with Shirou sitting on his stomach, "I was actually looking forward to the work studies, ever since Dad brought it up, but I guess things don't always go our way..."

Todoroki was staring at his phone, before he perked up, "I did ask my father about work studies... he's not too sure, but it seems like a lot of schools actually don't want any students to be having work studies. With the fall of All Might, and all the Nomus, things are a bit messy, but it's likely that they'll have to let students take on work studies for experience. Endeavor said that in the case that it does happen, he'll take me in as an intern."

"That's cool." Koda replied, "You went back home for a few days, didn't you. Did you... kind of... make up with him?"

"Not exactly..." Todoroki replied, taking a sip of green tea, "My sister and my mother... they are way too forgiving. My brother... he's still holding grudges against him. I haven't forgiven my father either... but I feel he's seen what he's done wrong... and is trying to change. I can't forgive him yet... but if my mother and sister are willing to give him a chance... I guess I should too. After all... they've known him the longest... and they just want everyone to be happy."

"That's fair." Iida nodded, "I won't pretend to understand what's going on in your family... but if you're going to give him a chance... then we'll support you."

There was silence, before a loud explosion rang out from upstairs.

_"FUCKING RACOON EYES! STOP TOUCHING MY STUFF, YOU FUCK!"_

Uraraka sighed, "And I thought we could have a nice, quiet day..."

Koda perked up, "We can go to the pet rescue center... the one I go to for volunteer work, and a small cafe opened near it. We can check it out."

"I don't mind going out. It's nice to get out of UA every once in a while; be normal kids for once." Shinsou sighed, "We have to stock up on pet food too. Didn't Kaminari try to eat cat food two days ago on a dare before Sato found him? I heard he ended up destroying most of our stock."

"Yeah... he did that... Also, a cafe sounds awesome." Uraraka smiled, "I just hope it's not too expensive..."

"If it is, I can pay." Todoroki offered, "My dad gave me his credit card number when we entered the dorms... I've only really used it to buy food..."

"It's not that expensive. I've been there once, before we moved in." Koda replied.

Midoriya just shrugged. He didn't really care what they did; after being cooped up in the infirmary for so long, literally anything sounded good.

Iida chopped his arms, "Well, I guess we can go! Shall we all get ready, and meet back here in half an hour? I will contact Aizawa-sensei to get his permission to leave the dorms. He's probably going to set a time for us to be back by, with all the unease with the Nomus..."

"Alright. It's on!" Uraraka grinned.

* * *

"Huh... I guess it doesn't look too bad." Shinsou muttered, as they walked up to the cafe, with Shirou following behind him by his feet. Koda had also brought Yuwai along, and the rabbit was sitting in Koda's arms compliantly. Reiko was snuggled up in Midoriya's hoodie, with Ryuto occupying the entire hood, resting his fluffy head on Midoriya's shoulder.

There were a couple of tables outside of the cafe, and they noticed that there were a bunch of middle school girls sitting at one of them.

Suddenly, one of them pointed at Midoriya, and started laughing, eliciting more laughter from the rest of her group, save for one of them. The lone girl who didn't laugh scowled at them, smacking them lightly with her hand, turning her head in Midoriya's direction before she stood up.

"You're... Hakryuen... right?" She spoke up nervously, shaking slightly, and Midoriya turned to her, not knowing if she was referring to him since he was out of costume. Midoriya turned to Shinsou uneasily, and the lavender haired just nodded.

"Hello? Is there... something you wanted?" Shinsou asked politely, not knowing how else to react.

The girl looked away for a few seconds, as if she wasn't sure how to proceed, before leaning forward, bowing down a perfect ninety degrees that even Iida would be proud of, "My name's Hikaru Reza. Can I have your autograph!?"

Midoriya blinked in confusion, as the girl continued, "And I know you might not really like my family, and I'm really sorry for how my mother treated you, and I need to thank you so much for saving my little brother, and I really didn't think that I'd meet you face to face here..."

The green haired boy tilted his head in confusion, as Uraraka slowly put the pieces together, "A month ago. That thing at the mall.. that woman that insulted him... and that boy with a quirk that supposedly makes sparkles?"

Reza nodded, clearly embarrassed by her mother's behaviour, "Yeah, Kokaru's my little brother... he doesn't have a strong quirk, and due to the current quirk laws, we can't find a way to experiment with it. He's always been a huge fan of you... fighting quirkless and all... and his admiration for you only grew after you saved that little girl and fought that huge monster... then you threw yourself down four floors to save him... to him, you're his greatest hero."

"You have fans! How nice!" Uraraka smiled, patting Midoriya on the shoulder.

"Oh... so the kid he saved was your brother... you should have told us that." One of Reza's friends piped up, giggling, "We all thought you were having a crush on a guy two years older that you."

"Oh, shut up." Reza snapped, before turning back to Midoriya, "I... really am sorry about how my mom treated you... she... she's not normally like that..."

"I'm sorry to interrupt..." Todoroki muttered, looking around; they were currently blocking the street, "But do you mind if we grab some drinks before we continue the conversation?"

"Ah, I'm so sorry." Reza apologised sheepishly, "Thank you. So much."

* * *

It took some time for the six UA students to order their drinks and snacks, and Reza's friends had also grabbed a few more chairs so that the UA students could join them at their table. Yuwai was nibbling some celery while she sat on Koda's lap, and Shirou was more than content to lounge by Shinsou's feet under the table, since it was rather cold outside.

Reiko just sat on Midoriya's lap, curled up in a ball, cuddled up with Ryuto.

"No offence... are you not cold? It's like, fourteen degrees Celsius." One of Reza's friends asked Midoriya, who was just wearing a thin hoodie, as Reza nudged her, "Shush. Don't be rude."

"You were... saying something about your mother?" Uraraka asked.

Reza nodded, taking a sip of her tea, "Yeah... my mom wasn't actually so aversive to Kokaru becoming a hero. Her quirk is actually the same as his, and when she was his age, she had also tried out for the hero course, though she wasn't accepted. So she was actually pretty encouraging towards him at first. But around a month before that incident in the mall, we lost our uncle... her older brother. He was... uh... working as a hero, and his quirk was shooting lasers out of his fingers, and he was killed on the job in a villain attack."

"Oh... I see..." Uraraka nodded; the death of a loved one could change a person's mindset immediately.

"I guess... that was when she changed. My quirk allows me to create barriers by... for a lack of better words... _hardening_ _light_? So the stronger the light, the stronger the barriers... so I guess my mom deemed it strong enough." Reza continued, "But my brother can only make sparkles... I don't know if that's the full extent of his quirk, or it's only because he's younger, but my mom thinks it's weak. And if even my uncle, with a versatile quirk like his, could be killed on the job..."

"She's scared. She doesn't want to lose him." Iida finished.

"Yeah... so she thinks Hakryuen... uh... is a bad influence, since he fights quirkless. She had managed to convince Kokaru that it was too dangerous for him... but after seeing your fight with that huge monster, it kind of reignited his want to be a hero... and she just finds it too dangerous ... uh.. no offense... I'm not saying that she's right... but... she's still my mom..." Reza sighed, "I'm just... really sorry about how she treated you. She shouldn't have yelled at you at all, and everything that she said to you was just... terrible. But when she got home and calmed down... she felt really guilty for what she said."

Midoriya turned away, sipping his fruit tea. He wanted to accept the apology and just get one with life, but some part of him was just... bitter.

That woman may feel guilty, but so what? Just because her daughter came to apologize for her didn't mean anything. Words were meaningless without the intent to follow through.

He didn't know how to respond to Reza without talking, though; she was a stranger, and sure, she was apologizing, but Midoriya still didn't trust her.

Midoriya hastily signed something under the tablet, and Shinsou glanced at his hands, before speaking up for him, "Well... it's alright. It's not your fault your mother acted like that... "

"Thank goodness..." Reza sighed, "I thought you would hate me or something..."

"We're not going to hate you because of how your parents act. You're your own person, after all." Iida nodded.

"Yeah... so..." Reza scratched her cheek nervously, "So uh... if you don't mind... can I have your autograph or... something? My brother's a huge fan... and I thought it would cheer him up... I'm sorry... this is really stupid of me..."

_"No... it's okay..."_ Midoriya signed, and dug around in his pockets for his notebook. He flipped through it for a few seconds, before finding the page he wanted, and he ripped it out.

"What are you doing?" Koda asked in confusion, as Midoriya hastily fished a pen out of his pocket, carefully writing his hero name in the corner of the paper, before handing it to Reza.

Reza stared at the piece of paper, before asking, "You... made notes on his quirk? How did you... even analyze anything, from such a short description..."

Trying to get the attention off Midoriya, who was clearly started to get uncomfortable, Shinsou replied, "Quirk analysis is kind of his thing..."

"So many usages... cheering people up... no collateral damage... blinding enemies..." Reza gushed in amazement, "This would definitely make him happy! Thank you so much!"

Midoriya just turned away, still not knowing how to react to a compliment. His parents had been really encouraging, but his teachers and peers? Far from it. He just didn't want anyone to be discouraged at such a young age and end up fucked in the head, or end up turning to villainy.

Todoroki finished his drink, as Koda's phone vibrated, and the boy fished it out of his pocket, switching off the alarm he had set, "Oh... it's pretty late now... We should get going... We need to grab more pet food before curfew."

"Ah! I'm so sorry for keeping you guys up." Reza bowed, "Thank you, again, for saving my brother."

Midoriya just nodded slightly in acknowledgement.


	106. Chapter 106 - Never sees the sun

"Welcome! How may I help you?" The man that was by the counter dryly asked, as Todoroki inspected the pet rescue center curiously, looking around.

"Uh, we're good." Shinsou replied, immediately making a beeline for the section of the store with cat food. He stared at the different flavours of cat food, before muttering, "Is it just me... or does something feel... off... to you guys?"

Iida was still outside, trying to figure out what was wrong with his engines; they had started sputtering, for absolutely no reason, when he tried to enter the pet rescue center.

"Maybe." Todoroki muttered, shifting his arms, "I feel weird."

Koda shrugged, and gently set Yuwai down, before he walked over to where all the animals were kept.

"You're right..." Uraraka stared at the pink pads on the tip of her fingers, "My fingers feel... I don't know... tingly..."

"Ah... hello, Koda!" The cashier waved his hands, "You used to volunteer here... I guess things are pretty hectic in the hero course, right."

Koda nodded, shooting the cashier a thumbs up, as Midoriya placed Reiko and Ryuto on the ground, letting them explore the rescue center, before standing up. Reiko just shuddered, seeming to be more alert than before, as Ryuto fluffed himself up, before waddling over to Todoroki due to all the heat the dual hair coloured boy was emitting.

"And... Midoriya..." The cashier narrowed his eyes slightly, though he chose not to comment further on it.

Midoriya just glanced at him, nodding in acknowledgement, moving over to where Koda was, as the larger male opened up the cage doors, giving the cats and dogs some freedom. Usually, the pet rescue center wouldn't allow so many animals to be roaming around at the same time, but the animals always listened to Koda, given his quirk, and they seemed calm enough around Midoriya, so there was an unspoken rule that if either of the two were present, they could let several animals out.

Most of the animals spilled out of their cages the second Koda opened the doors, and Koda moved to open the last cage, but the cashier stopped him, "Uh... don't touch that one. It's off-limits."

Uraraka noticed that there was something sitting right at the back of one of the cages. She knelt down, peering inside, only to find a little ball of fluff huddled in the corner of the cage, shaking, two beady black eyes staring back at her. She couldn't really see what colour the animal was, though, in the darkness.

"Awn... are you scared? It's okay." Uraraka cooed, before turning around, "There's an animal in there. Let them out."

"You don't know what you're dealing with. That's a chinchilla. Came in around two days ago." The cashier spoke up, flipping through a file with details of every animal, "Her previous owners stated that she's bad luck for everyone around her; everything goes out of control."

Koda frowned in confusion, as Todoroki asked, "What do you mean, out of control?"

Iida, having finally managed to deal with his engines, walked into the pet rescue center, "Hello! I have no idea why my quirk was acting up, but it seems fine right now! Perhaps I ate something wrong. Did I miss anything?"

The cashier gestured towards Iida, "Well... stuff like that. Bad luck. Mostly quirks going out of control and stuff like that."

Iida blinked in confusion, not knowing what was going on, as Shinsou raised his eyebrow, "You sure it's not because her former owners were incompetent with their quirks?"

The cashier shrugged, "I don't know, really. I mean, according to them, they had the chinchilla for a while, and for some reason, out of the blue, things started acting up. They left her with some friends when they went on a business trip, and everything was normal, except their friends suddenly had everything going wrong, so they just concluded that the problem was with the chinchilla and just left her here."

"A quirk, maybe?" Koda shyly asked, and the cashier laughed, though he did try his best to stay away from the cage, "Don't be silly, Koda. Animals can't have quirks."

Shinsou took a minute to process what the man had said, before he fished his phone out of his pocket and walked out of the rescue center, asking Iida to help him compare ingredients.

Midoriya followed the purple haired boy out of the rescue center.

"Doesn't she have a name?" Uraraka asked, as she peered into the cage again.

"Her name's Kinu." The cashier replied, "And while we don't know if what her previous owners said are true or not, we're not going to risk it. I mean... she's well trained and all, we just don't want to end up lawsuits and stuff like that... I think..."

"That's not very fair." Uraraka huffed, "She doesn't deserve to be cooped up in there, all alone."

The cashier sighed, "Well... Koda... if you're confident that you can control her..."

Koda shrank back at the word; his quirk didn't let him _control_ animals, like Shinsou's Brainwashing quirk. Anivoice only serves to breach the communication barrier between animals and humans. The animals he communicated with could choose not to listen to him. They only obeyed what he said because Koda was nice, and asked them for their assistance, instead of outrightly demanding or ordering them to do his bidding. His quirk relied on a delicate balance of trust and respect, but that was an aspect of his quirk that very few people seemed to understand.

"Maybe if you actually gave her a chance, this wouldn't be a problem." Uraraka muttered, as Koda unlocked the cage.

Uraraka gently reached out to pat the ball of fluff, but the animal just shrunk down even more, and Uraraka retracted her hand, "Okay, no touching. Got it."

She did notice that the tingly feeling in her fingertips got stronger as she reached out for the fluffy animal, and faded away when she retracted her hand.

"Don't rush her." Koda spoke up softly, turning to keep an eye on Yuwai, but she just stuck to his side, "She's scared. Let her come to you."

Uraraka nodded, as she patiently tried to coax the chinchilla out of the cage slowly, ignoring the tingling feeling in her fingers, "Come on, it's alright."

The brunette reached her hand into the cage, and waited, not moving as she kept an eye on Kinu. It took some time, but the chinchilla carefully took a step forward, sniffing at Uraraka's fingertips, and Uraraka held her breath, doing her best not to move as she felt Kinu's fluffy fur against her fingertips.

* * *

"Did you feel weird?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya shook his head, signing, _"A quirk. Affects other quirks."_

"Yeah, looks like we have the same idea. You don't have a quirk, so you wouldn't be affected... and I'm not sure if Koji noticed that something was up, but if four out of five quirks are acting up... something's amiss." Shinsou muttered, rubbing his head.

His quirk usually didn't act up, given that it was a mental quirk rather than a physical one, but when it did, he got really terrible headaches that lasted for ages.

Shinsou huffed, with the pain in his head finally subsiding enough for him to dial Aizawa's phone number, and put his phone to his ear.

It took some time before Aizawa picked up, his gruff voice muttering, _"Hitoshi. I just finished trying to get Monoma to help with Eri's quirk, and I swear, if you problem children had gotten into trouble again -"_

"Nope, we're perfectly fine." Shinsou cut Aizawa off before his teacher slash father could launch into a lengthy rant, "We're at the pet rescue center now."

Aizawa responded,_ "So? I told you to give us an update when you change locations, but Tenya already did that, and I doubt that you're calling just to inform me of that."_

"Dad, is it possible for an animal to have a quirk? I mean, besides from Nezu."

There was silence on the other end, and Shinsou could hear the distinct sound of Aizawa connecting the call to another person, before the Erasure Hero finally demanded, _"Explain."_

"Like I said, we're at the pet rescue center, the one Koji and Izuku used to volunteer at. When we came in, Tenya's engines started sputtering, Shouto mentioned that something felt weird, and Ochako said her fingers feel funny. And I got one of those really bad headaches, and I haven't had them since I was twelve." Shinsou explained, and Midoriya looked at the lavender haired boy in concern; he didn't know that Brainwashing gave his friend headaches, but then again, it was a mental quirk.

_"Continue."_ Aizawa spoke up.

"Apparently, there's a chinchilla here, her name's Kinu, and according to the guy on duty, her previous owners stated that things went out of control for no reason; more specifically, their quirks were the things that went haywire." Shinsou finished.

_"Is Midoriya with you? Was he affected? What does he think?"_ Aizawa asked, and Shinsou replied, "Yeah, Izuku's with me. He wasn't really affected, and we came to the same conclusion before I called."

_"What are the others doing?"_ Aizawa asked again, as Shinsou peeked into the pet rescue center, "Uh... I asked Tenya to pick out cat food, uh... Todoroki is a heater for some of the cats that were let out. Koji's trying to help Ochako with the chinchilla."

A sigh came from the other end, and Shinsou was very sure that it didn't come from Aizawa.

_"Aizawa, go check it out and bring the kids back."_ Nezu ordered, _"I didn't think that I would have to be explaining this... but yes, Shinsou, long story short, animals can have quirks. I'll explain more when you get back."_

* * *

It had taken some time, but finally, Kinu seemed to understand that Uraraka wasn't a threat to her, and had slowly but surely made her way out of the cage.

"You're so fluffy! Who's a good girl?" Uraraka cooed, gently patting the brown chinchilla, who just nuzzled up to the brunette's hand.

Shinsou and Midoriya walked back into the pet rescue center, and the lavender haired boy piped up, "Aizawa-sensei is coming to pick us up soon."

"Did something happen?!" Iida nearly knocked over a stack of cans with his chopping movement, though he managed to restrain his movements just enough to avoid doing so.

"Already?" Uraraka pouted, gently cradling Kinu, as the chinchilla patted the pads of her fingers with her stubby little paws, squeaking.

"Nah. At least... I don't think it's serious." Shinsou replied, before walking over to finish choosing cat food.

It had taken a few minutes for Aizawa to arrive, with Yamada driving one of the vans owned by up to the pet rescue center. Aizawa hated being behind the wheel; sure, he knew how to drive, and he had a licence for both cars and motorcycles, but why drive when he could sleep during the car ride?

Aizawa left Yamada in the van, as he unbuckled his seatbelt and exited the van, before walking into the pet rescue center. He could definitely feel why the kids might be suspicious of an animal having a quirk; his eyes were tingling, almost as if they were screaming at him to activate his quirk. Luckily, he and the hero course students had enough training with their quirks to not give in, but he could see how untrained civilians might fall prey to the alluring urge to use the quirks that they couldn't normally use due to all the quirk laws.

"Welcome, sir. How may I help you?" The cashier asked dryly, as Aizawa glanced at Shinsou, subtly telling him to go distract him so that Aizawa could use his quirk without anyone realizing who he was.

"Uh... can you explain the differences between the cat food, and what might be more suitable for a flame point ragdoll?" Shinsou asked, as Iida raised his eyebrow in confusion, but just played along.

Aizawa softly made his way over to Uraraka and Koda, and the brunette asked, "Uh... sensei... is something wrong?"

He quickly shushed the two students, and trained his eyes on the small brown chinchilla in Uraraka's hands, watching as the small fluffy mammal looked up at him cautiously, shivering in Uraraka's grasp, a certain intelligence dancing behind her beady black eyes.

The tingling feeling in his eyes was much stronger now, and taking a quick look to make sure that the cashier wasn't looking at him, Aizawa activated his quirk, his eyes glowing red for a brief moment.

The intelligence behind the beady black orbs faded away, her eyes dulling slightly, and Aizawa immediately deactivated his quirk.

He did notice that while his quirk seemed to act more like switch, deactivating a quirk for the duration of time that his quirk was activated, it took a minute or two for Kinu to blink, her eyes suddenly shining just a bit brighter, and go back to observing her surroundings with Uraraka gently holding the chinchilla up.

"Did you two feel anything weird?" Aizawa asked softly, as Koda tilted his head, thinking, "Well... Kinu seemed more... intelligent... than any other chinchilla I've met in the past... then you activated your quirk, and she started acting more like a normal one."

"In terms of quirks." Aizawa muttered, and Uraraka piped up, gently scratching Kinu behind the ears, "Now that you mention it... there's this tingly feeling in my fingers... and when you activated your quirk, the tingling feeling disappeared."

Aizawa narrowed his eyes, "Her name's Kinu, right? Uraraka, she seems to like you best. You're keeping her."

"Eh! But... I don't know... I can't..." Uraraka blubbered, as Aizawa turned around, "Don't worry about it. We can deal with everything else. For now, we just need to get Kinu out of here."

* * *

"It's a sad truth." Nezu just sighed, inspecting the brown chinchilla in Uraraka's arms as Aizawa explained everything to him.

It had taken some time for Aizawa and Uraraka to finish up the paperwork for adopting the small mammal, as well as gathering the necessary supplied for the brunette to take care of Kinu, but they finally made their way out of the rescue center, back to UA, where Nezu was waiting.

"So... she has a quirk?" Uraraka asked, still confused, and Nezu nodded, "Yes. Most people don't know about it... but it's highly likely that most animals have quirks. You are aware of therapy and service animals, right? They aren't just trained like that; some animals are specifically bred for those jobs due to their empathic quirks, but most humans just assume that having heightened empathy is normal for those breeds. You also have racehorses, bred for their speed and agility quirks, cockfighting, for their heightened aggressiveness and fighting prowess, and all sorts of other examples. People just assumed that those were natural traits in those specific breeds of animals, and never really considered the fact that animals, like humans, have quirks too."

"What if an animal has like... another quirk? Like maybe a dog that can talk?" Todoroki asked, as Nezu sighed, "In the wild, if the quirk is not helpful for surviving, they can be abandoned by their parents, left for dead. If they live with humans... it goes as well as you'd expect. They may be exploited by villains or money-grabbing humans, or be considered defects and either abandoned, or abused to the point of death. It severely limits the type of quirk mutations that different species can go through, so quirks in animals usually go unnoticed."

"That's... terrible..." Uraraka muttered, cradling Kinu gently, as Nezu nodded, "It is. That's why we were eager to get Kinu out of there. As far as I know, if animals in a pet rescue center don't get adopted after a certain period of time, they get euthanized, and if someone else realizes that she has a quirk, I don't know how they'll end up using her, especially since her quirk seems to affect the quirks of those around her."

"I see why you came in such a rush..." Iida mused, "So... what are we going to do with Kinu, then?"

"I was thinking that Koda and Midoriya could help Uraraka with taking care of her... but given how many students are in your dorms..." Aizawa sighed, "Power Loader is already working on a cage for her, but until we can figure out how to train her to control it, you might have some trouble, since chinchillas are curious by nature, and she's probably not going to like being cooped up."

"She's scared." Nezu noted, "We can have a session after school tomorrow, to try and sort this out. As for now... I think she'll be okay being with Uraraka until we can figure something out."

"I'm alright with that... but I'm not sure what to tell my parents... we don't have enough money to take care of a pet." Uraraka asked, as Nezu nodded, "Don't worry about that. UA can deal with that. But for now, we need Kinu to trust that we mean her no harm, and that she'll be safe here."


	107. Chapter 107 - Written in the walls

"Alright... we're just waiting for one person..." Aizawa sighed, as he rubbed his eyes. The lessons for the day had just ended, and while most of 1-A had gone back to the dorms, he had requested that Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki, Midoriya, Shinsou and Koda stay back. Nezu was standing next to Aizawa, observing the students, as Kan texted him, saying that he and Monoma were on their way.

A few minutes later, the familiar beeping sound of the gym door being unlocked rang out.

"Aizawa-sensei? Is this about Eri again?" Monoma asked, as he pushed the door to the gym open with Kan following behind him, before noticing the other students. He frowned, as he noticed the brown chinchilla in Uraraka's arms, and blinked in confusion, "Uhh..."

"You've noticed." Aizawa sighed again, he originally thought that Monoma was going to be a problem, given his odd hatred of 1-A, but he did seem more tolerant of Midoriya's friends, for some reason.

"What's going on?" Monoma asked, as Aizawa explained, "The chinchilla's name is Kinu, and she has a quirk. We were wondering if you could help figure out what it was."

"Oh..." Monoma muttered, walking up to the group, "She... won't bite, right?"

Something was off. Monoma could sense the phantom feeling of his quirk, twisting about under his skin.

"If you're nice... she probably won't." Uraraka replied, gently patting Kinu, before pointing to Monoma, "That's Monoma, and he's a friend, okay?"

Kinu just grabbed Uraraka's fingers, before she turned in Monoma's direction, inspecting him warily, as the blonde got closer. Monoma hesitantly reached out his hand, and Kinu sniffed his fingers, before deeming him okay, and nuzzling the blonde's fingertips.

As much as Monoma hated to admit it, he found the chinchilla cute. But Aizawa had called him for a reason, and he was going to prove his worth by doing just that.

Activating his quirk, Monoma mentally sieved around, trying to find the quirk that Aizawa said that the chinchilla had, and copied it.

Monoma retracted his hand, the familiar feeling of information rushing through his mind as his body figured out what was the quirk that he had just copied. His entire body felt like it was on fire, but it wasn't exactly unpleasant; it felt more like a rush of adrenaline when he was pushing himself past his limits while in a fight.

"Any luck?" Aizawa asked, as Kan observed the students, and Monoma hummed, "Well... there is an aspect of increased intelligence, though I'm not really too sure what's the extent of it... and something else... kind of like a quirk booster?"

"Can you use it?" Aizawa asked, and Monoma nodded, mentally flipping the switch that activated the copied quirk.

Almost immediately, Uraraka's fingers started twitching, and Todoroki nearly set himself on fire as Iida's spluttering engines startled him.

Shinsou just groaned, rubbing his head, "I feel like my head's going to explode..."

Kan was already feeling a little twitchy when he entered the gym, and he deduced that it was due to the quirk that Nezu said that Kinu had, but when Monoma activated it, it suddenly felt like he had drank one too many sodas, and all the energy was just flowing through his veins.

Reiko's ears twitched as she sat by Midoriya's feet, nuzzling her human, and Ryuto shuddered slightly, puffing out his feathers before waddling over to Reiko's side. Midoriya, Nezu, and Koda were the only ones who didn't really seem affected at all, and the greenette was busy scribbling something in a notebook.

Aizawa rubbed his eyes, and sighed, "Alright, that's enough, Monoma. Can you deactivate it?"

Monoma stuck out his tongue slightly as he closed his eyes, trying to do what Aizawa asked, and it took him a good minute just to do so, as the effects of the quirk faded away, "Yeah... I can... but it's... odd..."

"Odd as in?" Kan asked, slightly worried for his student; Monoma was proficient with his quirk. It didn't matter whether it was an emitter or a transformation or a mutant quirk; he was easily able to figure it out and utilize it. It was a bit worrying that he was having trouble with a copied quirk.

"It felt like it was... stuck." Monoma tried to explain, "Normally, when I copy a quirk, and I choose whether to use it or not, and it's like flipping a switch, though, after ten minutes of usage, the switch disappears. I can copy up to four quirks, but since I can only use one at a time, when I activate another quirk, the switch of the quirk I was formerly using just... switches off on its own. But this time, the switch felt like it was jammed by something. I could switch it off... sure... but I had to use a lot more energy to do so..."

"I thought you could only copy three." Shinsou muttered, as Monoma stuck his tongue out playfully, "I improved. Duh."

Aizawa just thought for a second, before speaking up, "Alright. So we do know that the quirk can be deactivated at will, though it's harder than a regular quirk to deactivate..."

Midoriya made a few more scrawls on his notebook, before tugging on Shinsou's sleeve and passing the notebook to him. Shinsou glanced through the notes, before speaking up, "Well... Izuku thinks that since the quirk seems to make the quirks of others around the user more... volatile, I guess? It's a radius-based quirk, and it gives off an urge for the user to use their quirks. While we did train our quirks and have more control over them... it is possible that civilians may not have as much control over their quirks and would naturally give in to the urge to use their quirks."

Kan nodded, processing all the information, "Makes sense. Continue."

"But uh... the user isn't immune to the effects of the quirk as well, since it's radius-based. So the user's quirk is also being strengthened, which also increases their urge to use their quirk... so that probably makes it harder to deactivate it. And if even Monoma, with a well-trained quirk and who also has experience with a large variety of quirks, has trouble deactivating it, and since most people don't think that animals have quirks..."

"Kinu would find it almost impossible to deactivate the quirk on her own without any training." Nezu finished, "I think it's also affected by whether the quirk is a passive or an active quirk. Koda and I weren't affected, but Koda's Anivoice and my High Spec are passive quirks; they're always activated. But for quirks like Erasure, Blood Control, Engine, Brainwashing, Zero Gravity, Copy, Half-Cold Half-Hot; you guys need to actively trigger them in order to use them. I think there's also a difference there."

"I still think the name of my quirk is dumb..." Todoroki murmured under his breath.

Uraraka hummed, "So... it doesn't affect mutant-types?"

Nezu shook his head, "Depends. Like Sero's Tape quirk, or Shoji's Dupli-Arms; those are active mutant type quirks, so it is most likely that they would be affected. I'm not sure of Hagakure's Invisibility quirk will be affected, though... since it's a passive quirk for the most part, but she is also capable of actively manipulating the light refraction capabilities of her body."

Aizawa sighed, "Alright... at least, this is a good start. We know that it can be deactivated, and heightened intelligence is usually a more passive aspect. Now, we just need to get her to work on deactivating it. Hound Dog seems to like her, but I don't think it would be beneficial if a student's quirk suddenly goes out of control during counseling sessions if you keep leaving her in his office during lessons."

Uraraka nodded, running her fingers through Kinu's fluffy fur, before lifting her up, looking at her at eye level, "Did you understand all that?"

Kinu tilted her head, her ears twitching slightly, before squeaking.

"She said that she didn't really understand what was going on, but she just knew she had something called a quirk, and that she should be able to deactivate it if the blonde... who is Monoma... can do so." Koda translated.

Aizawa sighed again, "Alright, let's try and figure that out for now."

* * *

It had taken quite a few attempts of trying to explain everything to Kinu before the chinchilla finally managed to figure out what was going on, but once she managed to shut off her quirk the first time, it was much easier for her to activate and deactivate it at will.

Nezu allowed the students to return to the dorms to introduce Kinu to the other students, before he turned to the two teachers, "What do you think?"

Kan scratched his head, "I... I don't know... I don't know if the kids are ready for something like this. Not only do they have to learn about their quirks... they'd also have to help their new companions with their quirks too. Not to mention that this brings up the possibilities of the others having quirks, like Haku; you know, Tokage's iguana. Or Bakugou's dog. Or Koda's rabbit. Or that really moody cat of Shinsou's. And I'm still certain that Reiko and Ryuto have quirks."

"It is possible." Aizawa shrugged, "But they can help the kids with hero work. Like Kinu; her quirk will be useful for boosting heroes with long-range quirks."

Kan glowered at Aizawa, "So, what, you want Uraraka to ask Ryukyu if she can offer Kinu an internship?"

"You are joking, right?" Aizawa glared back, before Nezu broke up the argument, "Now, now. I honestly doubt that the students will be allowed to have animals on the job. Plus... it's better to keep things like this away from the Hero Commission. No doubt they'll try to find some way to exploit these animals, under the name of "protecting the country". Our society is... well... to be honest, really messed up, with our extreme hyper fixation on quirks."

"True..." Aizawa sighed, "Plus... we're going to have a lot more battles to fight. The League has been surprisingly quiet. This is just the calm before the storm. Did you get any news from the hero commission?"

"Yeah... but I don't think anyone is going to like it..." Nezu nodded, "The hero commission is thinking of starting up the internship program again for practical field training... I'll be holding a meeting next week about it."

* * *

"So cute!" Ashido cooed, as she stared at the chinchilla in Uraraka's hands, gently reaching out to pet Kinu. It had taken some time for Kinu to trust the other students, but no one was opposed to the new addition to the dorms. Kinu was already familiar with Reiko, Ryuto, Shirou, and Yuwai, but Kacchan didn't seem to mind the chinchilla too much.

Kinu started squeaking and kicking her feet, and Uraraka placed her on the ground, letting the chinchilla run around and explore the dorms. Ashido and Hagakure chased after the chinchilla playfully, as Uraraka stretched, cracking her knuckles, "Winter's awesome! We can do all the training we want, and it'll never be too warm!"

"I don't... really... like winter... kero..." Asui muttered, "I don't like going into hibernation..."

Midoriya just curled up in his bean bag, staring idly at the television. He had to agree with Asui. He appreciates the cold weather, and it was a lot easier for him to train in the cold without running the risk of overheating, given he preferred to wear long-sleeved hoodies while he did so. But with the cold weather, came the unpleasant sensation of his scars aching, tugging at the seams wear his scarred injuries transitioned to normal skin.

The greenette usually exercised a lot, so the pain wasn't as bad as it used to, but still, Midoriya found it annoying to have to spend a couple of hours every week to massage his scarred skin, loosening them up enough that it didn't hinder his movement. He would use a heat pack, but he had no idea how to make one, and he couldn't afford to buy one.

"Aww. Come on, Tsu! We'll keep the heaters on! And of course, with December, comes Christmas!" Ashido laughed, gently patting Kinu's head, squealing happily as Kinu nuzzled her hand.

Midoriya frowned slightly. He wasn't too fond of holidays, since everyone in his former foster home slept late, and made it harder for him to sneak out for his tiny bit of freedom.

_Which holiday was Christmas again? The one with rabbits and eggs?_

"I have an idea!" Hagakure pipped up, "We can have a Secret Santa! Our class has twenty-one people, so I think it is too much if every person tries to get presents for everyone else!"

Yaoyorozu's eyes lit up, "That's a great idea! We almost have a month until Christmas; that's more than enough time to find gifts!"

Shinsou just sighed, slumping into the chair, "Just hope we don't get attacked by villains while we're shopping..."

"Hitoshi! Touch wood!" Iida yelled, "Hosting a Secret Santa is an excellent idea for class bonding!"

"Alright! If both the class reps are good with it, let's go!" Ashido cheered, "I'll just go make a list of names and pop them into a bag, so we can just pick out who we have to get a gift for! We'll sort this out right after dinner!"

* * *

"Everyone!" Ashido yelled, running down the stairs with a Ziploc bag filled with small, folded up pieces of paper, "We're going to be having a 1-A Secret Santa!"

"Oh! We had that in middle school before!" Kaminari grinned, "Alright! This will be fun!"

"Uh... do we do this according to class number? Or everyone just comes at random to grab a name?" Hagakure asked, as Ashido shrugged, "I don't know."

"Quick question. I know this is a Christmas event... but what's a Secret Santa? I've never heard of it before." Shoji raised an arm.

"Ah! Anyways, for people who don't know what a Secret Santa is, you just come over and grab a piece of paper! It'll have a name on it, and you just get a gift for that person! But you can't tell the person who you're getting a gift for until Christmas!"

"Oh... I get it..." Sato nodded, "So, we just pick a name now?"

"Yep!" Ashido nodded.

It had taken some time for the students to all pick a folded piece of paper out of the bag, and Ashido smiled, grabbing the last one, "Alright! Now, you guys can see who you got, but no looking at other people's!"

Midoriya had quickly looked at the paper, before stuffing it in his pocket and curling up for a nap in his bean bag. 1-A wasn't too surprised; the boy seemed to prefer the bean bag in the common room to the bed in his room.

"Alright! I know what I'm going to get!" Sero laughed, crumpling the paper in his hand before Kaminari tried to sneak a peek, "Come on! I'm curious!"

Shinsou just sighed, carefully unfolding the paper in his hand. He just hoped he got one of his friends; not that he didn't like his other classmates, but at least, with his friends, he had a good idea of what they liked and what he could get for them. Plus, they held study sessions often enough, and Shinsou knew what they had and didn't have so he wouldn't end up getting them something they didn't have.

The lavender haired boy stared at the name on his piece of paper.

_"Midoriya Izuku."_


	108. Chapter 108 - Even if they take it all

Shinsou sighed as he threw himself onto his bed.

He had absolutely no idea what to get Midoriya. Midoriya wasn't a materialistic person, and the boy could literally just build whatever he needed from the trash that piled up from Dagobah Beach, or whatever scraps the Support Course had deemed unusable.

Midoriya's computer? He had fixed it up with an assortment of pieces from other computers, and sure, while it didn't look the best, it was way faster than any other computer that Shinsou had seen, even faster than Kaminari's gaming laptop, and the blonde's laptop was optimized for higher processing speed.

That mini refrigerator in Midoriya's room, sitting under his table? Midoriya had apparently dragged that thing out of the dump, and fixed it up in less than a day, before all the other students had moved into the dorms.

Shinsou did not have to mention the support items that Midoriya was capable of making; his mask, Kaminari's pointer, and Midoriya's own gear spoke for themselves. It did not help that Midoriya had some pretty sick and badass support items; Shinsou had always found those gauntlets that could be used both defensively and offensively as awesome.

Shinsou had also wanted to get Aizawa and Yamada gifts for Christmas, as well as stuff for the rest of his friends, but they were all easy to shop for. Shinsou already had a few ideas in mind for what he could get them, but he was still stumped on what to get for Midoriya.

There was also that... _other_ thing. Shinsou really liked Midoriya, and he figured that he should tell Midoriya about his feelings before it got _too_ out of hand; he had watched the videos that Kaminari had posted on the class youtube channel, just because Ashido had offhandedly mentioned that there were some really mean comments, and he had been ridiculously embarrassed to find that he had literally been hugging the green bean since Sayori's suicide scene.

Christmas it was, then; he should stop being such a coward about it and tell Midoriya about it. At the very least, if Midoriya did reject him, hopefully they could still remain as friends.

But the main problem still remained; what on earth should he get Midoriya as a present for the Secret Santa?

* * *

Nezu was typing away on his laptop, watching Midoriya out of the corner of his eye. The greenette was currently curled up in the bean bag in his office, and while Nezu had no idea why Midoriya wanted to hang out in his office instead of in his room, Nezu did appreciate the company.

"Izuku, do you like bean bags?" Nezu asked, idly scribbling his signature down on some form that he had just spent the past ten minutes reading, and turned his attention back to his laptop as Midoriya looked up. The boy tilted his head slightly, kneading the bean bag a bit more, before reply, "... Yes? ... Why?"

"Well... I notice that you seem to prefer to hand out and sleep in the bean bags in the common room instead of in your own room..." Nezu looked up from his laptop, as Midoriya looked away, "...They're comfortable... I don't mind beds... but I prefer bean bags..."

Nezu's ears perked up; Midoriya never really talked about his preferences, and he was glad that Midoriya was speaking out and opening up.

"Well... if you like them so much... I was thinking of getting you one for your room." Nezu replied, "I know how noisy and rowdy your classmates can get, and you do need your quiet time every now and then. Maybe you'll rest better if you sleep in your room in something that's more comfortable."

"You... don't have to..." Midoriya muttered, "If I need it... I can get it on my own..."

Nezu resisted the urge to facepaw; that was the last thing that Midoriya would ever do. He had helped Midoriya set up a bank account, due to his internship with Sasaki, and had already informed him about it, but he knew that Midoriya was unlikely to use it for himself. He was more likely to buy something for someone else instead of buying anything for his own usage.

"It's fine. I'm your guardian, after all, and you being comfortable is important." Nezu smiled kindly at the boy, "Plus... Christmas is coming up. You can treat it as a Christmas gift, if you like. I can't spend a lot of time with you due to all my work, and this is the least I can do."

"Speaking of Christmas... what's this... Secret Santa about?" Midoriya asked, opting to stare out of the window, "Ashido brought it up... and everyone seemed excited... but I don't really... get it..."

"Have you... never celebrated Christmas before?" Nezu stared at the boy, stunned, before he slammed his laptop shut, hopping off his chair to sit on the sofa by the bean bag. His pile of paperwork that was growing by the second could wait; Midoriya was more important.

There was silence, until Midoriya raised his head, "... with my parents... yes... but I don't really... remember... a lot about it..."

The last time he had celebrated Christmas was when he was six, and his memories of his past were a little fuzzy. He _kind of_ knew how Christmas worked... but he wasn't too sure.

Nezu hummed to himself, trying to figure out how to explain everything to Midoriya; he himself also found holidays rather meaningless, and it wasn't like villains also stopped working on Easter or Christmas. It was nice to have a day where he wasn't getting calls and emails every single day, though, and Nezu could spend some time playing chess or completing a sudoku. And if his colleagues were free, they would go out for a couple of drinks.

"Well... Christmas is a day for making other people happy. I mean, you care about your classmates, right? You like your friends?"

Midoriya mutely nodded, and Nezu asked, "So... if you found out that they needed or wanted something... would you get it for them?"

The greenette nodded again, and Nezu continued, "Well, your classmates also care about you, and they want you to be happy. So they would also want to get you something that you want. But, of course, your class has twenty-one people, so if everyone were to get a gift for everyone else, there would be a lot of overlapping gifts, not to mention not all of you currently have internships, so some of your classmates have limited funds. To avoid that, your friends probably decided on a Secret Santa to ensure that everyone gave away something and received a gift in return."

Midoriya looked down, processing Nezu's words. When he put it like that, the entire Secret Santa idea made more sense, and getting something that was actually useful was definitely more useful in the long run. It was stupid that there was a specific day set aside for making people happy, though; isn't that something that decent human beings should be doing on a daily basis?

"... it... makes more sense now..." Midoriya replied, still thinking, "Thank you."

"No worries." Nezu gently patted Midoriya's head, "If you have any questions, feel free to just ask, okay?"

Midoriya just nodded in response.

* * *

"Hey! Izuku!" Uraraka rushed up to the boy as he entered the dorms, "Do you have some time to spare?"

Midoriya blinked, and nodded, and Uraraka smiled, "So... I was thinking that I need to get some stuff for Kinu.. and there's that pet store at the mall that I could check out, but you and Koji know more about animals than I do... so I was wondering if you would be willing to help me in picking stuff out for Kinu. Koji, Tenya and Hitoshi already said they could come help me, but Shouto had to talk to his dad about something. We could also go check out the mall to see what they sell, to see if they're appropriate for gifting, too!"

Midoriya thought for a second. It was clear that Uraraka loved Kinu, and wanted her to be comfortable and settle down as quickly as possible. He had done some of his own research on chinchillas, and there was a ton of stuff that they had to keep in mind when it came to those little balls of fluff. And Uraraka was his friend; he couldn't really say no. Plus, he also had to figure out what he was going to get for the person that he got on his slip of paper.

What did people even like as gifts? Midoriya had no idea. He had never gotten any gifts from people before, since before he had entered UA, he literally didn't have any friends. Sure, his parents got him stuff like clothes and books, and Midoriya loved them a lot, but different people had different tastes.

The greenette nodded, and Uraraka's face lit up, "Thank you so much!"

* * *

Midoriya wasn't impressed, to say the least.

When they entered the pet store, Uraraka had asked the employees about where all the items for chinchillas were, and they were immediately directed to the aisles for the rodent section.

Chinchillas may be classified as rodents, but when it came to keeping them as companions, they should be classified under exotic animals.

The first problem was with the enclosures. The people working at the pet store seemed to think that chinchillas were either really small, or they were happy being cooped up in a cage all day. As far as Midoriya knew, chinchillas were curious and energetic creatures, so they needed a lot of space to run and jump around. Being stuck in a cage that was barely bigger than an animal carrier was _not_ ideal in the slightest.

But the enclosure itself wasn't really much of a problem. Since chinchillas like exercise, they were definitely going to be needing an exercise wheel for Kinu to release some pent up energy in the event that the common rooms were too crowded for her to run around in.

Sadly, that's where the second problem came in; all the exercise wheels that were labeled as for chinchillas, or for rodents in general, were definitely not made specifically for chinchillas. They were either too small, had a protruding axle in its center, or were grated.

The first issue was just plain obvious; Kinu wouldn't be able to use the exercise wheel properly. The protruding axle can cause Kinu to suffer back problems if she had to continuously arch her back while running, and she might get a paw caught in the holes in a grated exercise wheel.

Chinchillas needed an exercise wheel that was at least thirty-five centimeters in diameter so that they could maneuver around naturally. Given how much larger they were compared to other rodents like mice and hamsters, the exercise wheel would need a proper foundation, though they could just find a way to secure it inside the enclosure itself.

The third problem was with food. Sure, the pet store had the bare necessities, like hay, formulated pellets, and treats, but none of them were optimized for chinchillas' diets either; they probably just got the cheapest types of foods without any regard as to whether they really were good for the animals, just to maximize profits.

The hay at the pet store was alfalfa hay, which was one of the cheapest kinds of hay since it was grown to feed cattle. Just because it's edible and could be fed to cows, doesn't mean that it's good for chinchillas. In fact, it was quite the opposite; alfalfa hay is high in protein, calcium, and oxalates, so it could lead to several problems if fed in high quantities to chinchillas.

The overpriced, formulated chinchilla pellets were also not really suitable for chinchilla; these cute little balls of fluff should only eat formulated pellets that had fibre, protein, and fat in very specific ratios. Sadly, the pet store just sold variety bags of pellets that had mixed nutritional supplements, which weren't good for feeding chinchillas at all; while they may be balanced in nutrition evenly, chinchillas were intelligent creatures, and would pick out their favourite types of pellets and just refuse to eat the rest.

Treats weren't really a problem; they could easily get oats and raisins at supermarkets. But everything else at the pet store just wasn't optimal for chinchillas.

At least, the pet store knew about dust baths, and sold some ground pumice. Midoriya was ready to throw hands if he was told that chinchillas could be bathed in normal water; with all that thick fur, and the climate that chinchillas live in, it was almost impossible for them to have water baths, and the water wouldn't be able to evaporate properly. The chinchillas would just end up getting hypothermia.

_"What do you think?"_ Koda signed, not really wanting to talk with the employees at the pet store hovering over their group, waiting for them to buy something.

Midoriya signed back, _"I did some research on chinchillas. They're not optimal at all. The cages are too small, the exercise wheels are definitely not good for Kinu, and the food? Not healthy enough."_

Koda heaved a sigh of relief, _"At least someone agrees with me."_

_"I know Ochako did the basic research, and she knows about the enclosure problem; she did clear out a huge section of her room for a large enclosure. But I don't think that she knows about the exercise wheels and the food. I mean... most people just trust what pet stores tell them."_ Midoriya replied.

_"Yeah, but if we can't find what we need here, at a pet store, then where can we even find them?"_ Koda asked, frowning slightly, _"__Sure, we can probably get a larger enclosure meant for other animals, like a cat cage... but what about other things, like platforms and hideaways? Chinchillas generally like to climb and jump around."_

_"Does Kinu even need one? I thought she liked running around and sleeping on Ochako's pillow?"_

_"__I doubt Kinu would need an enclosure, but sometimes, she'll want a safe zone, especially given how energetic Mina and Kaminari can get. I asked her already. It's just like you and your bean bag." _Koda teased.

Midoriya just stared at the taller boy, before replying, _"We can just build them ourselves. We just need to make sure we don't get any wood that might be toxic to chinchillas like yew wood or __aromatic softwoods.__"_

Koda nodded in agreement, as the shop employee sighed in exasperation, "Are you two finally done?"

Shinsou glowered at the employees' disrespect, and while Iida and Uraraka had no idea what the two boys were signing about, the blue-haired boy frowned, "They were using sign language. There's no need to be rude."

The employee huffed at the comment, before the door chimed, signifying there was another customer.

"If you need more help, just find me. I'll be at the counter." The employee spoke up, taking her leave, and Midoriya glared at her behind her back.

"So... what do you guys think?" Uraraka asked, as Koda quickly explained everything that he and Midoriya had discussed, and the brunette nodded, "Hmmm... I agree. I didn't know about the exercise wheels and the food... but it makes sense. So... should I just get the cat cage, and then try to fix everything else later?"

* * *

They eventually decided just to buy some ground pumice, enough that Kinu could have dust baths every other day for at least a month, before leaving the pet store. They were also checking out the mall, and they couldn't do that if they had to lug a gigantic cage around. Plus, Midoriya was certain that he could do better than whatever the pet store had to offer; the boy seemed awfully bitter about something, but no one commented on it.

Midoriya had a mental list in his head; he was going to give something to everyone in 1-A and 1-B, his friends, his teachers, Eri, Sasaki, Awata, Moashi, Togata, Nezu, and then something for the Secret Santa event.

His peers in the hero course were simple; he just gave them a full-on analysis of their quirks and fighting styles, along with their strengths and weaknesses. It was information that he already had, and he might as well give it to them to help them improve and cover up their weaknesses. All he had to do was get forty notebooks to copy all his notes into neatly for each individual person. Nothing too hard; he could finish that in a week. Sure... some of them were nosy and had no sense of personal space, but none of them hit him or tripped him down the stairs or bashed his skull into the walls... at least, not _yet_.

Midoriya honestly wasn't too sure what to get for his teachers. Sure, he didn't like some of them too much, but all of them had been nice to him, and they didn't treat him like utter trash, like all of his previous teachers. He knew that Aizawa didn't have any merch, due to his status as an underground hero; maybe he would like a drawing of himself. Maybe he could sketch all his teachers out on individual posters and give it to them. He would just have to find a crafts store and see if they sold poster paper.

For Nezu, he was thinking of getting that elusive tea that Yaoyorozu had let them all try that one time before the School Festival. It was nice, and he knew that Nezu liked to drink tea, so he would just get it for him. It was probably expensive, but Midoriya didn't really mind much; Nezu had been the perfect parental figure towards him, and Midoriya just wanted to get him something in return.

He was thinking of getting Sasaki several new ties with polka dots; he noticed that the older man liked to wear ties in a variety of bright colours, like yellow, blue, and red, so he might as well just get his employer a new set of dotted ties. He wasn't too sure about what Moashi and Awata would like, but he could figure that out later.

Unlike his teachers, Sasaki, Moashi, and Awata were one of the few adults that didn't have to treat him well, but they were still really nice to him, for some reason, so Midoriya figured that he should get them something to show his appreciation for not being mean to him.

Midoriya did know that Eri liked his dragon necklace, so maybe if he found a jewelry store, he could see if someone could make a copy of it. Togata was also relatively easy to get a gift for; the older student liked ramen. In fact, he liked it a lot; whenever the conversation topic steered towards food, Togata would always start talking about ramen. Midoriya could probably just get the blonde upperclassman a cute ramen keychain or something; all the older students in his elementary and middle schools pushed him around, and treated him like he was less than dirt, and while Togata was overbearing and annoyingly noisy, at least he didn't push him to the ground or kicked him in the stomach whenever they met up in the hallways.

Then... there were his friends. Midoriya had no idea what he wanted to get for his friends. At first, Midoriya wasn't really down for the idea of having friends; they were all kind, nice, cheerful, the complete opposite of him. And yet, they still accepted him for who he was. Sure, at first, Midoriya was only pretending to trust them, just trying to test the waters, but over time, he really did grow fond of his friends.

But he knew that this facade wouldn't last forever, and would fade away to nothingness; it was only a matter of time until everyone found out how fucked up in the head he was.

Until then, he could just pretend that this illusion of friendship was real.

Pretend that people really did care about him.

Pretend that his worthless existence was actually a necessity.


	109. Chapter 109 - Leave this time

"Izuku... why do you need so many notebooks?" Uraraka asked, trying to pick out some of the cheaper yet pretty wrapping paper.

Midoriya had literally picked out a huge stack of notebooks, and had moved to the cashier to pay for them. They weren't as large as the normal ones the boy used, but still... Uraraka had no idea why he needed forty new notebooks. Not to mention the boy had also bought quite a few sheets of poster paper, rolled up neatly under his arm.

Sure, the notebooks and the poster paper weren't too expensive, and the boy liked to take notes, always having a notebook on him to scribble down notes and ideas, and then there was also a bulk discount since he was buying so many, but wasn't forty notebooks a _bit_ too much, even for someone as note-taking savvy as Midoriya?

Midoriya just shrugged, refusing the plastic bag that the cashier had tried to give him to put his purchases, and opted just to carry all the notebooks by hand. At least, all the notebooks had a plastic wrapper around them, and the cashier was kind enough to give him a rubber band for all of his poster paper, so it was easier for him to carry them around.

Also, for some odd reason, Shinsou had also bought some grey felt, much to everyone's confusion.

They left the crafts store, and continued to explore the mall, before Koda requested to stop by a music store. He immediately made a beeline towards the punk rock section, so Shinsou assumed his giftee was Jiro, before Koda selected one of the newest albums by a certain band that Jiro had mentioned that she liked quite some time ago.

Yep, his giftee was most definitely Jiro.

The group spent a bit more time looking around and checking out various other shops, before leaving the mall. Uraraka and Iida were talking excitedly, before the brunette paused outside a dimly lit shop, before smiling, "Hey, we should check this place out before heading back to UA."

"You sure? This place looks a little... _shady_..." Iida commented, as Uraraka dragged him inside, "Don't worry about it, Tenya. It's just a thrift shop. Izuku and I have been here with Yaomomo and the others on that shopping trip after the washing machine problem."

"I've never actually seen such cheap clothes..." Iida pushed his glasses up, looking around and examining the prices, as Uraraka rolled her eyes, "They're mostly second hand, so things here are much cheaper than at normal retail stores. I used to visit places like this all the time with my parents. You have to be careful of what you buy, and you do have to check for holes in plushes and clothing, but reputable thift shops usually have goods of decent enough quality."

"I... see..." Iida nodded, "Well, that makes perfect sense! I shall help you guys check anything that you want to buy!"

Shinsou saw something that caught his eye, and snickered as he picked up two small plushies that were practically brand new, "I'm getting these."

"Huh? I... think I know they're for... and why you bought the grey cloth at the crafts store..." Iida peered at the black cat plush and the yellow cockatoo plush in the lavender haired boy's hand, as Shinsou grinned cheekily, "Yep."

With Midoriya and Koda's help, Uraraka dug around in some boxes that seemed to contain files and books, before pulling out several posters, tied up in a rubber band. She blew the dust off them, and took off the rubber band, before she started looking through them.

"There's an Endeavor one." Uraraka sniggered, "We should bring Shouto here sometime and show him."

"I think that would just piss him off." Shinsou laughed, as Iida checked over the plushies ensuring that there weren't any holes in them. Uraraka carefully placed the posters aside and tied them back up, before fishing out another batch of posters and sieving through them.

"Gotcha!" Uraraka grinned victoriously, pulling out a poster of Crimson Riot, "When we popped over last time, the owner said that they had some posters of old school heroes that apparently, weren't very popular. The posters weren't popular, I mean, not the heroes. So I was actually hoping I could find one here."

"Kirishima is your giftee? He's a huge fan of Crimson Riot." Koda asked, and Uraraka nodded, "Yeah, when we had that room presentation thing, I don't really remember him having a poster of Crimson Riot in his room."

Shinsou and Uraraka paid for their purchases, which weren't very expensive, and the students went on their way.

* * *

"What's the meaning of this?" Kayama asked, and Ishiyama nodded, "Why are the internships starting again so suddenly?"

"Previously, our agreement with the other hero agencies was to conduct internships on an "on-demand" basis. However, this time around, we've received a direct request from the Public Safety Commission to conduct practical field training for all the hero department students." Nezu replied.

"A request!? You mean that they're telling us to force them to do internships!?" Kan demanded, and Nezu sighed, "Yes..."

"But to go this far... to this extent..." Kayama muttered, "Aren't they basically admitting that they don't have enough manpower, despite the fact that we have more heroes than ever?"

"_In response to the recent growth of large-scale villain organizations, we would like all the students to gain experience..._" Ectoplasm directly quoted, "No doubt something else must have happened at Deika City for them to want even first-years to be prepared."

"It's most likely that the League of Villains is involved... but for some reason, they're wording it very vaguely." Snipe spoke up.

Nezu explained, "It seems like they have reason to suspect some kind of imminent threat. but as Kayama said, they're most likely doing so because they want to hide the fact that they know this. The "internship" themselves feel like some sort of hidden message to us heroes."

"If that's the case, then it makes sense that they couldn't tell us directly. Something's not right, and it's not like they can make a public announcement." Aizawa muttered, "Endeavor's fight with the Nomu has created a facade that the heroes are more than capable of protecting the civilians, and outrightly admitting the shortage of manpower would destroy that fragile illusion."

"It's the first time something like this has happened..." Ishiyama sighed worriedly, and Nezu nodded, "In any case, preparing for the dangers ahead is the norm for us heroes. Let's start out by reaching to some of the top heroes. We need to ensure the students are participating in internships that are most beneficial towards them. After the meeting, please go inform the students that they have some "winter break homework". Also... Aizawa, you might want to explain "internship hopping" to your class."

Aizawa raised an eyebrow, "Some of them got offers?"

Nezu nodded, "Yeah. Those who have already had internships and participated in the raid of the Eight Precepts of Death were given several offers, and Tokoyami has also received a couple of offers, given that Hawks' current behavior seems a little... _suspicious_..."

* * *

There was a knock on the door, and Nezu looked up, confused, "Yes? Come in."

The door was pushed open, and Nezu found Shinsou closing the door behind him gently, before turning to face the animal principal, "I hope I'm not too much of a bother, Principal Nezu."

"Hello, Shinsou." Nezu greeted, chuckling, "Did you need anything?"

Shinsou just looked away, thinking for a second, before asking, "I was just thinking... We went to the mall yesterday, and we have this Secret Santa thing going on in our class."

"Alright?" Nezu asked, as Shinsou continued, "So... I got Izuku... but I don't really know what to get him... because he's really great and can literally make anything he wants... and he's the nicest and kindest person I've ever known, and -"

"You like him, don't you?"

Shinsou's eyebrows shot up, and he stammered, embarrassed, "Uh... _yeah_? How did you -"

"Aizawa and Yamada talk about it often enough in the teacher's lounge." Nezu rolled his eyes, before scrutinizing Shinsou from head to toe, "You're a nice kid, Shinsou. I've known you since Aizawa and Yamada adopted you, and I know you won't mistreat Izuku. And if Izuku accepts you too... then I have no objections. But as his guardian, I'm warning you, if you ever break his heart, I will hunt you down and give you a fate worse than death."

Shinsou just froze up under Nezu's scrutiny, until the animal principal sighed, "Izuku's suffered enough. He doesn't need even more pain piled up on top of everything else. I don't think I have to tell you this, Shinsou... but Izuku may never ever be fully free from the shackles of his past. There's just too much trauma for him to just brush aside so easily."

Midoriya had been left out in a world that had beaten him up and broken him apart, and as much as the greenette was trying to hold himself together, to prevent himself from breaking apart, all the cracks remained, leaving permanent scars on the poor boy's mind. There was just too much trauma that occurred in too short a time, and Midoriya had spent pretty much his entire life being hated and ostracized due to his lack of a quirk.

In the right environment, with proper sufficient help and ample support, Midoriya would be able to recover, but there was always a possibility of something triggering a relapse, especially in such a stressful profession such as heroism. Not to mention the amount of attention that Midoriya had, due to all the unfortunate events that had taken place.

Shinsou did understand what Nezu was talking about; he had been lucky, and had received help before he had completely self-destructed and broken apart. But Midoriya hadn't been lucky; he had been forced into the worst possible scenario, thrown into a world that completely detested him and did everything they could to destroy him. Midoriya hadn't been able to escape, and while he had been doing all he could to stay afloat, to avoid being torn apart at the seams, he couldn't stop himself from being pulled in and drowning in the dark inky whirlpool of self-loathing and depression.

"Yeah... I know that." Shinsou replied softly, "But he deserves better than this."

Nezu looked away from the lavender haired boy, and gazed out of the window, before sighing again, "Izuku only wants the best for everyone, and sadly, due to my job, there are things that he would hide from me, so that I wouldn't worry about him, but that just makes me worry more. There's only so much that digging around in old records can do, and Izuku doesn't tell me everything, so I really... don't know the full story of his background and past. When it comes to some of the deeper, more sensitive issues... those are the things that he would talk to you and your other friends. He would avoid telling me anything that he deems too serious, or would take too much time to solve."

The animal principal raised his head, glancing at Shinsou, before admitting, "Out of all your friends, Izuku is the most familiar with you, since he's met you before, when you two were younger, more open, more vulnerable. I don't think that he's forgotten what's happened in your past. Despite everything that's happened, he knows that you understand him, to an extent. He trusts you the most, Shinsou. More than anyone else in your class. Breaking that trust would hurt him more than anything else."

Shinsou just gazed at Nezu, not knowing how else to react, as Nezu changed the topic, immediately breaking the silence, "Izuku likes challenging puzzles, things that he has to think about and ponder over. You can start from there. Good luck."


	110. Chapter 110 - I pull on you

Midoriya rubbed his eyes as he stared at his piece of paper, with notes of different gifts written down on them. He had already finished copying the notes of three of his classmates, and he wanted to take a break before continuing. He didn't want his hand to cramp up from writing notes non-stop, and why not use that break to try and figure out what to get for all the others?

He wasn't too sure what to get for his friends, his Secret Santa giftee, and the two sidekicks of Sasaki.

He did remember there being that time when Awata had accompanied the two interns to the train station since it was raining and neither of the students had an umbrella, and she had offhandedly mentioned that she really liked rain, and that she enjoyed showers and long baths after a stressful day at work. Maybe he should get Awata some bath salts?

He wasn't too sure how to go about getting that though; he knew nothing about bath salts. Maybe he should ask some of the girls about it.

And there was that other time where Moashi had replied that he liked aromatic scents. Perhaps he could make Moashi some potpourri; they smelt nice, and they could be used as a decoration. It wasn't too expensive to get some nice flowers, and he could just use the oven in the art room and finish the entire thing in an afternoon. He needed a fixative, but he could borrow that from the science lab. He'd rather make his gifts instead of buying them; he had no idea how much ties and the Gold Tea or... whatever that elusive tea was, and he wanted to make sure that he had enough for that.

His problem with potpourri wasn't that he didn't know how to make it; he had made it before, with his mother. He just didn't want to be using the oven and end up getting a panic attack midway. Maybe he should ask someone to accompany him to the art room, just in case. He didn't want to blow up the school by accident; Hatsume already did that enough, and he did not want to put more stress on Maijima or Nezu in having to fix it.

That was Awata and Moashi down. But he still had no idea what to get for his friends. Iida was, no doubt, a fan of Tensei, looking up to his big brother, and always sang his praises whenever the older Iida was mentioned, but the bespectacled teen didn't seem to have any merch of Ingenium at all. And Uraraka was a huge fan of Thirteen, and Midoriya didn't recall her having any merch of the Space Hero. Maybe he could get them something along those lines.

His hands felt fine now, though, so he would continue making notes. He'll think about the gift problem later.

* * *

"Alright. Today, I'm going to be talking to you all about "internship hopping". Uraraka, Asui, Midoriya, Kirishima, Tokoyami, this applies to all five of you at the moment, but the rest of you should also listen up because it's likely that you will all be involved in this somewhat." Aizawa stated, "There isn't actually a proper term for this, so we just use "internship hopping" to make it easier for everyone to understand. You guys know what "job hopping" is, right?"

There was some murmuring, and Aizawa sighed, "Iida, explain."

"Yes, Aizawa-sensei." Iida replied, standing up straight, "Job hopping when a person has a pattern of changing what companies they work for, every year or two. They usually choose to resign on their own instead of being laid off or fired, or other reasons like the closing down of a company. But isn't something like that considered as negative?"

Aizawa shrugged, "Job hopping isn't too uncommon; most people do it while they're still discovering their career path. It isn't uncommon for heroes to be transferred through several agencies before they find one that is suitable for them. Basically, "internship hopping" is the same thing; you cycle through several different internship opportunities, working under different heroes and in a variety of agencies. But this is different from job hopping; you are still signed under one main agency as interns, but another agency puts out a request to "borrow" you for a few days, so to speak."

"So, for example, Uraraka and Tsu are working under Ryukyu for their work studies, but let's say, Fat Gum wants to borrow them for something, so they would be working with Fat Gum for a short duration, while still being signed under Ryukyu, before going back to their work studies?" Yaoyorozu asked.

"Yes." Aizawa nodded, "Basically, it's exactly what Yaoyorozu mentioned. Except it's on a... larger scale."

"What do you mean?" Tokoyami asked, as Aizawa replied, "You're not just being scouted by one agency for a couple of days. You have requests from several other different agencies."

"We are!?" Uraraka nearly shrieked, as Aizawa nodded, "Yes. This is more applicable to you five, who currently already have signed work study contracts with specific pro heroes. Those of you who don't have any work studies yet, UA will be working to assign you to other heroes as soon as possible, since this round of internships is mandatory rather than a voluntary exercise. We'll find a place for all of you. But given everything that UA's going through, it's most likely that other heroes would want to borrow you for a few days, either to increase their fame, or they need your specific quirks or skills for a job. Things right now are a bit messy, but we're doing our best to sort everything out soon."

"So... you said that we have several offers, kero..." Asui muttered, "So how will we sort this out?"

"You'll have to talk with your current work study heroes about that, and work out the arrangements." Aizawa replied, "Tokoyami, I think you'll have to go over to Hawks' agency after school to figure it out. Midoriya, Uraraka, Asui, Kirishima, I believe the Big Three will come and find you; they're also in similar positions, with the pro heroes they're interning under being busy with stuff that the Hero Commission has given them. You'll have to check with them for the specifics, though."

* * *

"Hey, Bakugou, are you going back to Best Jeanist for the work studies?" Sero asked, as he flicked through the news.

_"Your determination for being named "Explosion Murder" is admirable, but you can't have the word "murder" in your hero name. A name is a wish; it is what you aspire to be, and what you ought to be. Being a hero means that you're a symbol, an icon of safety, an example for other people to look up to. It isn't just about beating up villains; you're upholding the face of society. You have yet to look outwards, Bakugou, but once you've seen the outside world, I'm sure that you'll understand."_

_"... how about Ground Zero?"_

_"That is a much better name. Good job, Bakugou."_

"I don't know. No one even knows where that jeans-obsessed hair gel fucker is." Bakugou snapped back; it was clear he still held some sort of grudge against Hakamata for forcing him to wear jeans out on patrols, and for physically restraining him with his quirk in order to gel his spikey, explosive hair back during the internships, but in some sort of tsundere-ish way, Bakugou was worried about the Fiber Hero.

"Ahh, well, you had a lot of options before, right? During the Sports Festival! I'm sure you can go to any of those heroes and they'll accept you for your work studies!" Kirishima grinned, but Bakugou just growled, "I'm not going to learn anything from a bunch of nameless extras."

"Hey, Tenya, will you be working with Manual again? Or will you be going with your brother?" Shinsou asked, as Iida pondered over the question, "I'm not sure, actually. As much as I'm a fan of my brother, I think it might be more beneficial to intern with someone like Manual. My brother is much faster than me in terms of speed and agility, and all his sidekicks know their places and how to work with him; if I were to intern with Ingenium, I fear that I would end up lagging behind."

"Makes sense." Shinsou nodded, "Edgeshot is already busy with the Lurkers, and already said I couldn't do my work studies with him, so I'm kind of stuck at the moment."

"Well... maybe you can try again?" Jiro asked, "When we were first told about the work studies, the Lurkers was a new group consisting of Kamui Woods, Edgeshot and Mt Lady. It makes sense that they wouldn't take on work studies students at that time. But now that they're an established group, maybe they'll be open to letting you in."

"Who gives a shit about that, you bootleg Eraserhead!?" Bakugou snorted.

Todoroki seemed to be pondering over something, before he spoke up, "Bakugou, if you have nowhere to go, would you want to join me as interns of Endeavor?"

Bakugou turned towards Todoroki, and snorted, "You better damned well keep up, Icyhot. Endeavor may be your father, but I'll surpass both you and him."

"Is that a challenge?" Todoroki replied, and Bakugou snapped, "You bet it fucking is, you half and half bastard. Don't you dare regret inviting me."

"Hey guys!" Togata burst into the 1-A dorms, "Do you guys know about internship hopping?"

"Yeah! Aizawa-sensei explained it to us!" Ashido shot the blonde upperclassman a thumbs up, and Togata grinned, "Alright then! I guess I don't have to explain anything. Midoriya, Sir sent me a message, saying that you and I should both go over to the agency tomorrow in order to discuss our work studies arrangements! You okay with the timing?"

Midoriya wasn't too sure if he really had a say in this, or if Togata was just being nice, but Midoriya really didn't have anything else planned, so he just nodded.

"Great! I'll come over tomorrow morning, and we'll pop over. " Togata added, "I don't think you have to bring Reiko and Ryuto, though, but they can come if you want."

Midoriya nodded, and stood up from the couch, making his way to his room.

If they were all going to be busy with the work studies, then he had to finish all those gifts, fast, before things got way too hectic and they were all too tired to function.

At least, sketches wouldn't take too long for him to finish. He already had several sketches of his teachers in his notebook, while he was making notes on them; all he had to do was to make a larger version. He could deal with all the stuff he had to buy later, but if he was going to make notes and draw, then he needed to get that done as soon as possible.

With the League of Villains having disappeared for no reason, and the sudden destruction of Deika City was also worrying. Somehow, most of the destruction looked like the work of Shigaraki's Decay, but that was impossible; Shigaraki's Decay was limited to the point of contact that Shigaraki makes with his target, though its effects could spread if the chosen target was a human or something organic. There was no way that Shigaraki could disintegrate such a large area, all on his own. Something else had to be at play, and Midoriya hated that he had no idea what it was.

There was also something else nagging at the back of his mind, something to do with Kurogiri, but he could deal with all of that later.

He had a really bad feeling about what was to come, and he needed to be ready. He didn't want to be useless, to be a liability, to be the one that pulled everyone down.


	111. Chapter 111 - When everything overturns

"Alright. As I said, due to our current assignment by the Hero Commission, we have deemed it too unsafe to bring work studies students and interns. We do not even know what we're dealing with, and while Midoriya's quick analysis skills, as well as Mirio's quirks will be a great help, we don't want to reveal too many cards too soon." Sasaki handed Midoriya and Togata a piece of paper each, "Here is a list of other heroes who would like to have you as short term interns, including the location of their agencies, what they would like you to do, how long you'll be working with them, and how much they'll be willing to pay, since these are paid internships."

Togata leaned over to look at Midoriya's list, and sighed, almost whining, "Aww, come on. We don't have any agencies in common?"

"Sadly, apparently not." Sasaki pushed his glasses up, "I was hoping you two could be paired together; you two are, at least, somewhat familiar with each other's fighting styles, and you can watch each other's backs. But I suppose you two are being requested and scouted for different skills."

Midoriya grimaced internally as he read through his list; he had gotten offers from various heroes, such as Enji, Fukukado, Takagi, Uwabami, and X-Less. Some of them were more tolerable, but Midoriya _really_ didn't want to deal with noisy chatterboxes like Fukukado, or fame-oriented celebrity heroes like Uwabami.

And wasn't Fukukado a teacher at Ketsubutsu Academy? Why on earth would she want him as an intern when she had other students that she could take on?

Most of the heroes only wanted him for a day or two, so it was most likely just for analysis instead of major things like patrolling and seeking out criminals. That was, at least, more tolerable; Midoriya didn't think he could stand being around someone like Fukukado or Uwabami for more than two days.

"I'll give you some time to look over the different heroes, and do your own research." Sasaki sighed, "I'm sorry that we couldn't conduct proper internships and work studies for you two during a crucial period like this, but we don't have any other choices, considering that it's now mandatory."

"Ah ha ha, no worries!" Togata smiled brightly, "Things like that happen! A small set back isn't going to stop us from learning and improving to become heroes! Leave it to us, Sir!"

"Well, I'll just leave it to you to decide on which internships you'd like to take on." Sasaki nodded, "You two can go back to UA, if you wish. Just keep in mind that the dates of the various internships do not overlap. And please give me your replies within the week, so that we can make suitable arrangements with the other agencies as soon as possible."

* * *

Midoriya looked through all the options, and ticked them all off, leaving the sheet of paper in Sasaki's office before he left the agency with Togata; the elder boy had also filled out his form. He may not like some of the pros that were interested in his skills, but he would just suck it up and deal with it; if he was to be ready for whatever was to come, he couldn't let a small thing like his personal preferences get in the way of gaining experience.

Plus, if he could help people in the process, why would he pass up an opportunity to do so?

However, that just meant that Midoriya had a time limit. He only had one free week to finish up most of his Christmas gifts before he would be preoccupied with his work studies, and the fact that he still needed to work on Kinu's enclosure had slipped his mind completely. He had already finished his notes for fifteen of his classmates, and he could finish the rest of them relatively quicker, now that he had a good idea of the placement of all the notes and details.

Moashi's gift... maybe he could do that in conjunction with Kinu's enclosure? Since there was a two hour period of baking time to dry out the flowers and petals, Midoriya could use it to work on other things. Nah, that would be way too messy; Midoriya had no idea how long they would even need to finish with the enclosure, and he should get that done as soon as possible.

Midoriya didn't really know how to work with wires that weren't related to electronics, but thankfully, Maijima had already fixed up a relatively large cage that could be used; Midoriya suspected that Nezu had told him about Kinu when Uraraka had just adopted the chinchilla.

At the very least, that made things easier. Plus, the support course also had a lot of scrap wood that they had thrown around the labs, since they had to fix cupboards and other wooden furniture, and luckily, they also happened to be safe for chinchillas; maybe Nezu was also part chinchilla, so they had make sure that they got furniture made of wood that wasn't toxic for him?

Honestly, Midoriya didn't really care what animal Nezu was; no matter what, Nezu was still Nezu, and he was one of the most awesome heroes ever.

Midoriya pulled out his phone to text Nezu and Koda; the greenette usually never used the messaging application on his phone, not wanting to look at all the nasty messages and suicide threats from his former classmates. Midoriya typed out a quick text, stating that he was going to start working on Kinu's enclosure, and he needed to use the Development Studio to grab some power tools; Midoriya wasn't in the mood to be sawing through wood by hand.

The greenette pocketed his phone, and sighed, as he and Togata stood on the train, waiting for their stop so they could get off the crowded train carriage.

Togata turned to the shorter boy, and smiled, "Hey, Midoriya. When you go on your work studies... take care of yourself, okay? If you meet another mean person who says terrible things to you, just ignore them, okay?"

Midoriya just idly nodded, not really listening as Togata continued rambling on and on about something, as his phone vibrated; he had received a thumbs up emoji from Koda, who also mentioned that Shinsou and Uraraka were also going to join them.

* * *

Midoriya sighed, running a towel through his hair and plopped down on his chair, reaching out for another notebook.

He had just finished helping Uraraka with Kinu's enclosure, and with Hatsume, Koda, Uraraka, and Shinsou's help, it actually didn't take them too long to do so. The cage that Maijima had made was sturdy and strong enough, so all the kids had to do was sand out all the wooden planks to ensure that there aren't any splinters, before attaching all the platforms on the inside of the enclosure. They also added several hideaways, using screws to hold everything together.

It also wasn't too hard for them to make an exercise wheel; Hatumse knew exactly what they wanted, and both she and Midoriya were proficient in using power tools, and they were easily able to secure it to the side of the cage.

They did get Kodai's help in bringing the enclosure to Uraraka's room, since Kodai could shrink things in her quirk, and Kinu seemed to like her enclosure enough.

Midoriya pulled on a hoodie and sweatpants, and hung his towel around his neck, before making his way down to the kitchen. He pulled out a cup of instant noodles from the cupboard, and set the water to boil, before resting his head on the kitchen counter, staring at the kettle as he waited for the water to heat up.

He heard some giggling, and out of the corner of his eye, Midoriya noticed something green on the ground. Frowning, Midoriya rubbed his eyes, and sat up, taking a better look at whatever the thing was.

Why on earth was there a cucumber on the floor?

The greenette just stared at the fruit, not really sure what to do about it. They hadn't gone grocery shopping today, so there was no reason for a cucumber to be sitting on the floor without anyone noticing.

Midoriya heard the familiar whistling of the kettle, and looked up, before picking the cucumber off the ground and placing it on the table carefully. If someone did lose it, they'll probably find it sitting on the counter.

Satisfied, Midoriya poured the hot water into his instant noodles, and brought his dinner back up to his room.

He had more notes to write, and the faster he finished that, the earlier he could start on the sketches.

Or maybe he should sketch first, since drawing and writing used different muscles in the hand? Does the order of activities affect the overall efficiency of completing all of his tasks? Does -

_Focus on the noodles, dammit. You don't want to spill that all over yourself, do you?_

Huh. For once, that annoying voice in his head was being helpful.

_Don't be stupid. I'm you, as much as you are. I'm not some separate entity or some shit like that. I'm just a part of you that you've shoved aside for years, a part of you that you chose to ignore._

_I only want the best for you, Deku._

Midoriya just sighed, opening the door to his room and placing his instant cup noodles on the table. Mental arguments with himself just sucked, and he hated them. He should just concentrate on his task at hand, and finish those gifts up as soon as possible.

_Oh yeah. The tea and bath salts..._

Midoriya wondered if Yaoyorozu would know anything about it. She was much more level headed and calm compared to the other members of his class, and Midoriya did find her a lot more tolerable.

The green haired boy sighed, and stretched, leaving his noodles on the table as he exited his room again. It was past dinner time, but it wasn't late enough for his peers to be sleeping. Maybe Yaoyorozu was in her room?

Midoriya trudged up the stairs, all the way up to the fifth floor, and carefully made his way over to the female side of the dorms.

He quickly identified Yaoyorozu's door, and knocked on it gently.

"Give me a second!" Yaoyorozu's voice rang out, and there was a shuffling sound as Yaoyorozu opened her door, wearing her pajamas and slippers.

It took her a second to see who it was, and she smiled kindly at Midoriya, "Ah. Hello, Midoriya. Did you need something?"

Midoriya looked away, not really sure how to phrase his very awkward sounding question, before he looked back up at Yaoyorozu, "Do you... know where I can get.. that golden tea... or something?"

"Golden tea... Oh, You mean Golden Tips Imperial!" Yaoyorozu's eyes lit up in recognition, "It's really good tea. There's a small cafe near UA that sells it, near that hardware store. I'm not sure if they sell the tea leaves, but maybe you can ask them about it."

Midoriya nodded gratefully; at least, he had a lead. Now onto the weirder question, "Also... do you know where I can... get bath salt?"

"Is this for the Secret Santa?" Yaoyorozu asked, curiously, but Midoriya shook his head, trying to force out an explanation, "Someone...nice... in the agency..."

"Got it." Yaoyorozu nodded, "Hold on a second."

The black haired girl went back into her room, rummaging through her drawers, before pulling out some slips of paper victoriously. Grinning, Yaoyorozu walked back over to Midoriya, and gave the paper slips to him, explaining, "These are discount coupons. There's a shop in that mall near UA that sells bath salts and other things like cosmetics, really good quality, and pretty reasonably priced. My family buys stuff from them a lot, and we keep getting coupons. You can use these to lower the price of the stuff you buy."

Midoriya just stared at the coupons in confusion as he hesitantly took them from the black haired girl's hands.

Why would people make it so that they were paid less for the same amount of goods? Then again, it was some sort of incentive to ensure that customers would return to buy more products... so it did make some sort of sense... in a really weird, roundabout way.

Yaoyorozu smiled even brighter, as Midoriya nodded his head, "Thank you..."

"No worries!" She chirped, her eyes shimmering under the light, "If you need more help, you can just ask!"

Midoriya nodded again, and Yaoyorozu bid him goodnight, before she closed her room door, and the greenette headed back towards the staircase, not hearing the thump from behind Yaoyorozu's door.

The vice class representative sank to the floor, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, and she wiped them away, smiling giddily; she was just so happy that her usually closed off classmate was actually opening up, even if he was just awkwardly asking about where he could buy things.

Yaoyorozu pulled herself to her feet, using her sleeves to wipe away the remaining tears. Midoriya was making progress, even if it was slow, and she was just so happy about that.


	112. Chapter 112 - Fall in and fall away

Iida was going to the mall to buy something, most likely for his Secret Santa giftee, and Midoriya just tagged along, and needed to get some other gifts. He also had to get more food for Reiko and Ryuto anyways. Koda had also joined them, since he wanted to get more snacks for his rabbit.

Midoriya noticed the shop that Yaoyorozu had been talking about, and popped inside, much to the confusion of his two companions, but neither Iida nor Koda commented on it, and just followed him inside.

Noticing their confusion, Midoriya subtly signed that he was getting a gift for someone in the Nighteye Agency, and Koda translated it for Iida. Midoriya quickly picked out several different types of bath salts that he thought Awata might like, and he headed over to the cashier to pay for them.

He remembered that Yaoyorozu had given him some discount vouchers, and pulled them out, though he had absolutely no idea how to use them. Luckily for him, Iida noticed his mild distress, and immediately helped him to settle his purchases, before the teenagers moved on to buy other things. Their next stop had been one of those types of stores that seemed to sell pretty much anything, and it didn't take Iida too long to find what he was looking for; a portable cooking set.

Midoriya deduced that Iida's giftee was most likely Sato, and quickly made a mental note of that; he was actually pretty curious as to who was getting a gift for who. Maybe that was why his classmates seemed way too hyped up over the idea of a Secret Santa.

They visited the pet store and the supermarket, grabbing whatever they needed, including some snacks for Ashido and Kaminari, recalling that they were complaining that they kept running out of chips and other snacks. Midoriya really did have to wonder where all their snacks were going.

The students just happened to walk past a tie shop, and Midoriya decided to pop inside to see if there was anything he could get for Sasaki. Midoriya himself hated ties; he didn't know how to tie them properly, and they always reminded him of that time where he had tried to hang himself. But he'll just suck it up and quickly grab what he needed before getting out of there; it wasn't like he could do anything else.

"Ah... this is a very good shop for getting ties." Iida nodded, looking around, "Is there something you're looking for?"

"... dots..." Midoriya muttered, scanning the store warily, as Iida looked around the shop before smiling, leading Midoriya over to one section of the store, "... plain ties are here... the stripes are over there... Alright, they should be right over here."

Midoriya quickly glanced through all the options; there were a variety of coloured ties hanging off really weird looking racks, and there were also some that were bundled up neatly and placed in boxes. Luckily for him, there was one box that held three ties, in the exact colours that Midoriya was looking for, so he just checked the ties to ensure that there weren't any defects, and just bought it.

"I think that's everything we need..." Iida hummed, pulling out a shopping list from the back of his pocket and ticking off everything that they had bought, "Let's go back to the dorms. The sun's going to set soon and it's going to be dark, especially now that it's winter."

* * *

Midoriya had just finished storing all the food products in the kitchen, and was going to plop himself down in his bean bag when a voice rang out.

"Hey, uh, Midoriya?"

The greenette turned around, confused, as the orange haired class representative from 1-B walked up to him.

"Uh... this may sound weird..." Kendo laughed, "But you remember that thing you did in the Joint Training Session while you were fighting Shinsou?"

"Oh... that..." Kaminari piped up, overhearing the conversation, "That was so cool! Shinsou just threw his scarf at you, but you just grabbed it and you just went WHEWWW over his head, and then BAM and you went WHOOSH and WHOOP and flipped him over and KA BAM he's on the ground."

Midoriya just blinked, literally having no idea what the electric blonde had just said, "... huh?"

"You know, that thing you did where you flipped Shinsou over." Kendo tried to explain, as Ashido smiled brightly, waving her arms about animatedly, "Yeah! Your legs just hooked onto Shinsou and you flipped him over and yeeted him into the ground!"

"... that actually hurts a lot..." Shinsou muttered, sitting on the ground as he flicked through his phone, scrolling through his texts with the hero he was interning with.

"Yeah, that one." Kendo nodded, "Can you... uh... teach me how to do that?"

Midoriya just stared at them, completely dumbfounded by what his classmates were talking about; he had done what? They were fighting? And when? Why didn't he remember anything about that?

"Do you not remember the fights?" Kaminari asked, noticing how still the boy was.

"Uh... Izuku? You okay?" Shinsou asked, looking up at the green haired boy. It wasn't obvious, the slight furrowing of his brows was more than enough to indicate that Midoriya had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

That was more than enough to be a cause for alarm; Midoriya had a really good memory, so him forgetting about something like that was really worrying. Sitting up straight, Shinsou asked, "Izuku, do you remember the joint training session we had? Right before you were stuck in the infirmary because you were sick?"

_"Not... really..." _Midoriya signed in response, _"I do remember fighting Mineta, Ashido and Uraraka... was it then?"_

"Yeah." Shinsou nodded; at least, Midoriya remembered a small portion of the fight, "Do you remember how many fights you had on that day?"

Midoriya seemed to think about it for a minute, _"... one?"_

"You had two fights, Izuku." Shinsou shook his head, "What's the last thing you remember before that?"

Scratching his head, Midoriya pondered over the question, before looking up,_ "Game night... Eri staying in UA... Pussycats and Kota... Endeavor and Nomu fight..."_

Shinsou frowned; that was almost a week and a half of missing memories. Waving over to Iida, who had just come down to the kitchen for some water, the lavender haired boy called out, "Hey! Tenya, you have Recovery Girl's number, right?"

Iida paused, and nodded, fishing out his phone, "Yes? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah, Izuku doesn't really remember some stuff that happened before the joint training session." Shinsou replied, and Iida's eyebrows shot up in alarm, "I shall ask her."

Iida tapped furiously on his phone, sending out a quick text, and it only took another minute before Shuzenji responded to his message. The bespectacled boy scanned through the reply quickly, before speaking up, "Uh... Recovery Girl said it's not out of the ordinary for him to not really remember what had happened, given how high his fever was. I think it's alright. But if you feel unwell again, you should come and tell us."

"Whew... At least it's not something serious..." Kendo sighed, as Midoriya's shoulders slumped, remembering the countless sleepless nights and puking; he hated being sick, he hated having absolutely no idea of what happened before, it was annoying, and it was a waste of time trying to figure out just what he had missed.

That actually did explain why the teachers were giving back homework that he had absolutely no recollection of even doing, though; he just didn't remember the teachers giving out the homework, he didn't remember doing it, and he didn't remember handing it up.

"But seriously, though, for real. That move was so cool." Kaminari grinned, and Kendo nodded, "Yeah... if it's not too much trouble... I was wondering if you could teach me?"

Midoriya just scratched his arm, not really sure how to react. He wasn't too familiar with the students from 1-B, but he didn't want to tell that to Kendo directly; that was just plain rude.

Noticing that Midoriya was slightly fidgety, Shinsou looked up, putting his phone in his pocket, "Maybe sometime later? We all have those work study things coming up... things are going to be real messy soon."

"Hmm... that makes sense." Kendo smiled, "I'm so sorry for bothering you."

"... it's... fine..." Midoriya muttered, looking towards the ground, as Kendo went back to her dorms, and the greenette stood up, heading back to his room.

He just needed to finish the notes of ten more of his classmates, and finish up the final touches of the sketches of Ishiyama and Kayama, before starting on Ectoplasm and Snipe.

Maybe he should also get Shuzenji something, for constantly tolerating him and healing him up after every single fight he's gotten injured in.

* * *

Shinsou sat on his bed, fiddling with the needle and thread as he messily sewed something out of the grey cloth, Shirou curled up in a ball by his side. Midoriya continued scribbling into his notebook, using the low table sitting in the middle of the lavender haired boy's room, as Ryuto nibbled on his earlobe; Reiko was currently hanging out in Koda's room, with Yuwai and Kinu.

They were both hanging on Shinsou's room, since everyone else in their friend group was currently out; Todoroki had brought Bakugou to meet Enji for their internships, Koda had gone with Fukidashi to talk to the hero they would be interning with, Hado had grabbed Uraraka and Asui to talk about something related to their work studies, and Iida was gone to talk to Mizushima about his internship.

Shinsou had already confirmed his internship; just that the agency he was working with wanted to finish up a bit more paperwork before the lavender haired boy went to work for them, so Shinsou was still stuck in the dorms for the time being.

Midoriya was just finishing up the last of the notes that he planned to give to his classmates, and was flipping over to the last page when he heard Shinsou mutter, "Oww... damn it..."

Midoriya looked up at the bed, noticing that Shinsou had put his index finger to his mouth, almost close to pouting, using his other hand to hold the needle and thread. Concerned, Midoriya closed his notebook gently, and stood up, crawling onto Shinsou's bed.

He grabbed the older boy's arm, forcing him to pull his finger out of his mouth to take a look at his hand.

"I'm fine..." Shinsou muttered as Midoriya examined the wound; it was just a small prick, and it was more annoying than painful. It was deeper than a usual pricking wound, since Shinsou had tried to force the needle through several layers of cloth, but it was really nothing too serious.

Midoriya didn't seem to0 happy about it, though, and pulled out a bandage from his back pocket. He ripped the packaging open and stuck the bandage on Shinsou's finger, before picking up the needle and cloth and proceeded to finish Shinsou's sewing.

"Wait.. I'm fine... you don't have to..." Shinsou tried to protest, but Midoriya just ignored him, easily stitching up whatever Shinsou had been trying to do.

Shinsou just watched as Midoriya worked with the needle; he considered himself decent enough at sewing, at least, good enough to patch up whatever clothes his former parents threw at him to the point where it was somewhat presentable, but Midoriya was on a whole new level. His sewing was much faster and neat, almost professional-looking, and Shinsou could barely see the seams as Midoriya turned it inside out.

"You know how to sew?" Shinsou mutedly asked, as Midoriya stitched a few lines across the base of the small cloth box, before attaching it to a small strip of cloth that Shinsou had already cut out.

"... I had to patch up my own clothes... and myself...sometimes..." Midoriya murmured, grabbing the yellow and white cockatoo plush that Shinsou had bought, and looped the cloth around it. He didn't want to talk about it, but oddly enough, he trusted the taller boy, and it was rude to not give him an answer.

"Oh... I had to fix my own clothes too..." Shinsou replied, watching as Midoriya sewed the entire thing around the neck of the cockatoo plush.

Yeah, that was why he trusted Shinsou. When it came to their pasts... they weren't too different. Being quirkless, having a villainous quirk, all they got from this cruel world was insults over something they had no choice in, harsh criticism for no reason other than their genetics, and constantly being told that they didn't deserve to live.

To the rest of the world, their very existence was a crime.

Midoriya was just glad that he had managed to help the other boy, and that he had found a good home with Aizawa and Yamada. He could still remember the lavender haired boy's sobs when they had first met, six years ago, in a dark, dingy alleyway, as Shinsou spilled his entire story to him. Shinsou had been unluckier than him, with his biological parents turning on him once they realized what his quirk was. Midoriya's own parents had loved him, had given their lives for his survival, and the greenette could understand how strangers would hate him for his quirklessness.

If even his own parents had hated him for being quirkless... Midoriya really wouldn't have known what he would have done. If they hated him, would his father have tried to train him up, teach him how to fight? If they hated him, would his mother have encouraged him to continue with his analysis, and try to cheer him up whenever he was down?

If they hated him... would they have risked their lives to protect him, to ensure that he got out alive?

That didn't really stop him from having nightmares over it, though, and there had been times he did question whether his parents really did love him... but he chose to believe that they genuinely did love him.

"Did it hurt? Uh... when you stitched yourself up?" Shinsou awkwardly asked, breaking the silence, noticing that Midoriya's shoulders had drooped, lost in his own thoughts.

Midoriya blinked, snapping back to reality, and he handed the cockatoo plush back to Shinsou, "It... used to... but not anymore..."

The greenette handed the needle and thread back to Shinsou, before going back to his seat by the table to finish up his last notebook, as Shinsou just stared at Midoriya, concern written all over his face. Midoriya had made it clear he didn't want to talk, and Shinsou wasn't going to force him to.

Didn't mean he wasn't going to find some other way to help him, though.


	113. Chapter 113 - You change it up

Midoriya yawned, and stretched, before he slipped on his shoes. He had already gotten permission from Nezu to leave the school, and he wanted to get back as soon as possible to work on other things. He had also left Reiko and Ryuto in his room; they were both still sleeping, and Midoriya didn't want to wake them up.

He only had another free day before the start of the hectic work studies, and he wanted to finish up as many of the gifts as possible. He had already finished the sketches for Thirteen, Snipe, Ectoplasm, Aizawa, and Yamada, and he was almost done with Inui and Kan's sketches; he left Yagi's for last, simply because he liked the other teachers better than Yagi, and because the hero was just ridiculously hard to sketch.

Midoriya made his way out of the dorms, and jogged out of UA, in the direction of the hardware store that was around fifteen minutes away from UA. The previous night, Midoriya had looked up the cage that Yaoyorozu had mentioned was beside the hardware store, and found an old-looking house that was wedged right between a large apartment building and the hardware store.

The cafe opened at seven in the morning, and Midoriya wanted to go check it out before it got too crowded; it didn't seem to stand out at all, but if it really was a cafe, there were bound to be a few regulars for it to still be in business.

Midoriya checked the road to ensure that there weren't any cars, before crossing it, and found himself right in front of the cafe that Yaoyorozu had mentioned. Hesitating slightly, Midoriya gently pushed the door open, the door creaking ever so slightly.

Looking around the inside of the brightly cafe, Midoriya noticed that there was an old man, looking to be about seventy years old, humming to himself as he boiled some water, and carefully made his way to the counter, making sure that he didn't bump into any of the tables and chairs. He accidentally stepped on a particularly squeak wooden plank, and the sound reverberated through the quiet cafe.

The old owner looked up, noticing Midoriya standing there awkwardly, having no idea what to do, and beckoned him towards the counter, smiling, "Ah... good morning, boy... it's rare to see teenagers here at this time, especially one as young as you. Even my regular patrons don't come around for another half an hour."

Midoriya wasn't too sure if the man knew sign language, and he hated to speak to people he didn't know. He did want to get back to the safety of the dorms as fast as possible, and he nodded in acknowledgment.

"Ah, a shy one, I see. No worries." The owner laughed amicably, "Are you looking for something in particular?"

Midoriya pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and scribbled on it in large, neat kanji, before handing the paper to the owner of the cafe. The owner gently took the paper from Midoriya's hands, and read it out, "Tea leaves for Golden Tips Imperial, huh? You seem more like a coffee person than a tea person."

Midoriya scribbled down another answer, and passed the paper back to the old owner.

"Christmas present, I see. Well... I do sell Golden Tips Imperial tea here, but I usually don't sell the tea leaves themselves."

Midoriya sighed internally. Well, he tried, maybe he should ask where the owner bought the tea leaves -

"Don't be dejected; I did say _usually_." The owner smiled at him, "We quirkless folks got to stick together, am I right?"

Midoriya's head snapped up, and he blinked at the old man in confusion.

"You're Midoriya Izuku, right? The famous quirkless kid that got into UA, and even managed to transfer into the hero course. Your name is all over the news for all sorts of exploits." The owner smiled kindly at the boy, "It's a great change compared to all the news we used to get involved us quirkless people; you have all poor quirkless children being abandoned, or abused, or committing suicide - it's really sad, you see. Back in my day, being quirkless wasn't as uncommon as it was now... so there are a lot of us that live to an old age, but in your generation... well... I'm sure you know better than me."

Midoriya remained quiet; as far as he knew, the rate of suicides of kids under the age of eighteen with supposed _villainous_ quirks, or being quirkless in general, had increased over the past decade, from about ten percent to a staggering seventy percent, at least, in Japan. Only around five percent survive to past their teenage years, and those usually become victims of hate crimes, either due to them getting a higher rank than another person, or just because people think quirkless people, or people with useless or villainous quirks, are just unworthy of living in the same society as them.

The owner glanced at the greenette proudly, "You're going to be a great hero, boy. It may not seem like it, but you're a beacon of hope for everyone who was born with unfortunate quirks, or are quirkless. Always hold your head up high, boy; you deserve it."

"I think you have much more important things to do than to talk to an old man about the misfortunes of being born quirkless." The old owner smiled at the boy gently, chuckling, before turning around, rummaging around in a cupboard. He pulled out a brand new tin of Golden Tips Imperial Tea that still has the plastic wrapper around it, and slid it over to the boy, "If you're trying to find such elusive, expensive tea, the person you're giving it to means a lot to you, right?"

Midoriya nodded, and fished out his wallet, but the old man stopped him, "It's on the house. You're the pride of all the quirkless people out there. This is the least I can do for you."

The greenette shook his head, but the owner just sighed, "Kid, I'm sure that being a hero course student means that you're busy. You have better things to spend your money on, and it's better to save up for the future."

* * *

Midoriya carefully pushed the door to the dorms open, and slipped his shoes off.

Even if the owner wanted to give it to him, Golden Tips Imperial was expensive, and Midoriya would feel bad if he didn't, at least, try to lessen the loss. He didn't have enough money to outrightly buy the tea; he hadn't been expecting the owner to actually give him the tea, but he did leave the owner a huge tip despite the older man's protests.

There had been a small yard sale by the side of the road; Midoriya had seen it on the way to the cafe, and out of curiosity, he decided to just check it out. Among all the stationery and book, he had found a keychain with a small plastic bowl of ramen hanging off it, almost brand new and still in its plastic wrapper, and Midoriya just bought it, tucking it into the pocket of his hoodie safely; that would be perfect for Togata.

He had also found Thirteen and Ingenium figurines, though they were pretty old, being dirty and discoloured, with the paint peeling off. Midoriya bought them as well; he didn't really know where else he could find merchandise of the two heroes, but he could use paint remover to remove the outer layer of paint, clean them up, and repaint them.

In between all of his different internships, he had one free day, around one week before Christmas, so he could use that day to make Moashi's gift, and use the two-hour wait during the baking period to fix up the two figurines.

Midoriya just headed back up to his room, and the second he opened the door, Reiko leapt at him, rubbing herself against his legs. Ryuto was pecking at the balcony, and he immediately whirled around upon hearing the door open, flying towards Midoriya to perch on his shoulder, playing with his hair.

Reiko whined, almost as if she was asking why he had left the room without them, and the greenette closed the door behind him before squatted down, scratching Reiko behind her ears, speaking softly, "Sorry if you guys were worried... I just went out to buy stuff."

The feline let out a huff, as Midoriya continued, "You do know I have work studies... right? I don't think I can bring you two along..."

Reiko outrightly pouted; how a cat can pout, Midoriya didn't know, but he was definitely sure that she wasn't too happy about that.

"I'll be fine... don't worry...okay?" Midoriya muttered, before he stood up, and opened his cupboard, placing the tin of tea one of the shelves he had installed there; tea should be stored out in a dark area, and since it was winter, Midoriya doubted that he had to worry about the heat.

Settling down by his table, Midoriya cracked his knuckles, and grabbed his pencil. Ryuto was still hanging out on his shoulder, and Reiko had used one of his open drawers to climb up onto his chair, curling up on his lap.

Now, just to finish up Inui and Kan's sketches, before he could start on Yagi's.

* * *

"Midoriya, you got to intern with Uwabami!? Lucky!" Mineta yelled.

The green haired boy just glanced at him, confused, before he turned back to his udon. He didn't really like Uwabami; the woman was more of a celebrity than a hero, and according to Kendo and Yaoyorozu, who had interned with her right after the Sports Festival, she had practically forced them into doing a commercial, and had only wanted them as interns because they were "cute".

That was just a stupid reason for being on an internship, and it was a waste of time. Even when they went on a patrol, it seemed like she was more concerned about entertaining her fans rather than looking out for danger. Midoriya really didn't like heroes who were more concerned about their public image than actually being heroes.

Midoriya remained quiet, as Shinsou scowled, "Leave him alone. You get to work with the Lurkers, right? And you've interned with Mt Lady during the last rounds of internships."

"Yeah! But all she did was make me do all her household chores!" Mineta whined.

"Don't worry about it!" Sero laughed, "I mean, this time, we're interning under their entire group, right? And since this is paid internships, I doubt she'll actually make you clean her house again."

"That's right, you three, Mineta, Sero, and Kaminari... you're working with Shiozaki, right? All four of your under the Lurkers?" Jiro asked, and Kaminari nodded, excitedly, "Yep! I have no idea how we got accepted, but here we are!"

"Good luck." Jiro snorted, "Sero, Kaminari, you better protect Shiozaki from that pervert."

"I'm not a pervert, damn it!" Mineta yelped, as Uraraka rolled her eyes, "Yeah, who's the one that tried to peek into the girls' changing room through a hole in the wall? Or tried to climb the wooden fence during the training camp?

Mineta just muttered under his breath, as Ashido yelled, "Yaomomo, your work study is with Majestic, right?"

"Yes, I'm going to be doing my internship with Tokage." Yaoyorozu beamed, "I'm just glad that we're not going to end up in a commercial again... that was really embarrassing and awkward..."

"... speaking of Uwabami... isn't Midoriya going to be in trouble?" Kirishima pointed at the greenette, who looked up as his name was mentioned, "He doesn't like the media. What if she forces him to go on a commercial too?"

The entire common room fell silent, with the only sound being of the students who were chewing on their food.

"What a mad banquet of darkness." Tokoyami broke the silence, as Dark Shadow nodded, also slurping down some udon with a pair of chopsticks.


	114. Chapter 114 - I'd make you look

Midoriya just sighed, as he sat inside the main hall of Uwabami's agency. He had told the receptionist his reason for being there, and since he had arrived at the agency early, the receptionist just told him to wait, since Uwabami was currently busy with something else at the moment. She also mentioned that there would be another intern, and Midoriya just wondered who else Uwabami had hired.

The automatic glass doors hissed open, and a girl with shoulder-length light brown hair walked into the main hall, wearing a Shiketsu High uniform. She made a beeline for the main counter, and the receptionist spoke to her, before pointing at Midoriya. The girl turned around, before noticing Midoriya, and she smiled, bounding up to him, "Oh? No way, what a coincidence! You're also going to be working here, too, right? And you're like, way earlier than me!"

Midoriya looked up at Utsushimi, and nodded. She wasn't as annoying as Yoarashi, but still, she was rather intolerable.

"Awesome, fam! That's like, totally crazy! I'm totally psyched to be working with you!"

Nodding, just to placate her, Midoriya glanced at his phone. Utsushimi had arrived five minutes before the allocated time, so they were probably going to have to wait for Uwamabi to finish with whatever she was doing before they could start their work studies. He'll just have to tolerate the noisy girl for a bit.

"Oh my god, it's been like, so long since we've had the license exam! And you also took part in that raid, right, fam? But seriously, can I like, have your number?"

Midoriya had no idea why he seemed much more irritable than usual, but he _really_ just wanted Utsushimi to shut up. She was worse than Ashido and Kaminari _combined_, and they talked a lot.

The sound of the elevator rang out, catching Midoriya's attention, and Uwabami walked out of the elevator. She made a beeline towards the two students, smiling brightly, "You two are here for your work studies, right? Thank you for being so patient, and waiting for me. Now, why don't we go up to my office, and you can introduce yourselves?"

* * *

Midoriya just blinked, unimpressed, as Uwabami pushed a door open, revealing a huge make-up room. Uwabami settled down in front of a huge mirror, and started putting something on her eyelids, "Now, please introduce yourselves, and tell me what your hero names are."

"Hi! I'm Utsushimi Camie, a Second Year at Shiketsu High School, but you can call me Camie! My hero name is Maboromicamie!" Utsushimi grinned.

Midoriya just sighed internally at the name; that certainly was a mouthful.

"Very nice." Uwabami praised, as she moved on to her other eye, "You? The other one?"

Midoriya raised his hand to sign out his answer, but Uwabami just sighed, "I know you don't like speaking, but most people aren't going to understand what you're signing. If you're going to work as a hero, you've got to speak out loud, let everyone hear you! That's how you get more fans! Save your signing for underground missions, or for the deaf or mute."

The greenette just scowled internally; he didn't become a hero to have fans, and if he wasn't going to be talking to other people, why should he care if they didn't understand what he was talking about?

But it wasn't like he really had a choice.

"Midoriya Izuku. First Year. UA. Hakryuen." Midoriya muttered, forcing his words out, ignoring the uncomfortable tingling feeling in his gut. Gods, he hated his voice so much.

"There, that wasn't too hard, was it?" Uwabami replied, pulling out some lipstick, "Now, I'm sure you know this, but heroes are allowed to have side jobs. People weren't happy about it, and there were a lot of arguments, but that ended thanks to our popularity and public demand. I was talking with a client this morning, so I couldn't have received you from the main hall, sorry about that. But now, I'm going to film a commercial, and I have something for you two to do."

Utsushimi smiled, "Let's go!"

"Well, you sure are eager." Uwabami smiled, turning to the two students, "Camie, your quirk will be useful for effects, so you're going to help me."

"Okay, okay!" The bubbly second year piped up, and Uwabami pulled a folder out of one of the drawers, as well as a pen and some lined paper, and handed it to Midoriya, "As for you, Midoriya... I would have asked for you to do the commercial with me, because you're pretty cute and I saw your fight with Gentle; really good fight, by the way, especially in heels and in a dress. But in the contract, Nighteye said that I was forbidden to let anyone film you on purpose... So instead, I need you to look at this for me. The filming of the commercial will take some time, and I expect you to had read through everything, and give me a brief written analysis later."

Midoriya internally sighed in relief as he briefly glanced through the contents of the folder; thank goodness for Sasaki telling her about it. He really did need to thank him for that.

"Feel free to use any of the chairs here, Midoriya, including the bean bag. Whatever you're most comfortable with." Uwabami shrugged.

Midoriya turned around, noticing the pink bean bag sitting in the corner of the room, and immediately sank into it, before flipping through the folder and uncapping the pen. He didn't really care that it was pink; a bean bag was a bean bag, that's it.

"Alright, it's almost time for filming. Camie, with me." Uwabami stood up, heading to another room, with Utsushimi following right behind her.

* * *

"Filming's done. Midoriya, what do you have?" Uwabami asked, as she walked back into the room, with Utsushimi fawning over the cameras.

Midoriya looked up from his position in the bean bag, and stood up, gently handing Uwabami his notes as the hero settled down by her dressing table. Uwabami took it with a hum, glancing over them, "Very neat."

"Had some fun on your own?"Utsushimi peered over Uwabami's shoulder, "Woah, fam! Your handwriting is almost like a font! That's like, sick! Crazy!"

Midoriya really wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult. It was most likely an insult.

"I'm going to be honest." Uwabami spoke up, finally turning serious as she placed Midoriya's notes on the table, "I could have invited Yaoyorozu and Kendo again for their work studies, but I didn't. Do you know why I chose you two?"

"Not really, fam... But, like, why are we having this discussion?" Utsushimi admitted, twirling her hair with one hand, and Midoriya shook his head.

"Both of you have skills that I need." Uwabami replied, "Camie's Glamour quirk is great for defense, being able to create both visual and auditory illusions, but like my quirk, Serpentress, it's not a physical quirk. I've watched your performance at the Provisional License Exam, and one problem you have is that you either use your quirk, or you're fighting with hand to hand combat. I'm going to teach you to use your quirk in conjunction with your physical fighting skills, instead of treating them like two separate sets of skills. That's why you'll be working with me for the entirety of this work study session."

"Makes sense! Okay, okay!" Utsushimi cheered.

"As for you, Midoriya..." Uwabami continued, "You're still an intern of the Nighteye Agency, but I'm sure you know the circumstances better than me, and you'll be jumping from agency to agency during this period of time. You'll be working with me today and tomorrow. I've seen how you've acted during the Sports Festival, and during the raid of the Eight Precepts of Death. You're the kind of person who doesn't like attention, and you're not too fond of the media. I know your type and mine don't mesh well, but I specifically wanted you here so that you could help with some analysis."

She pulled out another folder from her drawer, "This is Serpenta. Her quirk is called Spitting Cobra; she can transform her hands into cobras at will, and depending on the colour of the cobra, she can spit out different types of venom. As far as we know, the cobras that she uses the most often are green, which spits out acid, white, which causes temporary blindness, and purple, which is poison. There are reports of her using other colours, though we don't know the effects of the venom from those. She's the leader of those group of villains that I told you to analyze."

Midoriya just blinked, processing everything that Uwabami was saying.

"I'm well aware of the controversies around heroes who also have side jobs." Uwabami sighed, "There are people out there who think that we're only using our status as heroes to garner more fame, and don't take their jobs seriously, and I do agree that there are some young upstarts who become heroes for that sole purpose. I personally believe that being both a celebrity and a hero shows the world that we not only think about defeating villains, but that we also care about the community around us. It's good to be focused on taking down villains... but our job as heroes isn't just to upload the peace. Our presence is supposed to show the public that they'll be safe, no matter what. By interacting with our fans, we're also showing that we're understanding of their situation."

Utsushimi nodded, "Celebrities are really fashionable, you know?!"

Uwabami continued, "I invited you two for a reason. Several heroes in my agency have been attacked by Serpenta and her group of villains, always while they were alone. I don't think having interns will deter them from attacking again. Glamour can be used to create targets to draw their fire without actually causing mass damage, and Midoriya's analysis skills will come in handy in finding a way to defeat them. We'll be going on patrols, and we might run into them, so this is just a forewarning."

Midoriya nodded resolutely; Uwabami wasn't as bad as he thought. Sure, she may be a celebrity, but it seemed like she was using it more as a front; she was still rather serious about being a hero.

"Okay, okay!" Utsushimi grinned, "Let's have some fun, okay?"

"Well, we should get ready. There's several changing rooms over there." Uwabami smiled, rummaging around in her closet, and pulled out two dresses, "Wear this on patrol?"

Midoriya vehemently shook his head, as Utsushimi stared at the dresses in confusion, "I don't, like... think we can fight in those, fam..."

Uwabami just laughed, "I'm just kidding. You two are so cute. Go on, get changed into your hero outfits."

* * *

"Uwabami! Can I have your autograph!?"

"Can I take your picture?"

"Look this way please!"

Midoriya was doing his best to hide his face behind his hood; his mask was way too bulky and heavy for regular patrols, and the only reason he had brought it along to fight Chisaki was because he needed all the firepower that he could get. The Support Department, or more specifically, Hatsume, was currently working on it, but he really wished he had something to cover his face as he tried to ignore the chattering fans and reporters who were swarming them and Uwabami as they patrolled through a park; at this point, they were basically her entourage.

It didn't help that Utsushimi didn't seem to mind the attention as she walked next to him, literally talking his ear off, "Hey, hey. You know, Endeavor's son? Do you like, know him? Because he listened to you during the license exam! He really is a thoroughbred on top of being hot? Oh, and Yoarashi too! Do you know him too? Because you got them to work together and that's like, totally amazing! Oh yeah, right, you guys have like, All Might as a teacher in UA, right? Seriously, the Symbol of Peace, fam! Does he still work even in his skinny form? Does he have to like, mark stuff like other teachers? Do you guys talk? Like, about life and stuff?"

Midoriya really wished she would just shut up. At least Ashido and Kaminari knew when to keep quiet.

"When you work diligently like this, you can eventually make big blossoms bloom! It's like when an enka singer goes on provincial tours. You may not like having so much attention all the time, but having more attention and fame is always better in the long run!" Uwabami smiled, turning to her interns, "Plus, this is not something you can avoid if you want to become a pro! Being a hero is hand in hand with being famous, after all!"

"Awesome, fam! I will, like, learn as much as I can!" Utsushimi replied, smiling brightly at the reporters.

Midoriya scowled internally; didn't "working diligently" mean something different, like note-taking, or studying, or training, or something that wasn't just posing in front of a camera?

Suddenly, Midoriya paused, and looked up.

"You alright, fam?" Utsushimi asked, before Midoriya promptly turned around, and bolted. He jumped onto a bench located by the side of the pathway, and flipped over the annoying fans and reporters, before making a mad dash towards the main street.

"Hakryuen! Clear the way!" Uwabami yelled, as the crowd parted, allowing her to run after Midoriya; she had already been informed by Sasaki that if Midoriya sensed any danger, he was going to try and resolve the fight, and she wasn't going to doubt the boy that had been involved in the raid on the Eight Precepts, and had taken down the villains during the Provisional Licence Exam.

"What the heck? Man... You're like, fast!" Utsushimi yelped, chasing after Uwabami.

Midoriya raced towards the road, and leapt to the side as a pool of some purple sticky liquid landed on the ground, right where he had been standing.

The green haired boy looked up, noticing a woman with long, white curls, a purple cobra for a hand, crouching on top of a lamppost, grinning eerily at him.

"Clever child." She smirked, flicking her long, thin forked tongue at him, "Didn't think I'd be found out so soon? But you're all alone, aren't you, little boy?"

She tilted her head to the side, just as a knife flew past her face, "And fast, too! You'll be some fun prey to hunt down!"

"Hakryuen! What's going on?" Uwabami finally caught up with him, noticing the villain on top of the lamp post, and narrowed her eyes, "Serpenta."

"Oh! Fancy meeting you here! Hope all your little friends enjoy being in the Emergency Room!" Serpenta cackled, transforming her other hand into a green coloured cobra. The cobra opened its mouth and bared its teeth, green liquid erupting from its fangs, aimed towards Utsushimi, but Uwabami, with the excellent senses of the snakes in her hair, pulling the student away before the green liquid made contact with her.

The green liquid splattered to the ground, and started bubbling and hissing, slowly eating away at the concrete road, as Utsushimi just stared, stunned, "Acid? Seriously, that's crazy!"

"You're all alone, Serpenta!" Uwabami growled, "We'll take you down today!"

"My, my, Uwabami-san! After what happened to all your sidekicks... I expected better, you know?" Serpenta mocked in a patronizing tone, "And now, all you have are a couple of interns. Pathetic."

"Hey, fam, we're not like, pathetic." Utsushimi replied, as Serpenta laughed, "How cute! And whoever said I was alone?"

She let out a sharp whistle.

Some distance away, a car exploded, and Midoriya hastily yanked Uwabami and Utsushimi out of the way as long, sharp quills rain down on them. Midoriya looked up, noticing a figure standing on the roof of a nearby building, before throwing a knife to knock another batch of quills out of the air.

Serpenta licked her lips, hissing, "I'll destroy you, Uwabami! There can only be one serpentress here, and that will be me!"


	115. Chapter 115 - I didn't know I was blind

Midoriya leapt to the side as another splash of green landed near his feet, and whipped out another knife, throwing it at Serpenta. The villain jumped off the lamppost, hissing, and lunged at Uwabami, but the pro hero swiftly dodged, before ordering, "Get the civilians away from here!"

"On it, fam!" Utsushimi yelled, immediately pulling up a woman who had fallen down, "Everyone, there's a villain attack here!"

Noticing that some of the other villains were eyeing the civilians who were trying to escape, Midoriya lunged at them, punching one in the face. The woman with literal snakes for hair hissed at him, but Midoriya just flipped her over his shoulder, slamming her into the ground, before kicking away a man with an entire serpentine lower body.

The man with what looked to be a porcupine quirk growled, and fired off some quills, but with the enhanced senses from her snakes, Uwabami was able to evade the attack in time.

"Maboromicamie, there's a civilian hiding behind some bushes behind you; get him out of there!" Uwabami yelled, twirling around and kicking a villain in the face with her heels, "Hakryuen! Be careful, there is another villain standing on the roofs, and they probably have a long-range attack. I'm calling for backup, but I don't know when they'll arrive."

Utsushimi immediately heeded Uwabami's instructions to get the remaining civilians away from the fight, as Midoriya weaved through various villains, using the white cloth around his arms to tangle the villains up, and flung them against a bunch of other villains. Hatsume had weaved a thin layer of metal into the cloth, making it sturdier and stronger, though that meant that he lost the ability to slice the cloth apart if he had to, but he could deal with that later.

He was still wearing a layer of bandages over his arms, underneath the cloth, just so that no one could see his scars, but he could also use them as a make-shift capture weapon if he had too.

Midoriya knocked out two more minor villains, and Utsushimi seemed to have finished evacuating all the civilians, and she jumped in to join the fight with basic hand to hand combat. Together, it didn't take them too long to take out the fodder villains, and Utsushimi ran off to take care of the stragglers who were starting to run away.

The green haired boy noticed that the villain that fired off quills was aiming in Utsushimi's direction, and shot out a blade out of his bracer to get his attention, before leaping forwards. He weaved through the projectiles that were sent in his direction, lashing his capture weapon onto the porcupine villain, and reeling him in.

Midoriya raised his knee so that the villain would crash face-first into it, knocking him out, but was forced to jump to the side as an air bullet flew past him, digging a crater into the ground. That was seriously getting annoying, but Midoriya couldn't do anything about it at the moment.

Behind the car that had exploded, another figure leapt out, aiming a knife at Midoriya's throat, but the greenette used his bracers to block the attack, and ducked as another air bullet flew past his head. Midoriya glanced upwards, noticing that there was a man who was aiming at him with what looked like a finger gun, before parrying away the man who had a knife.

Serpenta growled, and leapt down, turning her hand into a green cobra and lunging at Uwabami, but the hero just evaded her attack.

"Why are you so intent on taking me down?" Uwabami asked, dodging a bite from the cobra as the villain whirled around, and Serpenta hissed, turning her other hand into a yellow cobra, "With a versatile quirk like mine, I thought I could be a hero. All my life, I've been compared to you. We both have snake-like quirks, and your's just increases your senses! My quirk has much more uses, both offensively and defensively! But no, my quirk is too destructive, it's too dangerous, all I can do with my quirk is hurt people, my quirk is evil! I was never allowed to use my quirk, ever! But now, I have the freedom to do whatever I want! I can use my quirk however as I please! I refuse to be oppressed by this society, and all of us share the same sentiments!"

"Well said, boss!" The man with the knife grinned, slashing at Midoriya again, "Trust me, kid. I have a quirk that lets me turn machinery into bombs! I've been trying to hide my quirk my entire life, just so that I can get by, but once my quirk came out, I got fired. Over and over and over; no matter what I do, even suppressing my quirk doesn't do anything! You can be the purest person in the world, and everyone would judge you based on your quirk."

Midoriya parried the knife away, and knocked the knife out of the villain's hand, but he had no choice but to jump back as another air bullet flew past his neck. Midoriya growled, and the villain pushed himself to his feet, grabbing his knife and lunged at Midoriya again.

Midoriya swiftly dodged the knife, and smacked his bracer into the back of the villain's neck, knocking him out.

Uwabami had been doing a good job dodging Serpenta's attacks, and tried to retaliate with a few good kicks, but the villain was fast, and easily evaded her attacks.

The pro hero let out a yelp and fell to the ground as Serpenta finally managed to graze her arm with the yellow cobra, and the villain was just about to attack the downed pro hero when Midoriya tackled Serpenta away.

"Yellow causes paralysis!" Uwabami gasped, as Serpenta pushed herself up and lunged again, turning the yellow cobra into a red cobra, its fangs growing out to a ridiculous length.

_So that's what red does. So yellow causes paralysis, green spits out acid, purple is poison, and white causes blindness. If she has snakes of secondary colours like green and purple, then she most likely also has a snake that is orange in colour. I'll have to look out for that._

"Police are here, fam!" Utsushimi yelled, running back towards the fight, "They're detaining the villains!"

Midoriya waved at Uwabami, before using his knife to deflect Serpenta's red cobra, and Utsushimi immediately nodded, rushing over and dragging Uwabami away so that Midoriya wouldn't have to worry about her.

Midoriya parried away Seroenta's fangs, before the villain jumped back, morphing one hand into a orange cobra, and the other into a green one.

The greenette jumped aside as green acid flew past his face, and twisted hastily to dodge two more air bullets, giving Serpenta the perfect opportunity to sink the fangs of the orange cobra right into his arm.

Midoriya bit his lip, and yanked his arm away from Serpenta, stumbling away, slightly dizzy, and the villain just smirked at him.

_"Listen to me, little hero... turn around..."_

Midoriya could vaguely tell that the villain was talking, but her voice just seemed to reverberate inside his head, echoing about, alluring him to obey.

The green haired boy found himself wanting to turn around, and stopped himself in time.

_"Go on... hurt those heroes... go on, child... you're quirkless... you know our plight..."_

The urge to obey grew stronger, but Midoriya refused to give into that urge, despite how right it felt. It was like she was brainwashing him -

_Pain__._

The effects of Shinsou's Brainwashing quirk could be countered by using pain. Sure, Shinsou's quirk wasn't exactly brainwashing, but the effects were rather similar. Shinsou's quirk forced others to listen to him, but Serpenta's quirk just seemed to urge her victims along, slowly telling them that what she was saying was right and that they should obey her.

Midoriya's never been under the effects of Brainwashing before, but he would assume that it would be much easier to snap out of her quirk compared to Shinsou's.

The green haired boy slowly raised his knife, and plunged it into his arm, pain rushing through his entire body like an electric shock, effectively snapping away her control of his mind.

"I know my hypnosis doesn't work all the time, but seriously, what's wrong with you!?" Serpenta hissed, in shock and somewhat concerned, "What kind of hero stabs himself in the arm!?"

There was a loud bang from above, and Midoriya looked up, seeing a hero wearing a cape holding the knocked out air-bullet sniped in one arm, "We got him!"

Serpenta hissed in distress; all her henchmen were taken out, and there was a self-harming kid right in front of her.

"Maybe you should stop picking on kids, you know?" Uwabami's voice rang out, and Serpenta turned, noticing the pro hero standing in the distance.

"What?!" Serpenta growled, "You shouldn't be able to move yet?! How are you able to stand?"

"Who knows? Maybe you want to figure it out?" Uwabami mocked, and Serpenta turned towards the hero, turning her hand into a green cobra. She fired off some acid at Uwabami, but the acid just flew through her, and Uwabami's figure evaporated into mist.

"Sorry, fam, that was just an illusion!" Utsushimi winked, as Serpenta roared, angry at being tricked, turning her other hand into a blue cobra and lunged at the Shiketsu student, "You little shit! I'll strangle you!"

Utsushimi just sidestepped her, raising her knee and hitting her in the stomach, knocking her away. Hissing in pain, Serpenta pushed herself to her feet, but Midoriya took that opportunity to jump in, whacking Serpenta in the back of her neck, knocking her out.

_Uwabami is right... _Midoriya noted. _Utsushimi never uses her quirk in conjunction with her hand to hand fighting skills..._

He wondered if any of his classmates had that issue too. That is something that would definitely be exploited in fights.

* * *

It had taken some time for the police to finish arresting Serpenta and all of her henchmen, and the medics had spent some time dealing with Midoriya's bloody arm; Uwabami's paralysis had worn off at that point. However, now that all the fighting was over and had worn off, the celebrity hero was getting swarmed by all her fans and reporters again.

It took all the effort of the police, and the other heroes that had popped up for backup, just so that they didn't overrun the scene. Midoriya was glad that the fighting was over, but the one downside to that was that Utsushimi started talking again.

How the girl managed to turn a conversation about quirk usage into one about dating, Midoriya had absolutely no idea; to be fair, though, he wasn't really listening to everything she was saying.

"Have you ever considered dating? Our school's so old-fashioned it doesn't allow dating! Le sigh! I'm like, seriously exasperated?" Utsushimi comically waved her arms about, "They're not okay okay to, like, making an exception! Not fun at all! I know it's a good school and all, but like, 'sup? We can't date anyone, like, at all?"

Midoriya just continued walking, trying to ignore Utsushimi; he knew what dating was, he's seen some of his classmates dating before, and while it did seem nice to have someone caring about you all the time, Midoriya never really thought about it too much. Everyone hated him, the world hated him, and sure, there were a couple of people who seemed to think he was okay, but he wasn't interested in stuff like that.

"But, like, wouldn't you want someone to like you for who you are?"

Okay, _maybe_ it would be nice, he would admit, but he wouldn't waste his time thinking about something that would never happen. He wasn't deserving of love.

"Anyways, you should like, talk more. Try talking more!"

Midoriya really wished she would just shut up.

"So... once we get back to the agency, you'll have another photoshoot, right? And like, you'll be a guest on a radio show? And then another magazine interview, right? And we'll be stuck in the building, though, watching you film everything? Really lame, but like, that's also crazy!"

"I'm really sorry about all this, I was hoping I could train with you two some more before we engaged her, or any other villains, for that matter. I really wasn't expecting that she would show up today. Hakryuen, the only reason why we managed to deal with the situation with so little damage was because you managed to surprise them, so I'm really grateful for that," Uwabami sighed, smiling gently at her interns, "You two can hang out in the agency if you like. Is there anything you like to drink? I'll send someone to get it for you."

"It's okay, fam! It wasn't that bad!" Utsushimi smiled, giving the pro hero a victory sign, and Uwabami replied, "It's no big deal; it's on me. If you like something, just say it."

"No worries! You're like, so generous, though! We totally owe you tons!" Utsushimi chirped, and Uwabami smiled softly, "After everything you've done, you two deserve a rest. Don't worry too much about it."

* * *

The second day of the work studies flew by without too many problems, and Midoriya walked out of Uwabami's agency, holding his hero costume; since Utsushimi was interning with Uwabami for the entire period of time, she was allowed to leave her costume in the agency.

"You're not coming tomorrow? That's like, sad, fam! You're like, real quiet, but you're cool. Maybe we'll like, have a joint training session!" Utsushimi grinned, as Uwabami sighed, smiling softly, "During these internships... I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you, but in the end, you were the ones fighting my battles for me. Thank you for that..."

"I'll do my best to make sure that something like this doesn't happen. And that we'll both be better prepared to tackle it." Uwabami patted Utsushimi on the shoulder, before turning to facing Midoriya.

"Thank you for everything you've done." Uwabami said, giving him a bow.

Midoriya internally gawked at her. She was bowing at him? And she still wasn't straightening up?

The green haired boy was struggling to find his voice, figuring that was the only way to get Uwabami to stop bowing; she couldn't see his sign language from that position, and Midoriya really had no idea how to react to people bowing at him.

"I... uh... you too... uh... Thank you..." Midoriya awkwardly croaked out, clenching his fists nervously; his voice was just terrible.

Uwabami stood up straight, and smiled sweetly at him, "I wish you the best of luck on your other internships, Midoriya. Good luck. Knock them all dead."


	116. Chapter 116 - Search for imperfections

"Hello! Good morning, Midoriya!" Gunhead greeted cheerily, as Midoriya walked through the doors of his agency, and the teenager blinked in confusion; he had been half an hour early, but the pro hero was already waiting for him?

_"Sorry for being late."_ Midoriya signed apologetically, and Gunhead replied, "You're actually pretty early. Don't worry about it. I had Uraraka for her internship after the Sports Festival, and she speaks highly of you. Your performance inspired her to learn more about hand to hand combat, and that girl really learns quickly."

Midoriya perked up open hearing Uraraka's name, and Gunhead nodded to himself, "We only had a week, but I taught her about disarming villains, as well as some basic hand to hand combat! You performed really well in the Sports Festival, and a very late congratulations on being transferred to the Hero Course! Did you know that your homeroom teacher, Aizawa, was also a former General Education student? It's really rare to be transferred in the middle of the year, especially when the class is still full, so your performance was really impressive!"

The green haired boy just nodded in acknowledgment; Gunhead seemed happy, and he wasn't going to spoil the mood by telling him the real reason he was pushed into the hero course so early was because he nearly died when Shigaraki decided to raid their school.

"Now, I don't think I need to tell you, but this round of work studies is different from the other round of internships that your friends went on, and I think you missed those." Gunhead explained, "The first round of internships was more to introduce the students to the basics of being a hero, and to learn new skills in conjunction with brushing up their current skill set. However, while you can also learn new skills during this round of work studies, you'll have to be much more independent, since you'll also have to be helping us as well!"

Midoriya nodded, and Gunhead stood up, "Now, first things first. You have a very unique and interesting way of fighting; as far as I've seen, you mix together different fighting styles, and you have very good spatial awareness and sharp instincts. You can also analyze your opponents quickly to find exploitable weaknesses, which is also really good. You have a really solid fighting style. I really want to see you fight in person, though, so are you okay with some light sparring with my sidekicks and I? Nothing too dangerous, just as a warm up."

The green haired boy nodded, and he swore that Gunhead was smiling behind his mask from the bubbly tone he was using, "That's great! You also seem to have some other tactic, something that knocks your opponents off balance even if you didn't make direct contact, and that's really interesting, so I want you to use that too! I've heard about that tactic used overseas, though it's not really well known since it's really difficult to execute; if you don't mind me asking, how did you find out about it, and learn how to implement it into your fighting style?"

Midoriya paused for a second, before signing, his hands shaking slightly, _"My dad taught me."_

"Ah... I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories." Gunhead fell silent; Midoriya was considered relatively well known, given everything that he's been involved in, and people have been digging around in his past and plastered them all over the internet. The child had lost his parents when he was barely seven, so Gunhead doubted that the boy's father had been able to fully teach him how to use such a complex tactic; the boy must have practiced really hard on his own to perfect it.

_"It's okay."_

"After some sparing, we'll have a light lunch, and then we'll head out on some patrolling for today and tomorrow. I don't want you to be fighting, though; do you think you can analyze our entire group at once, see how they work together, and stuff like that?" Gunhead asked, and Midoriya just nodded.

"Great! I'll bring you to the changing rooms, and you can get changed into your hero costume before we commence sparring."

* * *

"Your name is Hakryuen, right? I hope I pronounced that correctly." Mr Brave smiled at the boy, "We've met.. well... kind of... during the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death."

The pro hero stuck his hand out for Midoriya to shake, and the green haired boy hesitantly took it.

"You were pretty cool during that fight... but please take care of yourself... Also... saw your fight while you were under Uwabami; how's your arm?"

Midoriya just shrugged, signing, _"It's alright. Recovery Girl fixed it."_

"Anyways, great to be working with you." Mr Brave started, "Now, I kind of... requested you from Nighteye because... well... we have a couple of problems. I have a couple of sidekicks who... don't really work well together. It's a bit of a problem. You spent the last two days with Gunhead, right? And I heard that you managed to help them increase their efficiency, which is no small feat; Gunhead is really good at that kind of stuff. I was hoping you could... uh... like... help me out a bit."

Midoriya just nodded, and Mr Brave slid over a few files of his various sidekicks, "Their personalities mesh together relatively well, and their quirks are extremely versatile. Individually, they're alright, but once you put them together, they're just tripping all over each other. No matter how much we try to slow down the group sparing simulations... it just ends up getting messed up."

_"Can I see them fight?"_ Midoriya signed.

Mr Brave clicked around on his computer, bringing out a few video files, "My sidekicks are currently out on patrol, but we did take some recordings... You think you can do something about it?"

Midoriya reached out, clicking on the computer to play the first video. He was going to do something about it, alright.

* * *

"Ahh! Izuku!" Uraraka waved, as she found Midoriya sitting in the main hall of Takagi's agency, "You left really early this morning, so I thought you were going to a different agency! If I had known we were going to the same one, I would have gone along with you!"

Midoriya just tilted his head slightly, as Uraraka continued talking, "I didn't know that you were also requested by Gunhead! He's really nice, right? And the way he talks is cute too!"

A door opened, and Takagi stepped out, "Alright. Uravity and Hakryuen, right? I'm Rock Lock, but you guys know that already from the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death."

Uraraka stuck her thumb up, and Takagi turned to Uraraka, "Really sorry about being rude to you during that meeting, though. I have my own child, so you can expect that it's a little hard for me to accept kids like you running headfirst into a fight like that..."

"Ah, no worries! It's fine!" Uraraka waved her arms, "I understand, and we also kind of didn't know what was going on and we slowed down the conversation with our questions!"

Takagi nodded, and turned to Midoriya, "I'm sorry about insulting your cat. She saved my life. And I have no idea how you got that hawk of yours to snatch away the bullets, but good job on that. Pity they were all taken when the transport car was hijacked, though."

The green haired boy raised his eyebrow slightly; Reiko and Ryuto were both awesome, there was no doubt about it.

"Also... please try not to get into any more life-threatening situations." Takagi added, "Your fight with Chisaki was... well... it could have turned out worse. And I don't want kids dying on my watch. Understand? Don't run into a fight and gamble your life away. You're a good fighter, but you're too reckless."

Midoriya just nodded, and Takagi sighed, "Well, come in. We need to talk about what we're going to do for today."

Takagi led the two students into his office, and pulled out some files, "Alright, let's get started. I got you two for a specific purpose. We're going to be investigating some street gangs."

The pro hero pulled out some pictures, "Nothing too dangerous, but lately, they've been more active in harassing people and chasing people away, more specifically, kids and elderly. It doesn't help that their supposed territory is located near schools, bus stops, and supermarkets, which are places where people frequent really often."

"Got it." Uraraka nodded.

"Basically, Uravity, you'll be with me." Takagi stated, "Your quirk can be used to send projectiles anywhere, and my quirk can lock them in place. It's a very versatile combination. We will be doing the fighting up front. Hakryuen, you're good at analysis; I want you to hang back, and sneak in, see if they have any other villains who are ready to ambush us. Both of you understand your roles?"

"Yes, sir!" Uraraka saluted, and Midoriya just nodded.

"Get suited up, kids, and drink some water." Takagi dryly stated, "I don't want you guys to end up dehydrating yourselves."

* * *

"It was nice to work with you again, Hakryuen. I'm sorry I had to drag you into something so messy; I didn't expect the drug trafficking to be that bad." Kesagiriman stated, as Midoriya nodded slightly, sipping lightly on a vanilla smoothie; it actually tasted pretty good, if he was being honest.

Simple-minded villains like robbers and thieves could be caught on the main street for stealing, purse snatching, or just causing havoc in general. Those were the ones that could easily be captured. The ones that worked in the shadows, manipulating events from behind the scenes... those were the more dangerous ones who they had to look out for.

Kesagiriman and Midoriya had just spent the entire day patrolling in some of the shadier parts of town, and Midoriya really did appreciate that some heroes knew where to look for the more dangerous villains. They were smarter, sneakier, and generally knew how to avoid the police and other more mainstream heroes, so these villains were usually left to the lesser-known or underground heroes for capture.

They had taken down several villains, and it had somehow led to them having to fight through a massive underground drug trafficking ring. There were still some of the last remnants of Chisaki's faulty quirk erasing bullets, as well as Trigger, but most of the villains weren't too hard to take care of; none of them knew how to use their quirks properly, and they also had some extra help from other pro heroes.

The ring leaders had been more troublesome, since they were smarter and actually knew how to utilize their quirks, and didn't just charge in headfirst, but Kesagiriman had gotten lucky with the faulty versions of the quirk erasing bullets, using it to take them down.

They weren't too worried about the villain's quirk factor being damaged, though, since they've already seen that the effects of the drug didn't last too long when Amajiki had been hit, and that their quirk factor would eventually recover. They actually managed to get out of the entire thing with just a few scratches and bruises, and Kesagiriman had gotten smoothies for both himself and Midoriya before they headed back to his agency.

"You've worked with Uwabami and Gunhead before your work study with me, right? Saw it on the news. Almost freaked me out when you stabbed your arm..." Kesagiriman asked, "Who are you going to be working with next?"

Midoriya paused, and tried to recall the schedule that Sasaki had sent him, _"Ms Joke, I think."_

"I see." Kesagiriman replied, "She's... a little annoying, and anyone who ends up patrolling with her will be subject to her jokes. But she's harmless for the most part, at least, unless you're a villain. Good luck with her."

Midoriya just nodded. He was going to need the luck; he did not like Fukukado one bit.

"Also, is your shoulder okay?" Kesagiriman continued, "You don't seem to mind it too much, but you got whacked with a metal bat, and I swore that I heard a crack. Might just be me, but you might want to check with Recovery Girl about it, just in case."


	117. Chapter 117 - Stuck in this state

_**A/N I know the previous chapter was a little underwhelming, but it wouldn't mess well with this chapter, so I had to split it up.**_

_**Also, I would really like to thank everyone who comments on my story. I know I'm not the best writer out there, but you guys **__**ke**__**ep on commenting and it really helps me see how I can improve the story in terms of writing and plot.**_

_**And I want to thank **__**fencer29 and **__**DarkestLight234, the former because they've (not assuming gender) been commenting on this story since like... chapter 2, and the later because their comments allows me to see the pros and cons with how I write and how that may affect the quality of these chapters. So really, thank you guys really much. **_

* * *

Midoriya gently massaged his shoulder as he made his way to Fukukado's agency, Shinsou walking right beside him. They had bumped into each other in the common room while eating breakfast, and the taller boy just happened to have his internship at another agency that was near the same train station, so the duo just decided to take the train together and split ways when the time came.

"You okay?" Shinsou asked, concerned, and Midoriya just nodded; he had been hit in the shoulder by a metal bat the previous day while patrolling with Kesagiriman, cracking it slightly, and while Shuzenji did heal it up when he got back to the dorms, since Kesagiriman had been pretty insistent that he check it out, the annoying, achy feeling still lingered uncomfortably.

Not like Midoriya was going to let that stop him from continuing on his work studies, though. He's dealt with worse.

Shinsou paused, staring at the map on his phone, before looking up at the street signs, "I'm supposed to turn left here? I guess we're splitting ways..."

Midoriya peered at his phone, glancing at the map, and Shinsou turned to Midoriya, "Where's your agency?"

Midoriya just made the digital map on Shinsou's phone smaller, and pointed out the location of Fukukado's agency to Shinsou. The two agencies weren't that far apart, being only a few streets away, and Shinsou offered, "Want to take the train back together? I think the end times of our work studies are the same, and the agencies are pretty close together. We can grab dinner before heading back to UA."

Midoriya didn't mind Shinsou's company, and it was nice to hang out with someone he was comfortable with and trusted instead of being surrounded by total strangers, so he just nodded, and Shinsou grinned, turning the corner, "Alright. I'll come find you later. Bye!"

Midoriya watched as Shinsou walked in the direction of his agency, before continuing on his way towards Fukukado's agency, when the sound of footsteps rang out, and someone yelled, "Oh hey! Midoriya!"

Midoriya turned, only to see a somewhat familiar black haired male running to him, and internally scowled.

"I didn't think we'd end up meeting up again so soon!" Shindo laughed, catching up to the smaller boy, "Ms Joke said that there would be another intern joining for today, and I didn't think that it'd be you!"

Midoriya really just wanted to tell the annoying black haired boy to shut up. Shindo was annoying, and Midoriya detested him. Not to mention that Midoriya was wary of the older boy's quirk; Shindo had a Vibrate quirk that was powerful in both long-range and short-range attacks, and Midoriya had no idea if he was capable of defeating the second year in a fair, one on one fight.

Dealing with the Smile Hero and her outburst quirk was going to be terrible and annoying enough, but having to deal with the two-faced snake known as Shindo as well? This internship was going to be a total nightmare.

"I was actually working with Nakagame, you know, that blonde girl; you've probably seen her during the Provisional Licence Exam. But then, she kind of got called by an agency to work for a few days, and Ms Joke decided to let me follow her, kind of like work studies, while waiting for her to be done." Shindo explained as they walked, even though Midoriya had not asked for any explanation whatsoever.

They finally made it to Fukukado's agency, and Shindo pushed open the doors, and pointed to some chairs, "Sit there. We're a little early, so Ms Joke will probably be down here in a minute or two. I'll go get some water from the water cooler."

Blinking in confusion, Midoriya watched as Shindo placed his bag down on one of the chairs, before running off towards the water cooler sitting by the receptionist. The greenette decided to take the time to observe the main hall, and was actually surprised to see that there weren't cheesy jokes plastered all over the walls.

"I said you could sit, you know? Relax, I'm not going to bite." Shindo grinned, coming back with two plastic cups of water, as Midoriya narrowed his eyes at the taller boy.

_"I thought you hated us."_

It took Shindo some time to process what Midoriya had signed, but the Ketsubutsu student just grinned, "Don't worry about it. I mean, during the Provisional Licence Exam, we were all fighting for limited spots, so obviously, you guys were a threat, since you had twenty-one people. Once we all passed, it didn't really matter anymore, since we all have the same goal. You know, the enemy of your enemy is your friend? There is literally no reason for me to hate you or any of your peers in UA!"

Shindo handed over a cup of water to Midoriya, "Here. Peace?"

Midoriya didn't seem to believe Shindo's claim too much, but he still accepted the cup of water; he didn't want to end up getting into a fight with Shindo, or kicking up a fuss, and since this was Fukukado's agency, this was currently his territory.

It was just like in elementary school. All the other kids could beat him up as much as they liked, and the teachers would do nothing to stop them from injuring the quirkless child. But once he fought back, the kids would just cry and whine and complained to the teachers, and the only one who would get in trouble was the child who just tried to defend himself.

Shindo settled down in one of the chairs, sipping on his water as he scrolled through his phone, and Midoriya just sat down in the chair beside the older boy, not wanting to seem rude.

Midoriya hesitantly sniffed the water; he didn't really trust anything that Shindo had given him. It seemed normal, though, and Midoriya slowly took a small sip. It tasted a bit weird, but it was from a water cooler, after all; the water from dispensers like that usually tasted weird. Plus, if Shindo was drinking it, then it couldn't be _that_ bad, right?

He was probably just overthinking it; water cooler water was always a little tangy.

* * *

Midoriya slipped into one of the stalls in the male changing room, and pulled off his hero costume, back into his casual clothes; in order to draw less attention to themselves, UA and the other pro heroes agreed that the students could wear their own casual clothes to and fro from the agencies and school, provided that it was appropriate and didn't show too much skin. Most of the students were actually pretty happy about that, given that their uniforms creased easily, and it took a lot more effort to maintain their UA uniforms.

His work study that day was… pretty underwhelming, if he was being honest. Fukukado had brought him and Shindo out on a patrol, and spent the entire time telling really stupid jokes. Shindo kept laughing at them, though, and Fukukado seemed really amused by that, but Midoriya just didn't find them funny.

Sure, making villains laugh to death was a viable tactic, but who the heck makes jokes and laughs during patrols? It just distracts you from noticing villains.

They did end up meeting a group of villains, but that had been taken care of in like... five minutes. Very underwhelming.

The green haired boy tucked his hero costume and gear back into its case, and unlocked the door of the stall, pulling the door open, only to find Shindo standing right in front of the door, smirking as the black haired boy eyed him from head to toe.

Blinking in confusion, Midoriya waited for Shindo to step aside so that he could leave and find Shinsou, but much to his surprise, Shindo took a step forward, into the stall.

Midoriya backed away warily, bringing the case with his hero costume to his chest in an attempt to create more distance between Shindo and himself; he had absolutely no idea what was going on, and the boy had absolutely no idea how to react in this situation. But it seemed like that was exactly what Shindo wanted him to do, continuously stepping forward until Midoriya found his back hitting the wall.

Shindo's smirk just widened, and he pressed his hand against the wall, right next to Midoriya's head.

Midoriya gazed at the hand warily, before turning his attention back to Shindo. Shindo was making him very, very uncomfortable, but he wasn't doing anything to hurt him yet; heck, Shindo wasn't even touching him, so Midoriya couldn't just push him away and claim it as self-defense.

If he didn't want to get into trouble, then he could only fight back if Shindo actively harmed him. If anything happened, it was going to be his fault, since Fukukado would obviously favor Shindo over him.

Shindo just grinned at the smaller boy, who just seemed to have no idea as to how to escape the situation.

"I have to wonder... who trained you? For someone who doesn't have a quirk, you fight very well. You don't need a quirk to be able to compete with us. Whoever trained you must be really good for you to be at this level, right? But with all the quirkless discrimination... I'm surprised that you even got someone to train you at all." Shindo asked.

Midoriya just blinked in confusion at the barrage of questions, but Shindo just leaned forwards, his nose almost touching Midoriya's, causing the boy to flinch back slightly. He was so close that Midoriya could feel his breath as the boy exhaled, and Midoriya had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"You know, I've also been thinking, you're always looking so serious." Shindo spoke up, a cocky smirk plastered on his face, "Do you ever laugh? Look happy? Smile? Do you ever cry? Does anything freak you out? Piss you off? Or are you just stuck with one stoic, emotionless face?"

Midoriya remained quiet; what kind of question was that?! How did a person even answer a question like that?

Shindo just smirked, noticing Midoriya's confusion. Man, teasing him really was fun.

* * *

Shinsou had to use the map to figure out just how to get to Fukukado's agency. He finally pushed the glass doors open, seeing Fukukado talking to the receptionist about some paperwork.

The Smile Hero looked up at the sound of the door opening, and waved, "Hey, Shinsou! Looking for someone?"

Shinsou looked around, "Uh... yeah... I was looking for Midoriya Izuku? I told him that I'll come find him after the internships today. Is he still here?"

Fukukado just pointed at one of the corridors, "Yeah, he's probably still in the changing rooms. You just head down that hallway, and you'll see it."

"Alright, thanks, Ms Joke." Shinsou replied, heading towards the corridor, as Fukukado laughed, "No need to be so serious, kiddo. Just go find your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend." Shinsou turned red, and rushed towards the changing rooms, as he heard Fukukado's voice reverberating through the corridor, "I think you forgot the "yet"!"

Shinsou quickly found the door to the male changing rooms, and pushed it open, noticing a completely empty changing room.

Frowning, Shinsou stepped inside and looked around. All the lockers were unused, and the changing stalls were all unoccupied, with their doors being open. Shinsou took another step, noticing that there seemed to be someone in one of the stalls, and decided to ask if they've seen Midoriya, walking closer.

"Hey, uh, excuse me, have you seen -"

Shinsou was cut off when he got a better view of the stall, noticing that Midoriya was against the wall, clearly having no idea what to do with Shindo standing over him.

"Get away from him." Shinsou hissed; Shindo wasn't hurting Midoriya, and the lavender haired boy knew that unless he was facing a villain, Midoriya would never take the first step to attack.

"Oh, hello." Shindo grinned cockily, tilting his body slightly to face the other UA student, and Midoriya used that opportunity to slink out of the stall, quickly hiding behind Shinsou, desperately trying to slow his heart rate and steady his breathing; when had they gotten so high? It wasn't like he was fighting or anything?

"You okay, Izuku?" Shinsou asked, checking over the boy; Shindo didn't seem to have harmed him, but Shinsou did not trust the older Ketsubutsu student the slightest.

Midoriya nodded, and Shinsou put his arm around Midoriya protectively, before growling at Shindo, "What do you want?"

"Nothing." Shindo just shrugged, putting his polite and friendly persona back up, "Just wanted to ask a couple questions, you know. Get to know each other. No biggie."

Narrowing his eyes at Shindo, the lavender haired boy growled, "Leave him alone. Don't you have any awareness of personal space?"

"Okay, okay! Relax!" Shindo just laughed; he didn't actually want to harm Midoriya, he just wanted to tease the emotionless boy a little. It was actually pretty amusing to see how overprotective Shinsou was of Midoriya.

* * *

Shinsou just grumbled under his breath as he and Midoriya walked towards the train station. Shindo was trailing behind them, tapping on his phone, and Midoriya just glanced up at the purple haired teen, signing, _"Food?"_

"Are you okay with us going back to the train station by UA before getting food?" Shinsou asked, "I don't want to be around _him_ any longer than we have to... he gives me bad vibes... Worse-case scenario, we just grab more instant noodles at a convenience store on the way back and eat that for dinner."

Midoriya nodded; he had no idea what Shindo was thinking, back in the changing room, but he didn't like it one bit. It had taken some time for them to finally reach the train station, and they had hopped on the train back to UA, but apparently, Shindo was also taking the same train.

"Don't mind me." Shindo laughed, taking his phone out to scroll through the news, "I'll be getting off in a few stops."

Shinsou just glowered at the second year, unamused, putting himself between Midoriya and Shindo, before he fished his phone out of his pocket, and pulled out some earphones. He scrolled through his playlist, finding something that he thought Midoriya might like, and plugged the earphones in; Midoriya was definitely uncomfortable with the entire situation, especially since Shindo was in the same train car.

He put one earbud to his ear, and handed the other to Midoriya, the green haired boy turning his attention to the earbud, looking at it in confusion. It took a bit of silent coaxing, but Midoriya gingerly took the earbud from Shinsou, and placed it in his ear, before returning his hands to the metal railings so that he didn't fall.

A huge surge of passengers entered the train, forcing them to shift positions if they didn't want to get pushed around, and while they definitely did help to create more distance between Midoriya and Shindo, it was clear that the greenette was still very uncomfortable with so many people in such close proximity to him.

The next few stops helped thin out the crowd, with a good chunk of commuters alighting at every stop, and Shindo finally got off the train at some point, making Midoriya relax, and the duo just stood there in silence, waiting for the train to stop at their station.

The train finally reached their stop, and the two students finally alighted, and Midoriya just looked around, observing his surroundings.

"Man... it's pretty dark..." Shinsou muttered, stuffing his earphones into his pocket; it was pretty cold, with the wind blowing heavily, and he didn't really want to go out of his way to eat anything, especially with how dangerous it was in the dark.

"Instant noodles back at the dorms?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya nodded.

* * *

The two students had made a quick stop at a convenience store, before heading back towards the dorms. The lights in the common were switched on, but there was no one in sight. No Kaminari and Ashido talking, no Sato cooking, no Bakugou swearing up a storm at someone, no Iida chopping his arms around and ordering people to clean up their messes; it was oddly eerie.

Shinsou set his hero costume case on the ground, and switched on the news, before moving towards the kitchen to boil some water. Midoriya fished their instant cup noodles out of his bag, and peeled them open, as Shinsou walked out of the kitchen with the hot water and two pairs of chopsticks.

It didn't take them too long for the noodles to be ready, and Shinsou and Midoriya just sat on the sofa, watching the news as they ate their dinner.

"Oh... yeah... what is your hero name? You hadn't been in the hero course yet when we made ours. Did you know that Shouto wanted his real name to be his hero name? Midnight-sensei refused to let him use it, though, so he settled on Frost Fire." Shinsou snickered, turning to Midoriya, and the green haired boy paused momentarily, some noodles hanging from the corner of his mouth. Midoriya sucked up the noodles, and chewed on them, before replying, "Hakryuen."

"Sounds cool." Shinsou smirked, as Midoriya turned back to him, curious, "Yours? I know Ochako and Asui and Kirishima's... but that's it..."

"Ah. Mine is Will-0." Shinsou replied, as Midoriya tilted his head, thinking, "...Zero?"

"Yeah."

Midoriya pondered over the name; it made perfect sense, given what Shinsou's quirk was. It just took away their willpower and control of their body from the person he was using his quirk on, but it was also very subtle, and it didn't make much sense unless someone knew that Shinsou's quirk was.

The green haired boy finished up the rest of the noodles, and Shinsou turned to the television, where there was some news about a gang of villains who were raiding various malls.

"Huh... Izuku, where are you going to be working tomorrow? Ms Joke again?" Shinsou asked, but Midoriya shook his head, and peered at the television, trying to find the location of the malls that had been destroyed, before softly replying, "No... I'm going to be in that area..."

"Thank goodness... I swear, next time I see him, I'm going to kill that slimy two-faced Sprite can bastard... " The lavender haired boy grumbled under his breath, and Midoriya tilted his head in confusion.

_Slimy two-faced Sprite can bastard? What the heck was that?_

"You take care of yourself, okay, Izuku? That place seems dangerous." Shinsou turned to him, "Also, if someone gets that close to you and you don't feel comfortable with, just kick them and run."

"He didn't hurt me... though..." Midoriya muttered, as Shinsou shook his head, "He didn't physically hurt you, but he invaded your personal space without your consent. That's harassment."

"I'll get in trouble." Midoriya replied, before blinking as he paused, biting his lip nervously; he hadn't meant to say that. It just came out on its own.

"You won't get in trouble for someone harassing you. And if you somehow do end up... just tell them I told you to kick them." Shinsou spoke up, before mumbling under his breath, "I swear... you're too good for this world."

Midoriya just turned away, completely and utterly confused.


	118. Chapter 118 - In a tragedy

_**A/N Just some clarification, Shindo didn't do anything to Midoriya besides... ya know... getting a little too close for comfort. Someone was asking about it on another website. I'm speaking from personal experience when I saw water cooler water is tangy; it always never tastes right, I swear to god, I had one at home, and it always tasted funny.**_

_**And Shindo is just really hard to write about. I **_**_honestly feel like shindo is an okay guy to his friends, but _****_he just goes a little too far when it comes to teasing people _****_(a little too far as in he'll definitely do anything he can to make the experience as hellish and uncomfortable as possible without physically hurting anyone)._**

* * *

Midoriya walked into the main hall of the Genius Office, and made a beeline towards the receptionist.

"Hello. Midoriya Izuku, right? Or Hakryuen? Which do you prefer outside of patrols?" The receptionist asked, scanning over his ID, as Midoriya just shrugged, signing, _"Anything is fine."_

"Alright, Midoriya. Best Jeanist isn't here at the moment, and we have another intern joining you today, so we'll just wait for her to arrive, and I'll call one of the sidekicks down to collect you." The receptionist replied, gesturing towards some chairs in the large waiting area.

_"She? Do I know this other intern?"_ Midoriya signed; after his encounter with Shindo the previous day, Midoriya was not taking any chances.

"... yes... I think you should know her. She also goes to UA. Tokage Setsuna, also known as Lizardy." The receptionist clicked through several files, "Is everything alright?"

"It's fine. Thank you." Midoriya signed back, and internally heaved a sigh of relief.

It had taken a few more minutes for Tokage to show up before they could start their work studies. Hakamata was still missing, and while Tokage used her Lizard Tail Splitter quirk while training with the sidekicks to deal with more troublesome opponents, while Midoriya spent his time analyzing the sidekicks and their quirks.

Overall, it wasn't too bad, though. Midoriya always did enjoy learning about new quirks, and Tokage's quirk was an interesting one that he didn't have that many opportunities to analyze.

All the sidekicks were wearing jeans, though, for some odd reason. That can't be comfortable to fight in. Jeans and denim made sense as Hakamata's hero costume because it was the easiest textile for his quirk to manipulate, but all his sidekicks? That just didn't make much sense.

Then again, who was he to judge? If they wanted to wear jeans, they could wear jeans.

* * *

Midoriya just looked around, as he patrolled along the streets with X-Less, when his phone buzzed.

Blinking in confusion, Midoriya fished his phone out of his pocket, and unlocked it, careful not to cut his fingers on the ridiculously cracked screen. Apparently, Nezu had sent him a message, and Midoriya clicked on the notification.

_"What colour do you prefer; brown, black, grey, red, or green?"_

Midoriya just stared at the message. Why on earth did Nezu want to know what colour he liked? It wasn't like it was important or anything. But still, he figured he should reply as soon as possible, and typed out "black".

He sent it out, and Nezu immediately replied with a _"Thank you!"_ and a _"Take care of yourself during your internship today! That area you're in is dangerous!"_. Midoriya was about to close the messaging application and focus on the patrolling, when X-Less glanced over at him, "That's a lot of unread messages. You want to check it? Might be important."

Midoriya paused, and stared at the group chat that Iida had invited him too. He hadn't really used it ever since he had been invited, and there were a _lot_ of messages. Still, X-Less had a point; what if one of his classmates needed help and used the group to contact everyone?

The green haired boy just opened up the group chat, and scrolled through the recent messages.

Apparently, some of the students were staying in the guest rooms within hero agencies, instead of traveling from UA to the agency every day. Midoriya did agree that it was safer than renting a hostel room for the students, given how many times the students had gotten targeted that year, and it did save on travel time and money.

It actually explained why the dorms had been so strangly quiet lately, and as much as Midoriya hated to admit it... he prefered it when it was bustling with activity. Sure, his classmates were annoying and played pranks on each other and they were really noisy and loud... but they were still really nice.

Iida had been staying over in Mizushima's agency, like he had done during the internships, and Todoroki and Bakugou were staying in the Todoroki Household, with Bakugou occupying the guest room. Ojiro and Sato, along with Shishida and Shoda, were also staying over in Shishido's agency, and Yaoyorozu and Tokage were staying in Majestic's agency. The Lurkers had also set up some rooms and beds in their temporary agency, so Kaminari, Sero, Mineta, and Shiozaki were staying over, with the girl having her own room, of course, and Ashido, Aoyama and Hagakure were staying in Yoroi Musha's agency.

Uraraka and Asui had originally been staying in UA, commuting every morning, but they had ended up working so late one night that Tatsuma had brought up the idea of letting them stay in the agency instead of traveling every day.

The only ones in 1-A that were still staying in UA were Koda, Shoji, Jiro, Tokoyami, Kirishima. But Shoji and Jiro usually worked in the afternoon and night, since they worked with Sakamata as stealth operatives, and came back in the early hours of the morning. Tokoyami and Kirishima had later shifts, so Midoriya never saw them during breakfast or lunch.

Lately, he's only seen Shinsou around when he woke up, or before he came back from his work studies. Shinsou didn't seem to be too surprised that the dorms were slowly emptying out, though he did comment on one occasion that it was weird and a little eerie. And Midoriya wasn't too sure when, but his friend would be internship hopping, and would be working under Tensei instead of in that agency that was near Fukukado's, and would be staying in Team Idaten's agency in Hosu instead of in the dorms during that time.

_And he'll be all alone again.__ Just like in the past._

Midoriya tried not to focus on it too much. He needed to concentrate on his work studies. Maybe if he asked, Nezu would let him sleep in his office.

The green haired boy slipped his phone back into his pocket, as X-Less tapped on the communication device in his ear, listening intently.

"Hey, Hakryuen, you've seen the new about shopping malls getting raided by villains, right?" X-Less stated, before pointing at a mall just across the road, "We've got orders to patrol that mall. Apparently, there was an information leak that the next attack will be there, so we'll be checking it out. There is some back-up coming, but if we do run into those villains, I don't know if they'll come in time, so we might have to hold them off until then. You up for it, kid?"

Midoriya nodded, as X-Less waited for the traffic lights to turn red so that they could cross the street, and entered the mall. Most of the malls in Japan had windows as ceilings, that allowed natural light to enter the building while still allowing all the cool air from the air conditioning to remained trapped in the mall, but the windows could be retracted in winter to allow for an open air mall, and this particular mall was no exception.

"Villain! Help!" A voice came from the second floor, and Midoriya and X-Less both looked up, noticing a villain running, and Midoriya ran towards the fountain.

"Hakryuen, the escalator is that way!" X-Less yelled, pointing in the complete opposite direction that Midoriya had run in, but Midoriya just jumped onto the ledge of the fountain, scaling up the fountain swiftly as he avoided the water jets, before he leapt off, grabbing onto the railing of the second floor with both hands, just as the villain ran in front of him.

Midoriya pushing himself up, easily vaulting over the railing, and wrapping his leg around the villain's neck, before flipping him over completely, smacking him into the ground and knocking him out. He noticed that the villain was holding something, and picked it up, noticing that it was a handbag.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" A woman ran up to him, and Midoriya tilted his head; he wasn't really sure if this was the owner of the bag.

_"Can you prove that you're the owner of this bag?" _Midoriya signed, before remembering what Uwabami had said about using sign language. But before he could speak up, the lady nodded, and opened the bag, pulling out the wallet and showing Midoriya her identity card.

"Here... this should be sufficient." The lady said, and Midoriya nodded, returning the bag to her, still rather confused as to why she knew sign language.

"Thank you for getting this back for me! I need to pay for my son's medical fees!" The woman bowed, before noticing Midoriya's confusion, and explained, "Ah... my son... he's mute... so he uses sign language to talk to me. Thank you again!"

"You okay up there?" X-Less yelled as the lady rushed off towards an exit, and Midoriya nodded, taking the escalator down to the first floor to join X-Less as the security guards apprehended the villain.

"Nice job, kid." X-Less praised, "That was smart, using the fountain to climb up."

Midoriya just nodded, and X-Less chuckled, "Come on. I don't think that was the villain we're looking for, though."

The duo wandered around for a little while more, looking around warily, before a loud crash rang out, followed by screaming.

"Let's go." X-Less nodded, and ran towards the source of the sound, with Midoriya running after him. They raced towards the center of the mall, running in the opposite direction from all the other civilians, before X-Less fired off a laser into the sky, just narrowly missing a villain who had wings instead of arms.

"Everyone, please get away from here!" X-Less yelled, waving his arms at all the people who were watching the villains wreaking havoc from the balconies of the upper floors, as Midoriya narrowly dodged a couple of arrows being shot in his direction, slicing them away with his knife before they could hit anyone.

As far as Midoriya could see, there were about twenty villains, though they didn't seem to be really targeting people in general; they were mostly just shouting curses, looting the jewelry stores, and destroying the umbrellas used by the cafes in the open air section of the mall. There was a rather large marble fountain, a bit off to the side of the open area, but they left that untouched, probably because they didn't want to slip on all the water.

The winged villains swooped down, narrowly swerving as X-Less tried to gun her down with several short bursts of lasers, taking care to only aim up at the sky so that the lasers didn't damage the building or hit any people.

Midoriya jumped into the group of villains, kneeing one in the face, before leaping onto another. He hooked his leg around the villain's neck, flipping him onto the ground, and landed in a roll, ready to lunge again. Midoriya was doing his best to be really careful with how he threw people around; he only wanted to knock them out, not break their spine or suffocate anyone by accident.

Heroes are supposed to enforce the law and keep the peace, bring hope to the people, but how are they any better than the villains they're trying to capture if they just killed all the villains?

Another man charged at him, slashing at him with a knife, but Midoriya just growled, baring his teeth and clamping them down on the knife. Using one arm to grab the man, Midoriya flipped him over, dislodging the knife from his grasp while smacking the villain in the ground, knocking him out. Midoriya ripped the knife out of his jaws, before throwing it at another villain, forcing him to dodge.

Midoriya intercepted the villain able to use the opportunity and the knife smacked into the wall, a fair distance away from the braver civilians who decided to stay behind to record and stream the entire villain attack, but it seemed like the villains decided it was a good time to try and attack the civilians to get the heroes off their back. X-Less had already knocked a couple of them down with his lasers, but he was still having trouble with the villain with wings.

Midoriya waved his arm at X-Less, gaining the hero's attention. He pointed at the winged villain, before sweeping his arm downwards and pointed at himself. X-Less asked, "You sure, kid?"

Midoriya nodded, just as he swerved to the side, knocking the baseball bat out of the hands of another villain before kneeing him in the gut. X-Less fired off more lasers at the winged villain, forcing her to swerve around to dodge, before diving downwards in an attempt to get X-Less to stop. X-Less carefully aimed and fired off his laser in such a way that she was forced to dive-bomb towards Midoriya, yelling, "All yours, Hakryuen!"

Snarling, the villain slashed her wings at Midoriya, but Midoriya swiftly dodged her attack, and unraveled the cloth around his arms, ensnaring her.

Before she could react, Midoriya yanked her around, and swung her into a couple of other villains, entangling them all within the cloth and knocking them out. Midoriya dodged as another villain slashed at him with some blades, and another fired off several arrows at him, but Midoriya easily weaved through the projectiles, knocking them out.

X-Less was busy wrestling with two more villains with strength-enhancing quirks, and he glanced at Midoriya, yelling, "Watch out!"

Midoriya heard a familiar click, and he whirled around, staring right into the barrel of a gun.


	119. Chapter 119 - The darkness manifest

Midoriya's entire head felt fuzzy; every single movement became clear, he could see the bullet that was loaded in the gun, he could see the villain's finger pressing down on the trigger, he could hear screaming all around him.

But he couldn't move. All his muscles had tensed up, he could hear his heart pounding in his chest, he could hear his own breathing, but he could do nothing except to stare straight into the barrel of the gun.

He could hear more shouting, but he was barely able to process what was going on, with all of his focus on the gun that was right in his face.

A flash of light flared past his face, and the sound of a gunshot firing off rang through the air. Midoriya felt pain flaring through his shoulder, down his arm, and through his body, snapping him out of his daze. The villain's gun was no longer pointed at his face, but he was quickly readjusting his aim, and Midoriya hastily grabbed onto the barrel of the gun with his hand, wrenching it away so that it was pointing at the ground, just as the villain fired again.

Pain flashed through his hand, but Midoriya just jumped up, wrapping his legs around the villain's shoulders and flipping him over, smashing him into the ground and dislodging the gun from the villain's hands. Kicking the gun away, Midoriya turned around, only to notice that X-Less was still struggling against the two strength-enhancing villains, with blood running down his nose as he was punched in the face again.

_That flash of light._

It took Midoriya some time to process it, and he growled; despite trying to hold off two villains on his own, X-Less had still tried to protect him, and had gotten hurt in the process. That hero had just saved him from getting shot in the face at point-blank range.

Midoriya bared his teeth and lunged, swiftly disorientating and knocking out one of the villains, giving X-Less enough time to regain his bearings to take out the remaining villains. Together, they knocked out the rest of the villains, and allowed the police and security to arrest and handcuff the villains.

X-Less groaned as he pressed some tissue against his nose, trying to soak up all the blood, and Midoriya stared up at the hero, concerned, ignoring the blood dripping from his shoulder and hand. X-Less seemed to notice the smaller boy looking up at him, and grinned at him, wincing slightly due to the bruise on his face, "Hey, kid. You alright?"

He seemed to notice the hole on Midoriya's hoodie, and the blood that was dripping down the boy's arm, creating a small puddle on the ground that gradually grew bigger.

"Hakryuen, uh... your arm..." X-Less muttered, staring at the bloody puddle, before his eyes trailed back to the boy's injured arm, as Midoriya paused, just seeming to remember that he was shot.

Midoriya used his uninjured hand, and prodded at the gunshot wound on his shoulder.

"I... don't think you should be touching that..." X-Less stated, watching as Midoriya poked his finger into the wound, "Kid, please don't touch it, please wait for the paramedics to check it out, come on, please..."

Midoriya just stuck his finger into the wound, digging around for a bit, completely ignoring the horrified look on X-Less' face. It took him some time to find the bullet, and he slowly wiggled it about, trying to get it out, just as the paramedics arrived.

Some of the paramedics moved to look over X-Less, checking over his broken nose and bruise, and several others tried to help Midoriya with his injured shoulder and hand, only to stop and stare as Midoriya tried to fish the bullet out on his own.

Midoriya finally got the bullet out, and seemed to notice that several of the paramedics were looking at him with stunned and petrified expressions on their face. He tilted his head in confusion, as one of the paramedics asked, "Did you just... fish it out on your own?"

The green haired boy nodded blankly, handing the bullet over to the paramedic, who just stared at the bullet, then back at him, then back at the bullet. She shakily took the bullet from the boy, before redirecting him towards several other paramedics, "You should... go get your shoulder and hand checked."

Midoriya just nodded, and followed her instructions.

_What was with all the weird reactions?_

* * *

"Your shoulder and hand doing okay?" X-Less asked, and Midoriya rolled his shoulder experimentally and clenched his hand, as X-Less tried to stop him, "No, I meant, does it hurt, not if you can use them..."

Midoriya paused, and looked up at him, confused, as X-Less sighed, "But, you sure you're alright? That must have been scary..."

The green haired boy merely shrugged, signing, _"It's alright."_

"It's not alright." X-Less admitted, "You kids haven't seen the world yet... there are some things that you're not mentally ready to handle yet. I'm sorry for letting him get so close to you."

X-Less gently patted Midoriya's uninjured shoulder, "Hey, it's been a tough, okay? And I don't think it'll be good if you continued to fight with your arm like that. How about you go back to UA early?"

Midoriya tilted his head, gesturing towards X-Less' face, slightly guilty for the hero's injuries, but X-Less just waved him off, "Don't worry about it. I'll just be going back to the agency to finish up some paperwork. I'll get someone to bring you back to UA."

* * *

Nezu finished up some filing, and was going to get more paperwork done, when the door suddenly creaked open. Reiko and Ryuto perked up, and turned in the direction of the door, before running towards it. Nezu turned to face the door, and saw Midoriya there, gently closing the door behind him, before he sank to the ground, his legs gave way under him, the reality of the entire situation finally slamming into him like a tsunami.

_Useless... just useless... why am I so upset over this?! I've dealt with worse! Why is this affecting me so much!?_

_You've never been faced with a gun before. You can deal with knives and all sorts of other weapons because you've used them on yourself, but have you ever pointed a gun at your own head before?_

"Izuku! Are you alright?" Nezu immediately hopped off his chair, and rushed towards the trembling child. His breathing was heavy, and his face was so pale that Nezu thought that he might be sick. Reiko patted Midoriya's leg, purring softly, as Ryuto flew over to perch on his shoulder, nuzzling him comfortingly.

Nezu gently pressed his hands onto Midoriya's shoulder, "Izuku? Are you okay?"

Midoriya just shook, breathing heavily, before he managed to force out some words, sounding like he was being strangled, "... there was... a villain... pointed a gun... right in my face... it was so close..."

Nezu gently wrapped his arms around Midoriya, "It's okay, Izuku... it's okay..."

"And... I just... froze up..." Midoriya shakily stammered, his breaths starting to come in fast, "... and... I did... nothing... I couldn't... do anything... I was useless..."

"Shh... it's alright... You're not useless, Izuku..." Nezu gently murmured, letting the greenette rest his head on his shoulder, "You're still a child. It's alright to be scared. No one expects you to be able to deal with something like that, especially not at your age."

Midoriya just continued, his words slightly muffled, "... but... everyone else would be able to do something... Aoyama can shoot him with a laser... Bakugou can blast them... Shouto can protect himself with his ice... all I can do it... just... sit there... and wait for someone to save me..."

"Izuku, even the most powerful and highly trained heroes would freeze up if someone pointed a gun in their face." Nezu replied, "It's normal to be scared. And it's perfectly alright to be scared."

Midoriya reached out, wrapping his trembling arms around Nezu, clinging onto the animal principal as if his life depended on it, "I don't... want... people getting hurt because of me... I don't... want to be useless..."

Nezu gently patted Midoriya's head, as the green haired boy clung to him, "You're not useless, Izuku. Don't ever think so lowly of yourself, because you'll never be useless."

Midoriya swallowed, and bit his lip, tightening his grip around Nezu, "... I don't want to die..."

"It's alright..." Nezu softly muttered, before his phone alarm started ringing. Nezu just stuck his paw in his pocket and disabled it, before going back to hugging Midoriya.

"Isn't... that... important..." Midoriya muttered, "Shouldn't you... bother with that..."

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." Nezu replied, "Nothing is more important than making sure you're alright."

* * *

Aizawa tapped his foot impatiently, "Where's Nezu?"

"Probably still in his office?" Kan replied, "Where else would he be?"

"He's the one that called the meeting. It's irrational to be late, especially with so many things going on." Aizawa huffed, sipping at a jelly pack. He knew that he was probably being very petty, and that whining about it wasn't going to make Nezu arrive any faster, but still, they all had stuff to do.

The villain attacks all over Japan, not just in Musutafu, had been increasing lately, and while there were other heroes patrolling the area and taking care of them, Aizawa couldn't help but worry about all his students that were somewhere else in Japan, where he couldn't keep an eye on them. Sure, they may blow up stuff every now and then, and he also had to take care of Eri, but at least he knew that they were safe in UA.

Well, at least, safer than in other parts of Japan.

He wasn't saying that the other heroes weren't competent enough to take care of the UA students. He was just saying that the UA students have been targeted by villains, and that the other heroes might not be able to handle it if some huge villain group decided to target the students again.

Okay, he was basically saying that the other heroes weren't competent enough to take care of his students.

And apparently, Torino had managed to capture Kurogiri quite some time ago, so the League of Villains had lost their teleporter, but they still had absolutely no idea where Shigaraki and the rest of the League were.

"Maybe he just had a stomach ache." Snipe suggested, "There's plenty of valid reasons why he would be late."

"Wouldn't he tell us if he has a stomach ache?" Kayama asked, and Ishiyama shrugged, "I don't know. Not everyone brings their phones into the bathroom, you know."

"Throwing shade, I see?" Kayama winked playfully, before turning serious again, "But the thing is, Nezu is never late for meetings. _Especially_ ones that he had set up."

"I don't have time for this..." Aizawa grumbled, as Yamada patted him on the back, "It'll be okay, Shou. The kids are all growing up. You can't keep looking out for them, you know?"

"Yeah, but -"

Aizawa was cut off as the door opened, and Nezu walked into the room, his suit slightly wrinkled. Nezu hopped up onto his seat, and took some papers out of his file, "Sorry for being late!"

"Where were you?" Aizawa huffed, "You're never late."

"I'm sorry, Aizawa." Nezu apologized again, "Izuku came back early from his work studies today. Apparently, he was nearly shot in the head, and was shaken up over it."

"I see..." Aizawa nodded, accepting Nezu's explanation, "That's valid. Where is he right now?"

"With Recovery Girl, with Reiko and Ryuto." Nezu replied, handing out the papers, "She wanted to check on his shoulder and hand. Then he would probably either go back to the dorms or hang out in my office."

"Okay." Ishiyama glanced through the paper that Nezu had handed out, and Nezu stated, "Read through all that, and once everyone's done, we'll start."


	120. Chapter 120 - I was only in my mind

Shinsou huffed in indignation as his phone vibrated again. Someone had been messaging him throughout his internship, and Shinsou had no idea who it was, since he hadn't been bothered to check his phone while he was arresting a couple of drunkards with the agency he was in.

He fished his phone out his pocket, and unlocked it.

Apparently, Kaminari and Sero had been spamming him with messages. Clicking on Kaminari's profile, he quickly scrolled through the messages, before scrolling through Sero's.

It seemed like they were trying to contact Midoriya, but to no avail, so they had tried to get to the greenette through him. He was leaving the agency later than usual, so there were a _lot _of messages.

Deciding that Sero would get to the point, Shinsou typed, _"So what's up? What's with all the dms from you and Kami?"_

_"Okay, cool. Basically, Mido's interning with us tmr, for like, the next 3 days, so Edgeshot wanted to ask if he wanted to stay over in the agency like we are now. But they don't have his number so we tried dmming him but he still hasn't replied so we texted on the group chat and still no answer and we though if you msg him he might answer cause you're his friend?"_

_"I have internships too, you know. I'm not on my phone all the time."_ Shinsou texted back.

_"Ya. We know. But you still stay in dorms so you'll see him somehow."_ Sero messaged back, _"Also, Mineta was also trying to msg you? Cause you didn't respond so we got more ppl to msg."_

_"I blocked him."_ Shinsou blinked, typing back his response, _"If I see Izuku I'll tell him. IDK if he's even back in UA yet."_

_"Okie! TYSM!"_

Shinsou pocketed his phone, and changed back into his casual clothes, before folding his hero costume neatly and placing it back in the case, before heading towards the train station.

* * *

Midoriya huddled down on the couch in the dorms, nursing his arm, the news on the television blaring, but he wasn't paying any attention. Shoji and Jiro were at their work studies, Tokoyami had just been posted to another agency that was far enough that he decided to stay in the agency, and Kirishima was most likely sleeping in his room.

He had stayed in Nezu's office until dinnertime, before he retired back to the dorms, deciding to stop being a burden to the animal principal and take care of himself.

Reiko was curled up on his lap, and Ryuto was huddled against his side, but there was still an empty feeling of loneliness within him.

Midoriya just sank into the couch, gazing blankly at the television, before he heard the sound of the door opening. He immediately sat up and turned towards the door, noticing Shinsou closing the door behind him.

"You're back." Midoriya spoke up, before he blinked and paused in his movements; why on earth had he said that?!

"Yeah, today's work study ended late." Shinsou groaned, putting his bag on the ground, "You okay there, Izuku?"

"I'm... fine..." Midoriya replied, turning back to the television, as Shinsou fished more instant noodles out of his bag, and headed towards the kitchen.

"You sure? You seem a little... well... lonely..." Shinsou muttered, boiling the water in the kettle, "I mean... it's not surprising. The dorms are surprisingly quiet. Never thought I'd miss the days when Kaminari or Ashido are screaming because they pissed Bakugou off again..."

He poured the hot water into his noodles, before settling down by the couch.

"Oh, yeah. Kaminari and Sero were trying to contact you, but they couldn't reach you, so they resorted to spamming me with direct messages. And Mineta too, apparently, but I have him blocked so eh." Shinsou shrugged, and Midoriya stared at the ground, muttering, "... sorry..."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it. You might have a couple of messages from them, though. Maybe it would be easier if you just messaged them back..." Shinsou replied, before he paused, staring at the television, "Izuku?"

Midoriya looked up, and turned to the television, noticing that the news was now talking about the arrest of the villains that had continuously been raiding malls, along with some shaky video by a passerby.

He had a clear view of the fight. He saw X-Less and himself taking down the villains.

He saw himself turning around, the villain aiming the gun right at him at point blank range.

Midoroya's entire body froze up, and his breath hitched. He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms, and he swallowed awkwardly.

His mouth felt dry, and he could feel, could hear his heart, pounding viciously in his chest, his breaths coming in fast, his blood roaring through his ears.

He couldn't hear anything, the voice of the newscaster and the annoying background music fading away to static. His entire body felt stiff, cold, and his vision blurred, turning the kanji and hiragana on the screen into meaningless nonsensical blobs.

His chest felt tight, he wanted to breathe but his body just refused to let him, and he felt like he was going to suffocate as fear and anxiety and dread and everything just hit him like a freight train.

And all of a sudden, he was thrown back into reality as he was gripped by the shoulder by two firm yet gentle hands, his vision clearing the reveal Shinsou crouching down in front of him, a worried expression on his face.

"Close your eyes. And just focus on your breathing." Shinsou instructed.

Midoriya tried to follow Shinsou's instructions, but the second he closed his eyes, all he could see was the bullet lodged within the barrel of the gun, aiming right between his eyes. He could see every detail, the light glinting off the gun, the darkness within the barrel, the slight shifting of shadows as the gun wavered slightly, the chewed up nails on the villain's finger as he slowly pulled the trigger.

His eyes snapped open, and he shook his head, breathing heavily, trying to get more oxygen into his lungs.

"Shh... it's alright... just focus on me." Shinsou gently spoke up, and Midoriya nodded slowly.

"I'm here for you, alright? Just follow my breathing, okay, Izuku?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya nodded again.

Shinsou inhaled for about four seconds, keeping an eye on Midoriya to ensure that he was following, and held it in for about seven seconds, before spending another eight seconds exhaling.

He repeated the process a few times, until Midoriya stopped trembling, and finally seemed calmed down enough.

"Feeling better?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya slightly, swallowing nervously, his breaths still heavy, but controlled.

"Hang on for a second." Shinsou murmured gently, and he stood up, grabbing the remote to the television and switching it off, before heading towards the kitchen.

Reiko was silent, before she purred, letting her human pick her up and hug her gently, before he used his other hand to scoop Ryuto up to hug him as well.

She had seen Midoriya go through panic attacks before, each one ending with the boy pulling out a blade and mutilating himself, using the pain to snap himself out of it before he lost all control.

It was scary, not being able to do anything to help her human besides grabbing some bandages from his drawer, or bringing the tissue box closer to him so that he could clean up after, and she was just glad that Midoriya had finally found some friends who were willing to help him.

Shinsou came back with a glass of warm water, and handed it to Midoriya, who placed the animals down gently, before taking the glass from Shinsou, still confused, with slightly shaky hands

"What... happened..." Midoriya breathed, unsure what had just happened, as Shinsou replied, "You had a panic attack. Feeling a bit better now?"

Midoriya stared at the water, and Shinsou gently coaxed him, "Drink some water. It'll help."

The green haired boy took a small sip of water, before he asked, "How... how do you know... how to deal with it..."

Shinsou reached up, scratching his neck, "I've... had them before, when I was younger. I've mostly gotten over them... but they're not pleasant to go through..."

"I'm sorry..." Midoriya muttered, taking another sip of water, as Shinsou replied, "You have nothing to be sorry about. It happens... especially with everything that's going on."

Midoriya just remained silent, quietly drinking his water as he forced his heart rate to return to normal. The two of them sat there quietly, with the only sounds being Midoriya's heavy breathing as he tried to calm down, before Midoriya finally placed his now empty cup on the table, and sank into the couch, his eyes dull and hazy.

"You okay there, Izuku?" Shinsou glanced over at the smaller boy, who just looked downright miserable. Midoriya nodded in response, before signing, slowly and shakily,_ "You were... saying something? Before... news..."_

"Ah..." Shinsou noted that Midoriya was trying to change the topic, "Well, the Lurkers were offering you to stay in the agency over the course of your internship? How long is it?"

Relieved that he no longer had to think about the gun, Midoriya pondered over the question, replying, _"Three days."_

"No wonder they asked you to stay over." Shinsou muttered, "Are you going to take them up on that offer?"

_"It would be rude to decline..." _

As much as Midoriya knew that it would be easier if he accepted, some part of him didn't want to go. Sure, he wouldn't be along, but he didn't know Kaminari, Mineta, Shiozaki, or Sero as well as Shinsou, and something about the taller teen just put him at ease.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to." Shinsou stated, but Midoriya just shook his head, and stood up, _"It's fine. I'll go pack now."_

* * *

Shinsou had been helping Midoriya pack for the duration of the three days that he would be with the Lurkers, before deciding to give Midoriya some space and retiring to his room, but Midoriya didn't seem to want to be alone at the moment, and didn't want him to leave.

Midoriya's room was freezing cold, even with a hoodie on, and the greenette seemed reluctant to switch on the heating system, so Shinsou just found some random movie playing on his laptop, letting the boy use the kotatsu in his room, before taking a shower, leaving the door to his room open in case Midoriya decided to head back to his own room.

He was hoping that it might help Midoriya calm down, though he seriously doubted that the boy understood what was actually going on in the movie.

"Feeling better?" Shinsou asked, a towel around his neck as he grabbed some coffee from the small refrigerator in his room as Midoriya sipped on a juice pack, staring blankly at the screen. Shinsou settled down next to the boy, and tucked his legs under the blanket and relished the warmth of the heater built into the table, and peered at the screen, watching as two people shouted at each other across the room.

"What's going on?" The lavender haired boy asked, drying his hair with the towel, as Midoriya just started at the screen.

"I don't know..." Midoriya muttered, placing his juice pack down by the side and laying his chin on the table, glancing up at the screen, still trying to figure out just what was going on as one of the people started crying.

"That's stupid." The greenette commented, as one of the people started throwing stuff onto the ground, breaking cups and dishes and all sorts of other stuff, and Shinsou stopped rubbing his hair, pausing to take a closer look at the screen, and raised his eyebrows, "Yeah... this is dumb... want to watch something else?"

Midoriya tiredly nodded, not really caring too much as Shinsou dug up some cat videos on the internet, before continuing to dry his hair with his towel. Letting out a small yawn, Midoriya rolled his shoulders, arching his back slightly as he stretched out his arms, before laying them against the table, peering up at the screen of Shinsou's laptop as a small kitten started chasing a bright red dot from a laser all over a room.

He wasn't sure when his eyes fell shut, but he was grateful for the darkness that took over, the unusual feeling of calm rushing through his entire body, allowing him to, for once, drift into a quiet, dreamless, peaceful slumber.

* * *

Aizawa rushed towards the 1-A dorms.

With how calm Nezu had been, and all the villain attacks going on, it had taken him quite some time for the reality of the situation to slam into him.

Granted, it took them a very long time to process it, with so many things going on at the same time, given that there had been a villain attack just two streets down from UA, and then Tsukauchi had called to give them a brief update about how unresponsive to their questions Kurogiri was.

He needed to make sure the problem child was alright. Yamada and Kayama were blowing up the entire teacher's group chat, with Snipe, Ectoplasm, Yagi and Ishiyama occasionally giving their two cents. Nezu was remaining quiet, which was odd, but Aizawa figured that he was also hit by the true severity of the situation.

Aizawa still remembered the first time someone had startled him and aimed a gun at him. It wasn't at his face, and was aimed towards his chest, and he still remembered how badly he froze up back then, his entire body locking up, being unable to focus on anything other than the shiny metal gun that could kill him on the spot. He had just been an intern, and one of the other sidekicks had saved him from any real harm, but the fear still stuck with him.

As much as he hated to admit it, he liked to patrol with someone, especially if it was one of his friends or colleagues. At least, they could still look out for each other and cover each other's blind spots.

His phone vibrated, and Aizawa fished his phone out of his pocket, noticing the message was from Nezu.

_"Aizawa, do you know where Midoriya is? He isn't answering my messages."_

He wasn't too sure if Midoriya was sleeping yet, given how late the boy usually slept, but he might have decided to go to bed early, given the events that had just happened that day.

_"I'm checking on him."_

_"Alright, thank you."_

Aizawa shoved his phone back into his pocket, before pushing the doors to the dorms open. The common room was completely empty, which was odd, considering Midoriya liked to curl up on that black bean bag that was now tucked in the corner. Aizawa did get a closer look to check; there had been times where Midoriya was just in the room and _no one_, not even him, noticed, so Aizawa really had to double check just to make sure that Midoriya wasn't there.

Aizawa made his way to the elevators, and took it to the second floor. Sure, he could walk up one flight of stairs, but he was just too tired to do so at the moment.

Upon reaching the second floor, Aizawa immediately noticed that the lights in Midoriya's room were not switched on, so the boy was either not in his room, was sleeping, or decided to pull a Tokoyami and work in the dark.

And oddly enough, Shinsou's door wasn't closed properly. That was very unusual, given how much the purple haired boy liked his peace and quiet, especially with so many rowdy students staying in the dorms, and Aizawa decided to check on his kid first, and then figure out how to check on Midoriya.

He gently pushed open the door to Shinsou's room, and immediately found the solution to his second problem.

Midoriya and Shinsou were both sitting side by side at the kotatsu, heads resting on their arms as they lay down on the table, leaning against each other, as some random video played on Shinsou's laptop. Reiko was lying against Midoriya's shoulder, while Ryuto was tucked in the hood of Midoriya's hoodie, and Shirou was curled up on Shinsou's lap.

Aizawa silently heaved a sigh of relief. At least, at the moment, the problem child was safe, and seemed alright.

He just snapped a quick picture, closed the laptop, switched off the lights and gently closed the door behind him, before sending the picture to Nezu.

* * *

"Hey! Midoriya!" Kaminari waved, as Midoriya exited the train station, with Shiozaki beside him, "We figured we'd come pick you up!"

Midoriya just nodded, and ran over to them, glad to be away from the huge surge of commuters who were currently entering and exiting the station, and Kaminari grinned, "Alright! Let's go to the agency!"

It took them a couple of minutes to get to the temporary agency that the Lurkers had set up, and Kaminari burst into the room, "Hey! Midoriya's here!"

"Welcome. Thank you for coming all the way here." Kamihara bowed politely, and Midoriya bowed back.

"Hey, Edgy!" Takeyama called out, "We might have a problem with the other guest room."

Confused, Kamihara asked, "What problem?"

"Lights. They're not working. We left them on for too long." Nishiya sighed, "The wires are all soaked, and they short circuited. Apparently, there was some flood on the upper stairs or something and we were never told about it."

Midoriya just blinked in confusion, as Nishiya walked out of the hallway, "Sorry, kid. We were checking the last guest room, but we're having some trouble with it at the moment and you can't stay in it. We're getting someone to come fix it up, but it's going to take at least a week for all the repairs and to ensure it's safe enough to stay in."

"Can't he stay with Shiozaki?" Takeyama asked, "The room she's staying in has two beds."

"There is a reason why we separated the kids by gender..." Nishiya replied, his eyebrow twitching, as Takeyama countered, "Yeah, but what other choice do we have?"

Midoriya just looked downright confused. He always did find it weird that the UA dorms had to be separated by gender, causing the dorms to have so many unused rooms, but then again, with someone like Mineta around... he guessed it was better to be safe than sorry?

"Hah!? No fair! Why does he get to share a room with -" Mineta was cut off as Sero plastered his mouth shut with some tape, sighing, "Because he's not a pervert?"

"Well... Shiozaki... if you don't mind?" Kamihara turned towards the green haired girl, who looked like she was thinking over it, "We can also provide a partition, if it would make you more comfortable."

"I... I think that would be alright." Shiozaki replied, and Kamihara nodded, "Thank you for being considerate. Now... Midoriya, if you could just leave your things in the room and change into your hero costume, we can get going."

* * *

Shiozaki walked out of the bathroom, fully clothed and with a towel around her hair. She was still a bit uncomfortable about sharing a room with Midoriya, even though there was a partition separating the two halves of the room. Not that she didn't like Midoriya; the greenette was a great guy, and she still owed him her life for saving her during the Sports Festival. It was just a bit awkward, since she's never shared a room with someone of the opposite gender.

Glancing over at Midoriya, she found that he was curled up on his bed, staring at the wall blankly. She knew that Midoriya was naturally quiet and didn't like to draw much attention to himself, but compared to the three rowdy boys that she had spent her work studies with... Midoriya was being eerily silent.

"Midoriya." Shiozaki gently called out, so as to not startle the boy, "I'm done using the bathroom. You can shower if you like."

The green haired boy looked up and nodded slightly, before pushing himself up, digging a towel and some clothes out of his bag, before making a silent dash to the bathroom, so quiet that if Shiozaki hadn't been paying attention, she was sure she would have missed it.

Shiozaki finished up her prayers, before the bathroom door opened, with Midoriya donning a light purple hoodie that surprisingly, didn't clash with his hair too much, and the green haired boy immediately crawled up onto his bed, and lay there, unmoving.

Shiozaki stood up, concerned for the boy.

"Midoriya... are you okay?" She asked softly, and Midoriya turned around slightly, glancing at her and nodding, but Shiozaki could see that something was clearly wrong, and it was something that she had to adjust to when she had first started her work studies with the Lurkers.

He was homesick; he had been staying in Heights Alliance for far longer than anyone else in UA, ever since he got out of the hospital after that attack on UA. Even though he had spent a lot more time in his foster households, that was all they were, just a place for the government and the foster system to dump him into without any regard for his health or safety.

The 1-A dorms was one place that he would truly call home. He was much more familiar with the layout of the dorms, and it wasn't a nice feeling, being in a brand-new, foreign environment, and feeling completely out of place. Midoriya was scared of accidentally breaching predetermined boundaries, of being somewhere that he shouldn't be, of breaking something by accident.

He was scared of fucking up again, everyone laughing at him, mocking him, his friends deeming him useless and worthless and leaving him all alone to face the demons of his past.

Midoriya remembered that one lone black rose placed on his table, alongside a neatly clipped out article of a quirkless university student who had committed suicide.

The boy just curled up even tighter, and tried to block his memories out. He couldn't afford to get another panic attack now.


	121. Chapter 121 - I'd make you lie

"Hey, Hito!" Tensei grinned, as he swiveled about in his chair in his office, "Welcome to Team Idaten!"

"Hi." Shinsou bowed slightly, noticing that three of Tensei's sidekicks were also in the room.

"You've noticed." Tensei smiled, before gesturing to a female with long dark hair tied into two low plaits, "This is Enigma!"

"This is Onemu Shinya, though you can just call her Shinya." He gestured towards a woman in a Chinese cheongsam mini dress with long sleeves, before pointing to a man in a full body costume, as well as a short cape, "And this is Bigshot."

Shinsou bowed respectfully at the sidekicks, before Tensei continued, "Alright, Hitoshi. Think you can introduce yourself, your quirk, and hero name?"

The lavender haired boy nodded, "My name is Shinsou Hitoshi. My quirk is Brainwashing... and it allows me to control people if they reply to me. And my hero name is Will-0."

"Willow?" Bigshot asked, "Why are you named after a tree?"

"Uh, it's a zero at the end. Not an "o". Though it is supposed to sound like a tree to throw people off." Shinsou explained, scratching his neck nervously, as Enigma nodded, "Okay, cool. Makes sense, given that it's easy to counter your quirk if people know what it is."

There was a knock on the door, and Tensei called out, "Come in!"

The door was pushed open, revealing Mizushima, "Hey, Ingenium. You ready?"

Tensei nodded, "Yep. I was just introducing the new work studies student to my sidekicks."

A familiar bespectacled face popped up from behind Mizushima, and Iida pushed his glasses up, "Hitoshi!? I didn't know you were working with my brother!"

"Well... it's my first day here... I was at another agency up till yesterday." Shinsou admitted, and Tensei just smiled, "Alright. you guys seem to know each other, so that's it for introductions. Hitoshi, go suit up. We have some intel regarding some criminals, given to us by the police, and we're going to take them down."

* * *

The three days of staying with the Lurkers had been torture. Not his classmates and the heroes, they were alright, even though Mineta didn't seem very happy that he got to share a room with Shiozaki while the other three boys were stuck in another room.

No, what has been torturous was forcing him to remain in a foreign environment, surrounded by people that he wasn't close to. He didn't even bring Reiko and Ryuto with him because he didn't want to trouble the three heroes even further. At least, all he had to do was an analysis of the Lurker's teamwork, and figure out how to stabilize the teamwork between the four UA students.

He was just so relieved to finally be back in UA, back where he knew it was safe. He had a free day, not having any work studies that day, and while he was a bit upset that Shinsou had already left to intern with Tensei, Midoriya had spent a good part of his day holed up in Nezu's office, hanging out with the animal principal, Reiko and Ryuto just cuddling with him as he helped Nezu with some filing, before going out.

He planned to use his free day to make potpourri for Moashi, and then repaint the two figurines he had gotten for Iida and Uraraka. He had already checked the art room, and there was sufficient paint for him to use, so all he had to do was buy some flowers, paint remover, and varnish.

Midoriya flipped open his notebook, and checked the Christmas list he had made. He was already finished with the sketches of the teachers, and had opted to draw Yagi's true form instead of his bulky, muscular form. He figured that Yagi didn't really have any pictures of his true form, and it was just easier to draw and took less time. He had already finished his notes for 1-A and 1-B, but he hadn't really finished the gifts for his friends, Eri, or his Secret Santa giftee, so he was going to have to finish with that fast.

He was also going to get Shuzenji something, so he would have to figure that out too.

Midoriya quickly headed to the mall, and after consulting the map of the mall, he had found a small jewelry shop. It made custom charms and necklaces out of pretty rocks, so Midoriya figured that it would be good enough for what he wanted. He entered the shop, and the shopkeeper immediately waved, "Hello! How may I help you?"

Hesitating slightly, Midoriya gently pulled his dragon pendant off his neck, and handed it to the shop keeper, scribbling on a small piece of paper, _"Can you make a copy of this?"_

The store owner pulled out a magnifying glass, and peered at the small dragon, and nodded, "Of course I can!"

He pulled out a small selection of rocks, each one neatly labeled with the type of rock they were, "What would you like me to make it out of?"

Midoriya scanned over all the rocks, and made a small squeak. Reiko popped out of his hood, looking down at the rocks, before she mewled and nodded her head at one shiny and sparkly white rock, that was labeled as white opal. Midoriya looked at it, and pointed at it; he figured that it would suit Eri.

"Should I put it on a necklace, or do you just want it as a charm?" The shopkeeper asked, and Midoriya put his finger up, signifying the first choice, and the shopkeeper nodded and replied, "Alright. My quirk allows me to make copies of anything I see into rocks, though I would first have to heat the rocks up to make them more malleable. You can come back in about half an hour, and it'll be done. You'd have to leave the necklace, though. I need a reference."

Midoriya nodded, and exited the shop. He didn't want to lose the pendant his parents had made for him, but he couldn't afford to waste any time. He quickly found an art shop, and bought some paint remover and varnish, before stopping by the flower shop to grab a couple of nice smelling flowers, some tiny green plants, as well as three carnations. He had also stopped by the supermarket, grabbing a huge bag of gummies; he was relatively sure that Shuzenji did like gummies.

Seeing as he still had ten more minutes, Midoriya just decided to check out a couple of clothes shops. He had a decent idea of what he wanted to make for his Secret Santa giftee, and he started looking around for some black and grey hoodies. He found a couple, and bought a grey and black one, before noticing that the shop also had a couple of... _weirder_ hoodies.

There was one that was just a horrible mess of colours, with cyan, and red, and purple, and yellow, and every other colour splattered on it in one huge mess. Midoriya did recall that Kaminari had shown Todoroki something like that, and the dual hair coloured boy had said that he would wear it, just to piss Enji off, so Midoriya just bought it for Todoroki. He also saw a grey hoodie with cat ears, and figured that Shinsou would like it, and also bought it.

He picked up the necklaces from the jewelry shop, before he headed back towards the dorms. It was one of the more expensive things he had to buy, but he had already saved a lot since the nice old man at the tea shop didn't charge him for the Golden Tips Imperial.

On the way back, he stopped by the graveyard. Midoriya gently crouched down, placing two carnations down by his parents' grave, before he turned around.

He was alone.

Every time he had visited the graveyard, Midoriya had always been with his classmates, and he hadn't trusted anyone enough to bring them into this seclusive grove. Entering the small grove, Midoriya swept away some of the fallen leaves and twigs, before gently placing his last carnation down by the rock that was sitting at the base of the tree.

* * *

Midoriya flicked on the lights of the art room, and slipped inside, gently closing the door behind him. He had already gotten permission from Nezu to use the art room, and the animal principal had also given him a room pass to show that he was permitted to use it.

The green haired boy fished the paint remover and varnish out of his pocket, before digging the paint out of the drawers. He had already dumped all the stuff in his room, and he had to retrieve the two figurines anyways. He started to preheat the oven to 93 degrees celsius, before coating the two figurines in some paint remover. He had to wait around twenty minutes before he could remove the old layer of paint, so he decided to use that time to snip the stems off the flowers, and removed individual petals for several of the flowers.

He had taken out the pan of the oven beforehand, covering it in some baking paper, and lay the flowers on it, and added a light layer of essential oils. Upon checking the oven, he decided that it was hot enough, and placed the entire pan inside, and set a timer on his phone for two hours.

Midoriya had spent around twenty minutes dealing with the flowers, so he decided that he should remove the paint remover from the figurines. He spent a few minutes rubbing the old paint off, and was quite delighted when he found out that all the old paint had been successfully removed.

He dried the figurines off, before starting to repaint them. He had to check a couple of photos of Thirteen and Ingenium in order to get the right colours, and to ensure that the correct parts were painted correctly. He wanted to make sure that he got the entire thing done perfectly.

It took quite some time for Midoriya to finish painting them, and he left the figurines at the side to dry, before deciding to check on the flowers. Pulling open the over, Midoriya reached out hesitantly, and poked a flower experimentally. It was brittle and hard, and it felt entirely dry, so Midoriya deemed that it was baked enough, and took the entire pan out to cool.

While waiting for the flower and petals to cool, though, Midoriya just placed some small rocks, sand, and soil into a small glass bottle, before carefully placing the small plants inside, being gentle to ensure that he didn't damage their roots by accident. By the time he was finished with the terrarium, the flowers and petals had already cooled down, so Midoriya gently set the terrarium aside.

The art room had fixatives, so Midoriya just added it into the dried flowers and petals, before pouring everything in a small plastic container, and placed the lid over it.

After checking that the paint on the two figurines were already dry, he quickly brushed a layer of varnish over them, before he proceeded to clear up the rest of the art room, throwing out any litter that he happened to find, and wiping down the rest of the counters and tables, before collecting all his things, and retreating back to his room.

* * *

Midoriya carefully placed all his gifts into his closet, placing the gummies in his refrigerator and the terrarium on his table, where it could get some light, before he pulled the two hoodies out, placing them on his bed. He was going to have to figure out where to cut it, but it shouldn't take too long to make what he wanted.

He accidentally knocked a notebook off his desk, and Midoriya bent down to pick it up, noticing the page of Shirakumo.

The green haired boy blinked, and picked his notebook up. He had been doing some research on the cyan haired boy during his breaks between drawing and writing, and while he did vaguely remember seeing the boy in the first and second year segments of the UA Sports Festival while watching the reruns as a child, but oddly enough, not in the third. He attributed that to him dying in his second year, though.

He still couldn't find out too much about the boy, though. All he knew was that his quirk was Cloud, and that it allowed him to create different-sized clouds. There were a few old images of the boy in his hero costume, though, and Midoriya was fairly sure that those were Aizawa's goggles...

Midoriya blinked, and searched up one of the photos of Shirakumo, and zoomed into the goggles. They were blurry, but they were yellow, and had the same rectangular shape.

He flipped over to the next page, where he had a couple of notes about Kurogiri.

Sure, Cloud and Black Mist weren't that similar; one was a cloud-making quirk, and the other allowed for teleportation. But he just felt like there was something there, something he was missing.

He snapped his notebook shut, and headed towards the staff room. Hopefully, Aizawa and Yamada were there.

* * *

There was a knock on the door of the teacher's lounge, and Ectoplasm looked up, and opened it. He looked down, only to see Midoriya standing there, a notebook and pen in hand, and asked, "Hello, Midoriya. Are you feeling okay?"

Midoriya nodded, and Ectoplasm sighed in relief; if the boy wasn't going to bring anything up, he wasn't going to press, that would just do more harm than good, "That's good. Is there something you need help with?"

Midoriya signed, _"Is Aizawa-sensei and Mic-sensei here?"_

"Ah, they should be. Come in." Ectoplasm let the boy into the teacher's lounge, before calling out, "Aizawa? Present Mic?"

"Yeah, Ecto?" Yamada replied, standing up from his seat, before noticing Midoriya, "Oh hey, listener? Looking for us?"

Midoriya nodded, and Yamada shook a sleeping Aizawa awake, before dragging him over to talk to the boy.

It took a few seconds for Aizawa to snap to attention, but the hero just perked up, "Did you need us for something?"

_"Do you know this guy?"_

Midoriya flipped open his notebook, and showed it to the two pros. Aizawa looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, and for once, Yamada was completely silent, his mouth opening and closing, but no noise coming out.

"How... how do you know about him?" Aizawa shakily asked.

_"I checked through past death records."_

Yamada choked, "And... if you don't mind me asking... why were you searching through death records?"

Snipe and Kayama looked up at the mention of "death records", and Kayama stood up to inspect the situation. She caught the name and the sketch on Midoriya's notebook, and swallowed nervously.

_"Nomu."_

"You think that... the Nomu's are made from corpses?" Yamada shook his head, "Not possible. We... we saw him die... and we went to his funeral... there's no way..."

Midoriya's expression remained largely apathetic, but inside, he did understand what the heroes were feeling. They clearly cared about their friend, and had been distraught when he died. It would destroy them emotionally if Shirakumo's corpse had somehow ended up in the hands of villains, to be created into a Nomu. Midoriya couldn't bear to think about what would happen if he found out his deceased parents were made into Nomus.

But this was his only lead. He needed more information.

"Come on, kid." Kayama stood in front of Yamada and Aizawa, who were still processing everything, "Shirakumo... well... what do you want to know?"

_"His quirk."_ Midoriya shakily signed back.

"Well... as far as I know... his Cloud quirk allows him to make.. well... clouds. They can be pretty dense and hold up the weight of several people... they can float in the air... and I think he was working on storing stuff inside of them." Kayama replied.

"He could also ride them to move around quickly." Aizawa added, having finally regained his composure, and Midoriya tensed up.

Travel. Cloud could be used to travel. Then it was possible that...

Mdiroiya hastily flipped open his notebook, and started scribbling down in it hastily, stunning Kayama and Aizawa.

"You okay there, kid?" Yamada asked, having finally shaken himself out of his stupor, and Midoriya froze, blinking at his notebooks.

It could just be a coincidence... but what were the chances of the two quirks being based on water vapor, and also being capable of fast travel? Sure, they were still pretty different quirks, but given that the League had a member that could give and take quirks, it wasn't too out of the question that they could have combined Cloud and several other quirks together to make Black Mist.

Midoriya blinked, before hesitantly signing, _"I think Kurogiri's quirk might be made from Cloud."_

Aizawa just stared at him, Yamada looked like he wanted to yell, his hands were twitching, and Kayama just completely froze up.

All three of them didn't move, just staring at him like he had suddenly grown a second head.

"Ah..." Snipe spoke up, ushering the boy to the principal's office, "Perhaps you should explain your findings to Nezu. We'll deal with these three."

* * *

"I see..." Nezu sipped on some tea, "That's how you got to that conclusion."

Midoriya just nodded, and Nezu patted him on the leg, "Shirakumo's death hit us all very hard, especially those three. They were his closest friends."

The animal principal remained quiet, before he spoke up, "He died in his second year, during his work studies. It's one of the reasons we wanted to ensure that you went with reputable heroes. Not just because we wanted the best for you... but we wanted to make sure you students wouldn't be involved in... something... like this."

Midoriya nodded understandingly, and Nezu stood up, "The other teachers and I will deal with those three, okay? You can hang out here, or go back to your room. Just... take care of yourself, okay, Izuku?"


	122. Chapter 122 - There's no pain that

"Here, this way, kero." Asui spoke up, as both she and Midoriya exited the train station. They had to walk through quite a few streets and roads to reach the harbor, where Midoriya saw a woman with light blue hair and a sleeveless white sailor uniform next to a large ship.

The woman looked up, and she smiled brightly, waving, "Hello! Froppy! It's so good to see you again!"

"Sirius!" Asui waved, "Come on, Midoriya, kero."

She quickened her pace, and Midoriya tried to follow suit, as Sirius turned towards the ship, calling out, "Guys! Froppy's back!"

Several guys, also in sailor uniforms, opened up the windows, and leaned out, waving.

"Hi Froppy!"

"Welcome back!"

"Hi! I missed you guys!" Asui smiled, and waved back, as a humanoid-looking spotted seal walked up onto the deck, and hopped down beside Sirius.

"Hello, Froppy!" Selkie gave her a huge smile, before turning to Midoriya, who was right beside her, "And you must be Hakryuen, right?"

Midoriya nodded, and Selkie stuck out his hand, "Good to have you here."

The green haired boy hesitantly took his hand, and Selkie gave him a firm handshake, grinning toothily, "You kids are famous now, huh? How are you guys?"

"We saw you were involved in the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death! That must have been scary!" Sirius spoke up.

"We're good, kero." Asui replied, thinking, "That raid... well... it was scary, I admit! But we managed to save a little girl, so I think it was all worth it!"

"I'll let you guys catch up a bit." Selkie turned back towards the ship, "I need to finish some paperwork before we go out on patrol, so get ready and get suited up in a few minutes."

"Yes sir!" Sirius and Asui replied, before Sirius smiled, turning back to Asui, "So, Froppy, you remember when I told you that I realized what was really important for being a hero, and I told you that you had to find the answer to that yourself? You think you've figured it out?"

Asui brought her finger to her cheek, thinking, "I think... it's about being diligent. And it's only when you're persistent and hardworking that you can keep up and continuously improve?"

Sirius grinned, and patted Asui's head, "Every person would realize something about themselves that's really important for being a hero. And being diligent and hardworking? That's your answer. It's important to you."

The blue haired girl turned to Midoriya, "What do you think? Why do you want to be a hero? What's important to being a hero for you?"

Midoriya froze up.

_"Papa, what's the point in being a hero? __What's the point in saving a world that doesn't want to be saved?"_

He knew that his father had given him an answer... but he couldn't remember it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't ever remember what his father had told him. Why couldn't he remember?! It made no sense, sure, he was a kid, but he still had other memories with his parents... why was this one just... blocked off?

Why did he want to be a hero?

He didn't know.

"Uh... Hakryuen? Midoriya? Are you alright?" Sirius asked, noticing that Midoriya had completely frozen up, before the boy seemed to notice that she was talking to him, and snapped out of his daze, blinking in confusion.

"Are you okay?" Asui asked, and Midoriya slowly nodded.

"Well..." Sirius awkwardly spoke up, "Come on, I'll bring you two to the changing rooms."

* * *

_"Sirius! How are things on your end? I heard a bump!"_ Selkie called out through the intercoms, and Sirius pressed her ear to the fins on the sides of her face, "Everything's all good! Don't worry about it! Hakryuen just threw Mick to the floor!"

"Be careful! Don't break the floor!" Selkie warned, as Midoriya made a couple of scribbles in a notebook, giving Mick some time to catch his breath. Mick was a much larger man than Midoriya, but the boy was easily able to use his agility to evade Mick's attempts to hit him, and was easily able to take the man out.

"He's pretty good, huh?" Sirius smiled, as Asui nodded.

"Midoriya's always been a hard opponent to fight against." Asui admitted, "Even against some of our physically stronger or faster classmates, he's still capable of defeating them. He's unpredictable, and he's very good at adapting."

Sirius grinned, "I don't have a physical quirk, so I also had to learn hand to hand combat in order to earn my place on this crew. But we did have it easier in the past. It's just... nowadays... people only care about what quirk you have. If it's loud and flashy... people automatically assume that it's a good quirk for hero work. It must be tough for a quirkless kid to make it all the way to the hero course. Sure, he got in through the Sports Festival... but it must have been hard in general for him to even make it through elementary and middle school."

"Bullying?" Asui asked, and Sirius nodded, "Yeah. I don't think you kids really keep up with stuff like this... but the suicide rate in quirkless people has been increasing exponentially. Quirkless people already have it tough enough; some of them can't defend themselves in case they get into accidents, and sometimes, they're specifically targeted by villains as hostages specifically because they don't have quirks, so they're easier to restrain. Others are also victims of hate crimes; people just kill them for no reason other than their existence. And then you take in bullying... kids don't really have a filter, so they just spill whatever is on their minds. And they can be really mean at times... If you take a look at quirkless statistics... Hakryuen might just be one of the few quirkless people left remaining around the world from your generation."

"I know it's really bad... but I've never really thought about how bad it could be, kero..." Asui admitted, turning back to gaze at her classmates as he tried to adjust Mick's stance, "But Midoriya's been slowly opening up..."

"That's good. Mental scars take a long time to heal..." Sirius sighed, "When you're a pro... you need to keep track of things like this too, Froppy. In cases like this, people are really just victims to themselves, and to society itself. The real villains are deeply hidden inside the people you're trying to save. You understand, Froppy? Sometimes, you'll need to save someone from themselves."

Asui quietly nodded, and focused on Midoriya made an odd movement, ducking under a punch by Mick as he stumbled, before he grabbed his hand and used it as leverage to flip himself upwards, locking his legs around the older man's neck.

* * *

"Thanks for helping out so much." Sirius grinned, as Midoriya grabbed his case with his hero costume, Asui doing the same, "I know that cleaning and patrolling might be a little boring, but hey, we got to nab more smugglers, right?"

Selkie immediately tried to put up a cute face, bringing his paws up to his chin, "Thank you two for being here!"

Midoriya just blinked in confusion, not really sure what Selkie was doing, as Asui laughed and ribbitted.

"Was I too cute for words, Hakryuen?" Selkie asked cutely.

"You know he doesn't talk that much!" Sirius sighed, exasperated with her captain's attempts at being cute, "He's probably dumbfounded! I always say this, but you can't just make your face cute! Below the neck, you're too macho... your face is also too rugged, though..."

"What did you say!?" Selkie yelped, "When I do this for kids, they love it!"

"Yes, they love making fun of it!" Sirius pointed at Selkie cheekily, "Because it's not cute at all!"

Selkie tilted his head in confusion, and Midoriya just stared in confusion at the goofy pro hero.

"Don't worry about it too much. They're always like this. They had the same conversation when I was here for internships, kero." Asui smiled, "Don't tell I said this, but I think it's really cute, kero."

* * *

"Welcome to Endeavor's Hero Agency!" Enji put up a fake smile as Midoriya walked into the main hall, with Todoroki, Bakugou, and somehow, Yoarashi by his side.

"As if I'd be that friendly." Enji scowled, "Shoto told me to invite you, but your physical abilities don't match up with my agency. We're powerhouses that take down villains as fast as possible. Your abilities revolve around finding weak points and exploiting them. They're good, but they're not compatible with us."

Midoriya just blinked emotionlessly; that did make sense, in a way. Midoriya wasn't a very strong physical fighter, nor did he have a quirk that allowed him to attack in any other ways. All he could do was dodge and evade attacks, analyse his opponents fighting style, and exploit weak points. Sure, he may be able to easily defeat weak fodder villains, but it's obvious that Enji wasn't talking about villains like that.

"I have no plans to concern myself with anyone but Shoto." Enji admitted, "But your analysis skills have been highly spoken of by other heroes. I will be going out and patrolling with these three. Several of my sidekicks will be in the building, but they have their own patrolling and training schedules. Your job is just to analyze them, as much as you can within these two days. You can type or write or whatever, doesn't matter."

Midoriya nodded, before Enji turned towards the three interns, roaring, "Alright! We're leaving now!"

Bakugou just snorted and followed behind the taller man, and Yoarashi was talking about something... Midoriya wasn't too sure what about, and Todoroki just sighed, following behind the two students.

Midoriya just blinked, and watched as Enji and the three students left the agency, and a woman with fiery yellow hair grinned toothily at him, "Alright, kid! My name's Burnin! Nice to meet you. I'm just going to bring you to the other sidekicks and you can do whatever Endeavor asked you to do, alright? We've got over thirty sidekicks here, so you really got your hands full, kid!"

* * *

Fuyumi had invited him to eat with them at the Todoroki Household, since Todoroki, Bakugou and Yoarashi were all staying there at the moment, while Midoriya opted to go back to the dorms and sleep. He had to leave the lights on whenever he slept, and it had been hard while he had been staying with the Lurkers, being unable to close his eyes without picturing the gun that had been pointed between his eyes, and he doubted that the others would want to be kept awake if he left the lights on.

Midoriya hadn't been too hungry, but he still took a couple bites of soba and vegetables, just to satisfy Fuyumi. Todoroki quickly finished up his soba, and left for the living room to watch some news, and the green haired boy walked up to him as he left. Midorya tugged on his arm gently, and Todoroki paused, quietly asked, "Do you need something, Izuku?"

Midoriya subtly pointed to Yoarashi, who was talking really loudly and eating pretty much anything he could get his hands on, much to Fuyumi's amusement.

"Oh." Todoroki blinked, "Apparently, Bakugou and I were going to the agency for our work studies, and Yoarashi was there on the train, wanting to intern under my dad, saying something about there not being hate in his eyes or... something like that. So I just told my dad that he and Bakugou were both my friends. Yoarashi was nice about it, but Bakugou... he _might _have called my dad a "stick in the mud"... whatever that means."

Enji was holed up in his room, most likely reviewing all the sets of analysis that Midoriya had given to him. Midoriya already had some basic knowledge of all of Enji's sidekicks, so it didn't take him to long to compile all the information clearly and neatly and toss them to Enji.

"Midoriya Izuku."

Midoriya looked up as his name was mentioned; he was about to watch the news with Todoroki, but it seemed that Enji had other plans.

"Come here."

Midoriya immediately walked in the direction of Enji's room, where the hero was standing. Enji let him into his room, which consisted of a huge bed, and a large table covered with paperwork. Midoruya noticed that all of the analysis he had done that day were stacked neatly on Enji's desk.

Enji settled down in his chair, and took out three huge ring binders, and passed them over to Midoriya. Midoriya flipped them open, confused, only to realise that it was the essay he had handed up to Aizawa.

"You wrote this, right?" Enji asked, "The writing style, and the type of words used... they're similar to the analysis I had you do for me on my sidekicks. You were the one who wrote this, right?"

Before giving Midoriya a chance to reply, Enji continued, "You don't have to say anything. I already told Shouto that I'm doing everything in my power to become a hero that he would be proud of. My wife and my daughter have been accepting of me trying to change, but my other son, Natsuo... I don't think he'll forgive me. Not to mention Touya... and I have no idea how you even found out about him. But it seems like my family weren't the only people who were disappointed in who I am, as a father, and as a hero."

Enji turned to him, "You were the one that got my son to use his fire. And I am thankful for that. And I'm also sorry if I did anything to offend you in the past."

Midoriya just blinked at the hero in confusion. He hadn't really been expecting that; he guessed that being forced to be the Number One hero had really made Enji reconsider who he was.

Midoriya didn't really like Enji; heck, the man even burnt a hole through him, though Midoriya was literally asking for it. But if Enji was trying to change as a person, and take better care of his family... then Midoriya would accept the apology. Even Todoroki had admitted that he could see the effort that his father had put into changing, and if Todoroki, someone who knew Enji more than him, was accepting it, then Midoriya would too.

"You're dismissed." Enji muttered, turning around, "You can go hang out with Shouto if you like. I need to read all of these."


	123. Chapter 123 - I won't go through

Midoriya looked around, checking the map on his phone, before spotting the gigantic "Ingenium" written at the top of one of the tall buildings. Deciding that he was at the right place, Midoriya pushed the glass door open, and the receptionist looked up, scanning him over, before smiling brightly, "You must be Hakryuen. Welcome. I believe Ingenium will be down in a minute or two to pick you up."

Sure enough, in a minute, Midoriya heard the sound of the elevator, and the door opened, revealing Tensei, who was talking to Mizishima.

"Hey!" Tensei waved at him, "Midoriya Izuku, right? Come over here!"

Midoriya obliged, and quickly walked over to the hero's side, and Tensei stuck his hand out for Midoriya to shake, "So, I'm Ingenium... but I think you know that already. You're friends with my little brother, huh? I have no idea how you managed to do it, but thanks so much for convincing him to _not_ go after Stain. My brother's always hung up on following the rules, but I guess getting injured pissed him off a little..."

Tensei pointed to Mizushima, "So, this is Manual. We're kind of working with his agency on some stuff, so you might see him, his sidekicks, and my little brother around as well. Come on, I'll bring you to my office, we'll sort out some paperwork, and then I'll spill the patrol routes."

Mizushima stuck his hand out for Midoriya to shake, kindly saying, "It's nice to meet you, Midoriya."

Midoriya nodded slightly, and Tensei and Mizushima entered the elevator, with the Engine hero speaking up, "So, basically, more drug traffickers. I believe you took down some drug traffickers with Kesagiriman, and that was one of their bases of operation. The main base is somewhere in Hosu, so we're trying to take them down here."

The elevator door opened, and Tensei led Midoriya to his office, where several of Tensei's and Mizushima's sidekicks stood, waiting. In the corner, Shinsou and Iida were observing the other heroes, and Midoriya immediately perked up. He already knew that Shinsou was interning with Tensei, and that Iida was here as well, but he was still happy to see his friends.

"Hey, Izuku!" Iida waved, and Midoriya quickened his pace, joining them in the corner.

Shinsou glanced over the boy's hero costume case, and asked, "You're not staying over?"

Midoriya shook his head. As much as he wanted to stay with his friends instead of the eerie emptiness of the 1-A dorms, Midoriya still needed to finish up the gift for his Secret Santa giftee. He had already finished all the gifts for Nezu, his friends, Shuzenji, Eri, his teachers, Togata, his classmates, and the three heroes at the Nighteye Agency. All that was left was his Secret Santa giftee, and he only had two more days to finish it, two more days that he was busy working with Team Idaten. He was really cutting it a little close, and he was pretty disappointed that he wasn't able to finish everything up earlier.

"Well... I suppose you are more familiar with the dorms instead of staying in a new place." Iida replied, chopping his arms slightly in the crowded room, "Don't worry too much about it. If you're more comfortable back in the dorms, then it's perfectly alright to stay here!"

"Alright! Everyone's here!" Tensei grinned, before giving a brief introduction of both Mizushima and his sidekicks to Midoriya, before he started, "As you know, we're dealing with drug traffickers!"

Tensei pulled out a huge map, "You all have your assigned patrol routes. We're all going to go out, get as much information as possible, map out all the escape routes and such, then we'll come back and share our findings. And then we'll crash their main base. Everyone good?"

Everyone nodded, and Tensei handed out some papers, "Alright, read that, and then get suited up. If you do bump into any of the people on the list, try to act inconspicuous, like we're not interested in what they're doing. Midoriya, you've probably done something like this dealing with the Eight Precepts of Death, so I think you can handle it. We're all leaving in twenty minutes, so get ready!"

* * *

Midoriya pulled his hood up, as he walked down the street with Enigma. He had opted to leave his bracers back in the agency to remain more inconspicuous, so all he had remaining was all of his knives and his capture weapon wrapped around his arms.

The area he was supposed to patrol didn't have any weird activity, or, at least, anything that would make Midoriya suspicious, so he just headed back to the agency with Enigma.

The other heroes seemed to also be making their way back, and the elevator was a little crowded as they tried to get to Tensei's office. Midoriya just tucked himself into the corner and hoped that no one would get too close to him. He never liked small, tight spaces, especially if there were a lot of people, and his... encounter with Shindo just made him feel even more claustrophobic.

He could feel his chest tighten, as he tried to force himself to remain calm, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the ding of the elevator to ring out so that he could escape the cursed metal box.

Finally, the doors of the elevator opened, and the other heroes exited the elevator, allowing Midoriya to take a breather. The boy paused outside the elevator, taking several deep breaths, just as the other elevator door opened.

More sidekicks filed out, and Midoriya bit his lip nervously, until two familiar figures exited the elevator.

Shinsou glanced over, noticing the green haired boy, and he gently patted Midoriya on the shoulder, "Hey... Izuku... you okay?"

Midoriya swallowed slightly, and nodded, shakily signing, "I'm fine. Just a little crowded."

"It's still bothering you, isn't it? What happened that day?" Shinsou asked, gently rubbing circles on Midoriya's back, and the younger boy nodded.

"If... you don't mind me asking... what happened?" Iida asked softly, not wanting to startle the boy. Shinsou glanced at Midoriya questioningly, and the green haired boy subtly nodded, before Shinsou turned back to Iida.

"He was interning with Ms Joke and Shindo was kind of harassing him after it? Izuku was stuck in a stall while Shindo cornered him." Shinsou explained.

Iida frowned, "That's terrible of a hero course student!"

Shinsou nodded, "Yeah, I know."

"You kids okay?" Tensei asked, walking up to them, "We're going to start the meeting soon."

"We're... okay..." Shinsou replied, glancing at Midoriya again. Midoriya nodded, signing, "I'm fine."

"Would you like some warm water?" Tensei asked, and Midoriya shook his head, not wanting to bother the hero further.

"Don't worry about it. I'll just get one of my assistants to get some. Everyone needs some warm water every now and then, don't sweat it!" Tensei laughed lightly, clearly not wanting to make it even more awkward than it already was.

* * *

"Alright." Tensei finished, grabbing his helmet off the table, "You guys got it?"

The pro hero had just explained all the different types of drugs that they might be encountering, which mainly included hallucinogens, paralysis-inducing drugs, Trigger, and more remnants of Chisaki's prototype of the quirk destroying drug.

There was a chorus of nods and agreements, and Tensei put his helmet on, "Alright, everyone get your communicators switched on, and get to your assigned spots. We're going to catch all of them at one go!"

Mizushima added, "The highest priority are those quirk-destroying bullets. We can't let those end up with more powerful villains who might be able to perfect them, or even with the League... even though we still don't know where they are. Also, be careful, in case they decided to shoot us with these drugs as well. We know that the prototype can't permanently remove quirks, be still, look out for them. That can become a huge hindrance. Also, be careful of Trigger! That can end up causing more collateral damage than necessary!"

* * *

Midoriya pulled his hood on, and readied his blade. He was currently with Shinsou, Bigshot, and Onemu Shinya, guarding one of the exits to the warehouse.

Iida was with Tensei and a couple of other sidekicks, while the third team consisted of more sidekicks, who were being led by Mizushima.

_"On my signal."_ Tensei ordered, and Bigshot nodded, replying, "Understood."

There were some sounds of metal clashing against metal, and the sound of people running rang out through the communication devices,_ "Now!"_

Bigshot slammed the door of the warehouse open, and Midoriya caught sight of several people moving wooden crates around as he entered the building. All of them turned to the source of the noise, stunned, before one man with an alligator head who seemed to be supervising the others snarled, "Heroes! Take them down!"

Onemu Shinya jumped into the fray, kicking a man in the face, as Shinsou used his capture weapon, lashing two men together and bashing their heads against each other, knocking them out. Midoriya vaulted over several boxes, smashing his boots into one woman's face, before narrowly dodging a dart bullet that flew past his arm.

"They're not just smuggling drugs." Onemu Shinya stated, ducking under a punch and kicking a man in the groin, before she knocked him out, "They're also using them as weapons. Be careful."

Bigshot was easily mowing down the villains, as Midoriya threw a knife, intercepting a dart that was about to hit the man, before he made an odd movement as a woman with a knife quirk tried to attack him, making her trip.

Midoriya took her out, before the supervising villain growled, and leapt down, snapping his jaws at him, but Shinsou lashed his capture weapon around the boy and yanked him away in time.

Bigshot jumped in to wrangle with the alligator villain, before Onemu Shinya gestured towards the two students, "We need to take out the others. I'll take the top and go further in, I'll leave this area to you two and Bigshot."

Shinsou nodded, as Midoriya ducked under a punch, and threw a knife at a woman who had a gun aimed at Onemu Shinya, before kicking a villain in the stomach.

The lavender haired boy lashed out with his capture weapon, flinging a man into a wall, as Midoriya leapt over the downed villain, parrying away a woman with extendable nails.

Out of the corner of his eye, Midoriya noted that there was a man hiding up on the rafters, a dart gun aimed at Bigshot. He fired off several rounds, and Midoriya growled, jumping in to intercept the darts.

Midoriya managed to use his blades to deflect most of them, but a yellow dart just barely lodged itself into his flesh, before Midoriya plucked it out.

Almost immediately, Midoriya could feel his body tensing up. He only had a few more minutes, and his muscles would lock up completely; he remembered the description of it that Tensei had mentioned earlier.

_Better make the most of it._

Midoriya growled, and twisted his body, kicking a villain in the face before grabbing another by the legs and flipping them over completely. Another woman with a strength enhancing quirk lunged at him, but Midoriya just made another odd, off-putting movement, making her trip, before he knocked her out with the handle of his blade.

Midoriya spotted the other sniper in the corner of the room, loading his gun, aiming it at Shinsou. He could feel his body locking up, and in a desperate attempt to protect his friend, Midoriya lunged at the villain, getting a red dart lodged in his shoulder for his efforts.

Shinsou whirled around, and punched the man in the face, as Onemu Shinya came back, knocking out the sniper in the rafters, before announcing, "All clear."

Bigshot shoved the alligator villain into the ground, punching him in the face to ensure he was knocked out, before he looked up, nodding as he surveyed the area, "We're good here too."

"Izuku? You okay?" Shinsou asked, noticing that his friend wasn't moving after he had rammed into the villain, and rushed over to his side. He plucked the red dart out of his skin, and turned towards the other two heroes, "He's got hit by a red dart."

"...Yellow..." Midoriya absentmindedly muttered, his mind a little fuzzy, and his vision slightly blurry.

"And a yellow one." Shinsou added.

Onemu Shinya reached up, tapping the communicator, "We've secured the warehouse, but Hakryuen's been hit by a yellow and a red dart."

_"Understood."_ Mizushima replied, the sound of tapping coming from the other end, _"The red one is a hallucinogen, and the yellow one is the paralysis drug. Luckily, the hallucinogen isn't very strong, and the darts they use can only inject very small doses. He should be able to sleep off the effects, but he should check in with the medical staff and Recovery Girl, just to be safe."_

"Okay." Onemu Shinya nodded, before she turned back to Shinsou, who asked, "Is he okay?"

"Very small doses of drugs. He should be able to just sleep it off." She replied, as Bigshot set about tying up all the villains, "Can you pick him up?"

Shinsou nodded, and gently picked Midoriya up onto his back. He let Midoriya lean against his back, his head leaning on his shoulder, as the lavender haired boy tightened his grip on Midoriya's legs so that he wouldn't drop him.

Midoriya was murmuring something incoherent, as Onemu Shinya and Bigshot did one last final sweep of the warehouse, and Shinsou gently maneuvered around, exiting the warehouse with Midoriya on his back.

Midoriya blearily muttered, _"... Hito? ... You're... pretty..."_

Shinsou froze, and gazed up at the smaller boy, his eyes unfocused and dazed, and he blinked wearily. He could literally feel the younger boy's elevated heart rate, and sighed, "Just rest, Izuku, okay?"

Midoriya let out what sounded to be a hum in agreement, and tilted his head so that he was leaning against Shinsou's, nuzzling him slightly, and Shinsou just reached up, patting the boy on the head.

* * *

After Midoriya had woken up, and had finally regained his bearings, he was allowed to go back to UA after a quick check up, and a direct order by Tensei to check in with Shuzenji as well.

Shuzenji had let him go back to his room, with instructions to drink lots of water, and to come find her if he started feeling weird side effects. He was also instructed to visit her first thing in the morning before he went back to Hosu for his work study.

Midoriya just gazed at the grey and black hoodies on his bed, as he tried to figure out where to cut them.

He knew he had said _something_ to Shinsou while being drugged, something that he probably shouldn't have said. He didn't really remember what Shinsou's response was, though.

Maybe he hated him for saying something weird. His opinion never mattered in the first place.

He had always thought Shinsou was pretty, at least, when he was nine, and first met the purple haired boy. Sure, it may be weird to have thoughts like that, but Shinsou had literally been the only person who had been nice to him despite knowing he was quirkless. Nowadays, his thoughts were very rarely on how people looked, and more on how they behaved, but as much as he tried to get rid of them, those childish thoughts still lingered in his mind.

Maybe Shinsou would forgive him if he apologized.

* * *

Luckily, the second day of his work study with Tensei was just finishing up paperwork in the pro hero's office.

Shinsou pouted as he flipped the paper around, "Why is this one upside down?"

"It happens. Don't worry about it." Tensei laughed, "I'm going to get some orange juice. I'll bring you some."

Before either of the boys could respond, Tensei exited his office, humming some television show opening, and the door closed behind him.

There was an awkward silence in the office, before Midoriya spoke up, "...Hitoshi?"

"Yeah?" Shinsou replied, turning to the younger boy, as Midoriya glued his eyes onto his paperwork, "I'm... sorry... if I said anything... yesterday... to offend you..."

"It's fine. You didn't really offend me." Shinsou replied.

There was another bout of awkward silence.

"For the record... I think you're pretty too."

Midoriya blinked, and glanced at the older boy, his cheeks were dusted with pink as he stared at the piece of paper in his hand, almost as if that would magically make it complete on its own.

"We're... good?" Midoriya hesitantly asked. He wasn't too sure _what_ he was confirming, but he figured it was polite to know just what the other boy's stance was.

"Yeah... we're good." Shinsou smiled at him.

"I'm back!" Tensei grinned, pushing the door open, a glass of orange juice in one hand, and two orange flavoured jelly packs in the other.

"Shouta really likes those jelly packs for some reason." Tensei laughed, giving Shinsou and Midoriya a jelly pack each, "We work with him pretty often, because he's an underground hero, so we have a lot of these since Shouta is always so grouchy and tired."

* * *

"Thank you for having me for the internships." Shinsou bowed, and Tensei just laughed, "Don't be silly, Hitoshi. Don't act like it's your last day here. You're just going back to celebrate Christmas, right?"

"Yes! We had a Secret Santa event planned! And I'm sure Ashido and the others would appreciate a day off!" Iida chopped his arms, and Tensei laughed, "Are you sure you're not a robot, Tenya?"

"I am not a robot! You've been calling me that ever since I took that one statement of yours literally and asked you to work at the service counter for lost children! " Iida indignantly replied.

Tensei grinned cheekily, "It was hilarious, though."

Mizushima chuckled, "Remember, be flexible. Being able to adapt to difficult situations is the best way to deal with threats."

"Yes!" Iida saluted, and Mizushima laughed again, "And maybe relax on the saluting..."

"Well, I'll see you guys after Christmas! Have fun!" Tensei waved, as Iida, Shinsou and Midoriya exited the agency.


	124. Chapter 124 - When all the fires burn

"Hey!" Ashido waved, carrying her bag as she skipped into the dorms, with Aoyama and Hagakure trailing behind her.

"Mon amine! We are back, and we're sparkling!" Aoyama spoke up, "How were your internships?"

"Mine was awesome! I can now use Red Riot Unbreakable for about forty seconds consistently! We're trying to extend the timing right now!" Kirishima cheered, having entered the dorms just a few minutes prior, "You three went with Yoroi Musha, right? How was it?"

"It was awesome! We're working on a few Super Moves right now!" Hagakure replied.

Jiro and Shoji had come back a few hours ago, and were watching some television on the news. Todoroki and Bakugou had most likely gone back to their rooms to sleep, since the explosive blonde refused to eat any take-outs and insisted on cooking dinner, given that Enji had taken several emergency night shifts and messed up their sleep schedules.

"That's pretty cool." Shoji commented, "Jiro and I are working on reconnaissance."

"I honestly thought Gang Orca would be scary, since he was the former Number Ten Pro Hero, and he was acting as the villain during our provisional license exam, but he's actually really nice!" Jiro admitted.

Koda was taking care of Yuwai in his room, a bit tired from his work study, having met up with Tokoyami, Ojiro, and Sato on the way back to the dorms.

"Ah! Hi!" Yaoyorozu smiled, carefully slipping her shoes off and placing them in the shoe rack, eliciting some arm chopping from Iida, "Kirishima! Ashido! Aoyama! Hagakure! Place your shoes on the shoe rack neatly! People will trip over them by accident!"

"It's so good to be back!" Uraraka cheered, pushing open the doors, with Asui behind her, "Hey guys!"

"Hey." Shinsou waved, as Iida made a few more notes on his phone, "Now, all we're missing are Kaminari, Mineta, and Sero."

"Oh, they're going to be late." Ashido replied, hastily chucking her shoes into the shoe rack, "I got a message from Kaminari. Apparently, they're dealing with some villains right now, so it's going to take them a bit more time until they get back."

"Alright." Iida nodded, making a note of that, "Then that's everyone! Excellent!"

"Aww, are we taking attendance? That's really manly, Iida!" Kirishima grinned, "Tomorrow is Christmas, right? I hope everyone's gotten their stuff for their Secret Santa giftee! Because it's really not manly if you didn't!"

"Hey, Tsu, Ocha, how was your work studies?" Ashido asked, and Uraraka grinned, "I was patrolling with Ryukyu, and then somehow both Izuku and I ended up with Rock Lock for like one day!"

"I also ended up working with Midoriya." Asui commented, "We were working with Selkie!"

"Midoriya's been all over, haven't you?" Yaoyorozu added, walking into the common room as she stretched, "Tokage went to work for Best Jeanist for two days, and when she came back, she also mentioned she worked with you."

Midoriya just shrugged, not knowing how else to react, as Todoroki sleepily ambled into the common room, before he spotted Midoriya.

"Izuku." Todoroki locked eyes with the green haired boy, using an almost begging tone, "I heard about the thing you gave to my dad. Give it to me, please."

"What?" Ashido asked, confused, as Midoriya gave Todoroki the sign to wait, before going back to his room.

"What's that about?" Shinsou asked, as Iida shrugged, "I don't know."

The common room fell silent, the only sound being the news playing on the television, before Midoriya came back to the common room. He stuck his hand into his pocket, digging around for a few seconds, before procuring a thumb drive.

He handed it to Todoroki, and the male's face lit up, immediately hopping onto the couch. He fished his laptop out of his bag, which had been left by the door, and flipped it open, plugging in the thumb drive and opening up the ridiculously large file.

Ashido peered over Todoroki's shoulder, noticing the report title, and her eyes grew wide, "Wait... isn't this the essay on Endeavor that Aizawa-sensei asked you to write like... all the way before the training camp?"

Midoriya nodded, and Todoroki scrolled through it.

Hagakure also peered over to take a closer look, and her invisible eyes nearly popped out when she saw how long the essay was, "Wait!? Three thousand, nine hundred, and seventy three pages? How did you even write that much in a week!? Even if you worked on it non-stop..."

"It's... what?!" Shinsou gawked, as Midoriya looked away, signing, _"Most of it was already written... I just had to organize my points for the essay and rewrite some portions..."_

Bakugou stomped back into the common room, and made a beeline for the kitchen, as Todoroki scrolled through the rest of the essay, with a small, dumb grin on his face as he read through the rest of the essay, with Ashido and Hagakure looking at the screen from very uncomfortable positions on the couch.

* * *

"Hey!" Kaminari grinned, bursting into the common room, with Sero and Miineta behind him, "We're late, but we're back! Today was hectic! Anyone missed us!?"

"Who the fuck would miss a dumbass like you!?" Bakugou spat, as Kacchan barked, wagging his little tail as the explosive blonde scratched him behind the ears, "Your dinner is in the fucking kitchen, go reheat it or some shit. I'm not going to do it for you fuckers!"

"No swearing!" Iida chopped his arms.

"Ahh, the good old Bakubro!" Sero laughed, "Telling Kami to reheat food? You're literally asking for another washing machine incident!"

"SHUT UP, YOU FUCKING HOME DEPOT!"

"I told you, the washing machines blowing up was not my fault!" Kaminari whined, as the news reporter on the television stated something about snow, and Shinsou sighed, "You have an electricity quirk, and you were near water. You do the maths yourself."

"That's not even maths though, Shinsou." Kaminari retorted, as Midoriya snuggled back into his bean bag, mildly enjoying the bickering between his classmates. He liked his peace and quiet, and never thought that he'd missed the days when the dorms were noisy and bustling with activity, but here he was, idly listening onto a conversation as he shifted around slightly, trying to get comfortable as he curled up around Reiko and Ryuto.

"I'll heat them up. I'm not risking you blowing up the kitchen." Sato offered, half serious, and half jokingly, as Bakugou stomped back to his room.

"Hey, guys, also remember to label your gifts so we know who it goes to." Ashido stated, calling out to the others, "I'll tell everyone on the group chat!"

Midoriya blinked, and looked up. He had to label it? He guessed that he was going to have to label all his gifts, then, so he wouldn't be too rude. The green haired boy stretched, and scooped Reiko and Ryuto up, before going up to his room, locking the door behind him. He pulled some paper out of his drawer, and cut them into reasonably sized pieces, before he decided on how to label his gifts.

He did remember getting several gifts from his parents during Christmas, and while he did recall there being those small, little, shiny cards plastered on the wrapping paper, he didn't actually remember what had been written on the cards themselves.

But people usually said "Happy Birthday" when they gave people gifts, right? Like, it's some sort of greeting?

He knew that his father had written that on the card stuck onto the gift that Basilisk had given him, almost eight years late, and he had even checked it, just to make sure.

Maybe that would work? Of course, he would write "Christmas" instead of "Birthday", but that would work, right?

* * *

Midoriya groaned, and stretched, trying to massage the scars on his back to loosen them up, before he got up. He flung open his closet, and bit his lip, not really sure how to give his classmates their gifts. Sure, he could go up to them one by one and pass it to them, but that would take too much time. Plus, while he did have gifts for Nezu and the teachers, he didn't really feel comfortable enough to pass it to them in person. He was comfortable enough with Nezu, but the principal was always busy, and Midoriya didn't want him to waste his precious time on him.

He had gotten up early in order to bring his gifts for Moashi, Awata, and Sasaki to the Nighteye Agency. He didn't really trust the postal service, so he was planning on going to the agency himself, dropping the gifts by the receptionist, and getting back to UA before anyone noticed that he had left. The agency was usually open for half an hour before Sasaki came in, and Awata and Moashi usually came in around ten minutes after Sasaki, so that was more than enough time for him to ask the receptionist to give them the gifts before he went back to the train station.

But first, he was going to sneak into the staffroom, and leave his gifts for the teachers on that small glass table near the filing cabinets and windows, before he left the notebooks outside his classmates' doors, and then he'll leave for the Nighteye Agency.

He could give his friends their gifts in person later; he was comfortable enough with them. And then there was the Secret Santa, but Midoriya wasn't too sure when he was supposed to give his gift to him. He'll just wait until Ashido announced it or something, then he'd deal with it. Now, he was going to sneak into the staffroom, maybe through the vents or something,

* * *

Midoriya entered the Nighteye Agency, with a cup of warm matcha latte in his hands.

While he was still patrolling with Sasaki, he remembered that there was this one hero that went out for coffee, and would ask his colleagues if they wanted anything. The receptionist would always ask for a matcha latte, and Midoriya just ordered one for her on the way to the agency.

Maybe she would be more willing to help him if he got her something.

"Good morning, Midoriya." The receptionist greeted politely, smiling at the boy as he walked up to the counter, "I thought you would be in UA today. It's Christmas, after all, and I'm sure that you'd enjoy a break from all the work studies. What brings you all the way here today?"

Midoriya hastily placed a cup of latte on the desk, and gently pushed it towards her.

"Is this... for me?" She asked, and Midoriya nodded.

"Thank you. That's really nice of you." She smiled sweetly, "Is there anything I can do for you today?"

Midoriya fished the three gifts out of the bag he had brought, and signed, _"Can you... pass these to Nighteye, Centipeder, and Bubble Girl when they come in?"_

The receptionist just looked over the three gifts, and looked over the labels, her smile drooping a little, "Of course I can. That's really sweet of you. Is that why you came all the way here?"

Midoriya nodded, and the receptionist gently placed the gifts on her desk, hidden behind the walls of her cubicle, and smiled, "You're going back to UA now, right? Be careful, alright, and stay safe!"

The green haired boy exited the agency, and pulled on his hood, before he noticed that Sasaki, Awata, and Moashi were all walking towards the office. He yanked on his hood harder; they weren't supposed to be here this early?

He quickened his pace, and hoped he could walk past them without either of them noticing, but Awata noticed some green hair peeking out from under the hood as he passed, and paused.

"Midoriya?" Awata called out as she turned around, but the boy was already gone.

Moashi and Sasaki both stopped, turning around, and Sasaki asked in confusion, "Was that Midoriya?"

"Not sure..." Awata scratched her head, "I mean, green hair isn't exactly uncommon... but..."

"If that really was Midoriya... what was he doing here?" Moashi muttered, "All the students should be back in the dorms And why did he rush off like that?"

"No idea. But he seemed to be leaving the agency. Maybe we can ask the others." Sasaki replied, "I hope it's nothing too serious though."


	125. Chapter 125 - Never your state of mind

Nezu yawned, and stretched. Like all the other teachers, he had his own room on campus, but he had been working late just the night prior, and had just decided to sleep in his office. Deciding to make himself a cup of tea, Nezu hopped off the couch in his office and exited into the staff room, only to realize that there was a huge pile of rolled up papers and a metallic green tin with yellow highlights that he recalled was _not_ there the night prior.

Rubbing his eyes, Nezu walked over to the table, and picked up the metallic tin, deciding to focus on it first since it was the odd one out of the bunch.

Nezu blinked, as he read the label of the tin. And he blinked again. Wasn't Golden Tips Imperial really elusive and expensive? Why on earth was there a brand new tin sitting on the table!?

Turning it around in his paws, Nezu tried to figure out where it came from, and found a piece of paper taped on one side of the tin.

_"Happy Christmas, Nezu. __Thank you for taking care of me. __Midoriya Izuku."_

Nezu let a small, sad smile creep onto his face. On one hand, he was really touched that Midoriya would actually get him something for Christmas, even though with Midoriya's personality, it was to be expected. But on the other hand... Midoriya didn't even know the proper greeting for Christmas.

And the other thing was due to all the villain attacks, the delivery company was having trouble delivering the bean bag that Nezu had ordered. Hopefully, the boy didn't mind too much that his gift would be a little late.

Nezu had one question, though. How did Midoriya manage to get into the teacher's lounge in the first place? The student identity cards did not allow access into the teacher's lounge, so Midoriya wouldn't have been able to get in before any of the other teachers.

He needed to figure that out. Maybe there was another security flaw that he and Maijima had overlooked.

* * *

Togata yawned, and opened his door, only to realize that there was something in front of it. He picked up the small, wrapped up present, tilting his head in confusion. His entire class hadn't really bothered much with Christmas, with all the time and effort they had to put into their work studies, and how close they were to graduating, so it definitely wasn't from any of them.

He, Amajiki, and Hado were actually going to go out for a mini Christmas celebration, and have some brunch, then they would go back to the dorms to do their own things, like studying or training, and then, maybe they would crash 1-A and 1-B's joint Christmas party if they felt like it.

Actually, they were definitely going to crash the party. They were the responsible upperclassmen, and they had to take care of all their adorable underclassmen! That, and it was pretty likely that Aizawa would bring Eri to attend the Christmas party, since it was unlikely that she had ever celebrated something like that while being under the "care" of Chisaki.

Togata noticed a small note taped onto the gift, and peered at it curiously.

_"Happy Christmas, Togata-senpai. Thank you for not pushing me around and being really nice to me. Midoriya Izuku."_

"My kouhai is so cute!" Togata exclaimed, before the meaning of the second statement finally sank in, and he froze up, his mind racing as he tried to process the severity of Midoriya's words.

Midoriya was thanking him, for not pushing him around? And for being nice? Did he actually think that Togata would hurt him for absolutely no reason?

Togata numbly unwrapped the small gift, finding a small ramen keychain inside, and a small smile crept onto his face. The blonde immediately fished out his phone, attaching the small keychain to it, and grinned to himself. He was going to find something for Midoriya as well!

He quickly called Hado, and the bubbly girl picked it up almost immediately; Hado was always up really early in the morning, for some reason.

_"Hey! Togata! What's up? Why are you calling, huh?"_

"Hey! Hado! Do you mind if we leave earlier?" Togata asked, and Hado replied, _"I don't mind... but why, though? What's going on? Did something happen? Hey! Tell me!" _

_"Midoriya got me a really cute keychain for Christmas, so I'm going to get him something too!" Togata replied, and he could literally hear Hado screeching, "Of course! Christmas shopping is the best! I'll go wake Amajiki up! Wait... I can't get into his room..."_

* * *

Sasaki, Moashi, and Awata walked into the agency, and walked up to the receptionist.

Eyeing the coffee on her desk curiously, Sasaki asked, "Excuse me, was Midoriya here just now?"

"Ah! Sir! You're early today!" The receptionist replied, smiling, "Yes, Midoriya was just here a few minutes ago... you just missed him."

"Did he need something?" Awata asked, worriedly, "He wouldn't come all the way here for no reason! Did something happen?"

"No, actually. He came to drop some things off." The receptionist replied, a sad smile on her face, before she passed them three neatly wrapped packages.

Sasaki noticed his hero name on one of them, and took it from her, and stared down at the message on the card.

_"Happy Christmas, Sir Nighteye. Thank you for not hating me and being mean to me. And for telling Uwabami that she could not film me. Midoriya Izuku."_

The hero blinked, and leaned over, looking at the cards on the two gifts addressed to Awata and Moashi. Besides the differences in who the gift was addressed to, the cards were exactly the same, except for the statement about Uwabami.

"Poor kid..." Awata looked like she wanted to cry as she read the message, "He's thanking us for not hating him!? And not being mean to him!? How could anyone hate a person as nice as him?! How on earth did other people treat him before!?"

"He's quirkless... obviously people would have discriminated against him... what would you expect..." Moashi sighed, his shoulders sagging.

"We should... go back to the office and see what these are." Sasaki quietly murmured, gently tracing his finger over the neat, font-like handwriting on the card plastered on his gift.

It had taken them some time to retreat into Sasaki's office, and the hero gently peeled the tape off the paper, and slipped a small box out of the wrapper. Midoriya had used blank, white paper to wrap the gifts, and Sasaki gently flattened it out, before placing it in a file and putting it in his drawer gently.

He carefully opened the box, finding three ties with polka dots, and smiled softly, gently running his finger along them, "Well... I guess he noticed all of my dotted ties. I'm going to wear these when we finally sort everything out and can allow Mirio and Midoriya to finish their work studies with us."

"I didn't think that he'd remember that I enjoyed long baths..." Awata gasped, unwrapping her gift, "This must have cost a huge chunk of his payments from the work studies... I know he's interning with several other heroes... but, still... wow..."

Moashi stared at the small container of potpourri, enjoying the pleasant gentle aroma; it was very nice, but unlike most other perfumes or potpourri that he's seen, the smell wasn't too overpowering to the point where it was revolting. It was clearly hand-made, and Moashi really admired all the effort the boy had put into his gift.

* * *

Aizawa sighed, as he trudged to the staff room. Yamada was right beside him, listening to some music on his headphones, when suddenly, they heard the sound of footsteps.

Aizawa paused, before Shinsou ran out into the hallway, and threw something at both Yamada and Aizawa. Instinctively, the two teachers caught whatever item was flung their way, and they looked at Shinsou in confusion, the lavender haired boy grinning at them cheekily.

"Merry Christmas!" Shinsou crooned, bolting away, his laughter reverberating throughout the hallway, and Yamada and Aizawa just stared, and blinked in confusion. Aizawa looked down at what Shinsou had thrown at him, noticing that it was a small black cat plush with some grey cloth sewn around the neck area to look like his capture weapon.

Yamada was also peering down at what was in his hands, and he realized that it was a cockatoo plush, with a small cloth speaker around its neck, and some small, plastic, orange tinted sunglasses perched on its beak, "Aww! So cute! I'm calling him Mini Mic!"

"That child..." Aizawa sighed, and shook his head in exasperation, and gently patted the cat's head fondly. He still remembered the time when Shinsou had been far too meek and too shy to even raise his voice due to all the discrimination from his quirk, let alone yelling in a public place like in school.

"Shouta, call the can Mini Zawa."

"Shut up."

The two teachers continued on their way to the teacher's lounge, and pushed the door open, only to find some of the other teachers like Yagi, Ectoplasm, and Kayama standing around the couch that was tucked in the corner of the lounge.

"Do I... really look so thin..." Yagi asked, peering at a drawing of himself, "Either way... he's really good at drawing... I know he doesn't like me that much... and I'm really surprised he still made me something..."

"Eh? What's going on?" Yamada asked, confused, and Kayama turned around, holding a piece of paper in her hand.

"Oh my god! Shouta! Hizashi! You should see this!" Kayama bounded over to them, and shoved a black and white image of herself in their faces, "He's so good at drawing!"

Aizawa blinked, and peered at the paper, only to realize that it wasn't a picture, but it was actually a drawing; he could clearly see the pencil marks on the detailed drawing.

"Who drew this? It's really good!" Yamada praised, and Kayama's face lit up, "Midoriya! He's so cute! He made drawings of everyone who teaches him! And some others, like Vlad King, Thirteen, and Hound Dog!"

"Really?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow, "So that's why the problem child's lights are always on in the middle of the night..."

Ectoplasm, Snipe, Inui, and Yagi were all looking at the drawings Midoriya had made of them, and Thirteen picked out two rolled up pieces of paper, and handed them to Aizawa and Yamada.

Aizawa took the paper from them, and immediately, one thing stood out to him; there was another piece of paper, carefully wrapped around the drawing, and another piece of paper with Midoriya's neat handwriting on it.

_"Happy Christmas, Aizawa-sensei. Thank you for not being mean to me, even if you may not like me very much and keep calling me "Problem Child". Midoriya Izuku."_

"He... thinks I don't like him?" Aizawa nearly choked, as Yamada took his drawing from Thirteen, reading the label on it, pouting, "He got the greeting wrong... has the poor listener ever celebrated Christmas before!?"

"I don't think so..." Snipe murmured, "Given the kid's toxic environment in schools and in his former household... I doubt he's ever had any time to even have fun and enjoy his life as a child. I'm really just hoping his biological parents treated him properly... but even then, he would have been too young to remember it properly..."

Snipe spoke up, "I'm getting a frame for this. It's really well done. You can tell he really put a lot of effort into him.

Aizawa gazed at the image of him throwing out his capture weapon, like he was trying to ensnare a villain with it, an intense glare in his eyes as he used his quirk. He didn't know how Midoriya could capture the glow of his eyes when he used Erasure with pencil, but Midoriya had somehow managed to do it.

"I want to hug him. Poor kid... woof..." Inui lamented.

"Can I give him extra bonus points for Modern Hero Art History?" Kayama asked, as Yamada shrugged, "Probably. We're allowed to teach however we see fit. Nezu would probably allow it."

"Speaking of Nezu... where is he?" Aizawa asked.

"He's in his office. Young Midoriya apparently got him some tea, " Yagi replied, "I shall frame this up too."

* * *

Shuzenji trudged to her office in the infirmary, and was about to switch it on to check her schedule and to evaluate the students' health logs when she noticed something in the corner of her eyes.

Sitting on her desk, leaning against the wall, next to several of her files, was a rather large pack of gummies, with a piece of paper taped onto it.

_"Happy Christmas, Recovery Girl. Thank you for being nice to me and tolerating me, and healing me up when I get injured. Midoriya Izuku."_

Shuzenji just blinked in confusion. First off, the student cards weren't programmed to allow students into the infirmary until she had arrived and swiped her own staff card, so how did Midoriya even manage to get into her office in the first place?

Secondly, he knew that in his middle school and elementary school, he was getting tripped, pushed, or shoved down the stairs, or someone would spill acid on him by "accident", or all sorts of stupid things would happen and it would always be pinned on Midoriya.

She was just doing her job, sure, but didn't the nurses in his old schools heal him up too? Given how many times he "fell" down the stairs, there was a high possibility he would have broken his leg, or twisted his ankle, or dislocated his knee. Not to mention burns, either from hot soup, or chemical burns, or from someone with a fire quirk.

Didn't the medical staff in his old schools help him with those, or did they just deem him as useless and an "attention seeker" and refuse to heal him?

She was going to have to ask Nezu to look into the medical records for him as well.

* * *

Nezu flicked on his computer, taking a sip of the tea that Midoriya had just gotten him, and decided to check the log records for all the doors. There would be a record of all the doors in UA, and the identity cards used to open them. Nezu scrolled through the logs, and noticed that there had only been teacher's identity cards used to unlock the lounge doors.

Nezu took another sip of tea; Golden Tips Imperial tasted really good, and its flavour was not very overpowering if the tea leaves were left in hot water for too long, unlike other types of tea. He really did need to ask how on earth Midoriya had managed to get his hands on Golden Tips Imperial. It was elusive for a reason, and very expensive. Sure, Midoriya did have a decent amount of savings from his work studies, but then came the question of where Midoriya even found a place to buy the tea in the first place.

He decided to check the security cameras to see if Midoriya had even used the doors, or he had gotten another teacher's help to get his gifts into the teacher's lounge, even though the second option seemed highly unlikely.

Flicking through the various security feeds, Nezu found that Midoriya had somehow... _dropped_ out of the ceiling, into the teacher's lounge.

Nezu nearly facepawed.

Of course Midoriya would have used the vents to bypass the security system in order to enter the lounge. And while villains may not be as smart or as capable as Midoriya, Nezu figured that it would still be dangerous to leave the air vents without some form of security.

Maybe he should get Maijima to install some gates or traps? Of course, he would still allow the teachers and Midoriya access, since Aizawa did like to nap in the vents every once in a while, and Kayama likes to surprise her students by popping into class through the vents.


	126. Chapter 126 - This love is in retrograde

**_A/N Fun fact! When I c__hecked the word count, the word count was exactly 6666._**

* * *

Midoriya groaned, and rubbed his eyes. After delivering his gifts to his teachers, Nezu, Shuzenji, and the heroes at the Nighteye Agency, he had just left his notebooks for his classmates in 1-A and 1-B outside their doors, before going back to his room. And apparently, he had fallen back asleep.

Midoriya reached over for his phone, and flicked it on, staring at the blurry screen, before realising that it was almost ten in the morning. He shot up, and stared at the hoodie he had fallen asleep in, deeming it appropriate enough to join his classmates in the common room.

Reiko purred, and Ryuto chirped a greeting, before Midoriya mock-glared at the cat, "Why didn't you wake me up..."

The feline just rolled her eyes, meowing, as Midoriya made his way to the bathroom, "I don't need to rest that much, Rei, you know that."

Reiko just curled up on Midoriya's pillow as the boy brushed his teeth, and the green haired boy trudged down to the common room, not even bothered to tuck his necklace under his hoodie, only to find that most of his classmates were already awake and busy with... something.

Kodai, Shoji, Iida, and Koda were setting up some tables, and Bakugou was definitely in the kitchen, screaming out orders to Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, and Sato, something about... a turkey?

"Can someone tell Awase's group that we need more onions - oww! Bakugou! Stop! Sorry! Garlic! We need more garlic!" Kirishima yelled from the kitchen, and Sato added, "And black pepper! We ran out of that too!"

Komori quickly picked up her phone, "On it!"

Fukidashi, Shinsou, Kamakiri, and Shoda were cutting out long strings of tinsel and streamers, while Ojiro, Sero, Yanagi, and Tokage hung them up all over the place. Kacchan, Shirou, Yuwai and Kinu were all huddled together in the open area by the television, chasing each other around, and Reiko and Ryuto ran in to join them.

Midoriya wasn't too sure what Yaoyorozu was doing, creating some long, pointy red hats with white rims, as Aoyama poured glitter over some weird striped cane things, cut out stars, and some weird circlet of leaves, before Rin, Asui, Bondo, and Hagakure proceeded to stick them up all over all the walls, windows and doors.

The main doors opened, and Shiozaki, Kaminari, Kendo and Ashido entered with a huge box, and the pinkette grinned, "We got a tree!"

Midoriya just blinked in confusion; what on Earth did they need a tree for!?

"Do we need the... hanging things?" Todoroki awkwardly asked, eating a slice of toast, and Kaminari smiled, "You mean baubles? Of course!"

Honenuki, Jiro, and Tsuburaba popped back from the 1-B dorms, a huge amount of baubles in their hands. Jiro used an earphone jack to point to Tsuburaba, "Don't know why he has so many! But we've got decorations!"

"I like ball games! I said that already, just now!" Tsuburaba defended himself, as Honenuki sighed, "You can't play sports with these, you know..."

"Same shape! No difference!" Tsuburaba retorted, as Kendo and Shiozaki set the fake tree up, and Honenuki started hanging the weird red, blue, and yellow spheres onto the tree.

"Place it in the corner!" Iida ordered, turning around, before he noticed Midoriya standing awkwardly in the hallway, having absolutely no idea what was going on, "Ah! Good morning, Izuku! We didn't have any lessons today, and you usually don't sleep a lot, so we just decided to let you sleep in!"

The other's just seemed to notice Midoriya's presence, and Shinsou waved, "Morning! Did you sleep well?"

_"It was okay. What's going on?"_ Midoriya signed, clearly uncomfortable with so many people, carefully maneuvering around the rearranged furniture, and watched as Shinsou cut up some tinsel, and Yanagi proceeded to hang it up.

"Oh, we're setting up the dorms for the Christmas Party later." Shinsou replied, as Tokoyami, Dark Shadow, and Jiro proceeded to set up the speaker system in the common room. Monoma popped in, and enlarged several couches and chairs, presumably having copied Kodai's quirk to do so, and Kaibara moved to help him rearrange all the furniture.

Midoriya tilted his head in confusion, as Shinsou explained, "We're just setting up the 1-A dorms, so we don't have to clear up so much stuff later. Plus, the party's more fun with more people. Also, we all saw the notes you left in front of our doors! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that for everyone!"

Midoriya just blinked, processing the purple haired boy's words, as Kaminari walked into the kitchen. There was more yelling from Bakugou, but the electric boy popped out, "Tell the other group we need more marshmallows! Oh, by the way, Midoriya! Thanks for all the notes! It's really kind of you!"

Komori shot him a thumbs up, placing another bauble on the Christmas tree before turning to her phone, and Midoriya nodded slightly at the electric boy.

Ashido fished a notebook out of her pocket, flashing the greenette a smile, "Hey! Midoriya! Merry Christmas! And thanks for this! It's really useful and it's awesome how you took the time to make such detailed notes on everyone!"

"Oh yeah! Midoriya! Thanks for the notes! It's really manly of you to do that for everyone!" Kirishima and Tetsutetsu both yelled from the kitchen.

"...Merry?" Midoriya muttered under his breath, confused. He had written "Happy" on every single card... was that incorrect?

"Oh yeah... you wrote "Happy Christmas" on every card, didn't you?" Ashido's face fell slightly, "When's the last time you celebrated Christmas?"

Midoriya blinked, and stared at his fingers, doing the mental calculation, before he put up nine fingers.

Shinsou started, "Nine... years ago?"

The green haired boy nodded, as the common room fell silent, everyone processing Midoriya's answer. Nine years ago was when he was six... and Christmas was in December. Midoriya's parents had died in July the following year. Midoriya hadn't celebrated a single Christmas after his parents had passed away.

"Hey... It's alright. Don't worry about it, okay?" Shinsou reached up and patted Midoriya on the arm.

"Happy Christmas sounds weird, but it's really cute, though!" Ashido grinned, "We're going to make this the best Christmas ever!"

* * *

It had taken some time for Uraraka, Mineta, Shishida, and Tsunotori to return from grocery shopping, with the extra ingredients that Bakugou and Sato had requested, and Midoriya opted to help them bring everything into the kitchen; he had literally spent the entire day doing nothing to help, and even though he didn't really get the point of such a huge celebration, he still wanted to do something.

"Alright!" Ashido grinned, looking around the dorms, "Looking good, right?"

"Not that bad." Monoma admitted snarkily, "Though it's only because we, the much better 1-B, helped out!"

"Whatever floats your boat..." Kendo sweatdropped, "Now all that's left is dinner right?"

"Everything is all ready. We just need to cook them... and watch the stuff that's already cooking." Sato replied, turning towards the kitchen, "Bakugou, is everything alright in there?"

"If you guys would just shut the fuck up, everything would be perfect!" Bakugou snapped back, popped his head out of the kitchen to flash Sato the middle finger, "Just fuck off! I can't watch shit if you guys keep calling me, you fucks!"

"Bakugou! It's not nice to swear!" Iida berated, chopping his arms, "And using the middle finger is a very rude gesture!"

"SHUT UP, FOUR EYES!" Bakugou roared.

Kirishima just laughed, "Don't worry about it too much!"

"So... what do we do now?" Tokage asked, twirling her hair around, "We still have a few more hours..."

"Snowball fight!" Ashido screamed, "We got the snow outside!"

"Alright! 1-A versus 1-B! We're going to win!" Monoma growled competitively, but Kendo just smacked him on the head, "Stop that already! Jeez!"

"But still! Snowball fight is a good idea!" Awase laughed, "We've got all that snow, might as well put them to good use!"

"So... how are we going to split the teams?" Yaoyorozu asked, "Also... can we use quirks?"

"Some of us, yes." Tsuburaba pointed at Todoroki, "We'd die if he uses his quirk to make ice balls."

"That's true..." Iida placed his hand to his chin, "We can't split the teams randomly, or one side may end up too overpowered."

"Yaomomo can't use her quirk!" Hagakure piped up, "If she makes a canon, we're done for!"

"I will not be using my quirk. It's too cold today for me to leave even a bit exposed." Yaoyorozu replied.

"Kendo and Iida are the class reps, those two should be on different teams." Kaminari stated, before yelling, "Bakubro! Are you playing!?"

"FUCK OFF!"

"That's a no." Todoroki dryly stated, "Do any of us have any similar abilities?"

"That's... too specific..." Tokage sighed, "That would take forever to make the teams. I'd say we just do it randomly, and then swap teammates if one side is too overpowered."

"That's a great idea!" Sero grinned, "Alright, let's go!"

"I won't play." Sato spoke up, "I'll need to deal with the food later."

"Me too." Bondo added, "My quirk doesn't work well with snow."

"Aww... are you sure?" Komori asked, and Bondo nodded, "Don't worry about it. I can help with the food as well."

"AS LONG AS YOU DON'T GET GLUE EVERYWHERE AND IN THE FOOD, GLUE STICK! WE'RE EATING THAT SHIT!" Bakugou yelled.

With the help of a random number generator, the students managed to split themselves up into eight teams of four and five, since they decided that nineteen people in a team was just too much.

"Alright, do we have everyone?" Iida asked, glancing at his team, which consisted of himself, Krishima, Kaibara, Ashido and Kuroiro.

"We're good here!" Kaminari grinned, "We've got Kendo, Ojiro and Shoda! We're so going to win!"

"Don't be so cocky, 1-A!" Monoma replied snarkily, "We're going to win!"

"This isn't even class based... what are you on?" Shinsou sighed, nearly facepalming at his blonde teammate.

"What a mad banquet of darkness." Tokoyami chuckled, agreeing with Shinsou, as Dark Shadow reached over, hugging Midoriya and purring as Kodai pet his fluffy shadowy feathers.

"Nope! We will win!" Tsunotori declared, as Shiozaki muttered, shivering, "It's cold... my hair doesn't really like it..."

Honenuki and Rin just pat her on the back, with Mineta just sitting in a corner, mumbling to himself.

"Todoroki can't use his ice, right?" Komori asked,pointing to her teammate, "What about his fire?"

"If he melted the snow, we can't have a snowball fight, you know?" Hagakure huffed, and Fukidashi and Koda nodded in agreement.

"Well... I suppose he can use his fire... but not too much of it?" Yaoyorozu piped up, as Uraraka and Jiro high-fived her, "Alright! Let's go!"

Sero and Shishida glanced at each other, and Sero awkwardly spoke up, "Well.. we've got the resourceful ones!"

"HA! We've got like... two more pairs of arms?" Tsuburaba blinked at Shoji, trying to do the mental math in his head, and Shoji replied, creating more sets of arms, "I can make more if I want?"

"Sounds fun..." Kamakiri dryly stated, and Yanagi nodded, as Awase pouted, "Aww, come on, you can literally slice the snowballs up, and Yanagi can just... levitate them? My quirk's literally useless here."

"Don't worry about it." Tsuburaba laughed, grinning at Tetsutetsu and Tokage, as Awase whined, "Come on, you can make air barriers! I can't weld anything together!"

"Kero... it's cold..." Asui whined, as Aoyama patted her on the back gently, "Don't worry, mon amine! I will shine for everyone!"

"Everyone! Put on your coats! Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, it does not matter if it's manly or not, or "mind over matter" or anything! Put on proper winter clothing! I do not want anyone to catch a cold!"

Midoriya just blinked in confusion. A coat?

"Are you not going to change?" Shinsou asked, heading up to his room to grab something warmer than his hoodie, before he paused, "Wait, Izuku, you don't have anything thicker than a hoodie, don't you?"

Midoriya shook his head, as Uraraka asked, "Aren't you going to be cold?"

The greenette just shrugged, softly replying ,"It's alright."

Sure, his scars were especially annoying when it was cold, and he literally felt like he would freeze in winter, especially since he didn't use blankets at night, but he could deal with it. Running around as a vigilante at night helped to keep him warm, and there were enough people in school and sufficient closed windows so that it was tolerable. It wasn't nice to walk around with broken legs, concussions, or sprained ankles in order to conserve heat, but Midoriya could deal with it.

"You should still wear a jacket! You would freeze and get sick, especially with all this snow! But sadly... I only have one winter jacket." Iida replied, looking around, "Does anyone have a spare winter jacket?"

"Nope." Shinsou shook his head, "I rarely wear mine, so I only have one."

Yaoyorozu raised her hand, "I believe I have a few! If you don't mind wearing a coat with a female cut, though?"

"Midoriya can wear it, you remember that dress? Midoriya was totally rocking that! I think the coat will fit him." Ashido grinned, "Plus, Midoriya's shorter than you, so it would probably fiy! We're just having fun!"

* * *

The animals opted to stay inside, where it was warmer, as the students swarmed out of the dorms into the courtyard.

"AHHHH! COLD!" Kaminari yelped, as Jiro threw a snowball at him, "Jiro! Why!?"

"It's a free for all!" Jiro replied, narrowly avoiding a snowball aimed at her face, before using her earphone jacks to fling another at Yanagi. Tsuburaba put up an air barrier, and Shoji threw a batch of snowballs at Shiozaki's team, but Tsunotori used her horns to destroy them, though for some odd reason, a few managed to get through, but Kamakiri managed to slice them up.

"Sorry!" Tsunotori yelled, as Shiozaki tried to create some vines to protect her team, but the vines didn't last long in the cold and snow.

Midoriya ducked under a snowball that was aimed at him, and Dark Shadow threw a large snowball at Todoroki, only for the boy to use his fire and melt it. The melted snow just dropped down on him, and Todoroki blinked in confusion, using his fire to warm himself up as Fukidashi tried to fish him out of all the sloggy, melted snow.

Ashido just laughed at Todoroki's surprised expression, before Todoroki glared at her, blasting his ice at her, before using his fire to melt the ice, "Don't laugh at me."

The pinkette just screamed as the water splashed down on her, but Iida just yanked her out of the way, "Shouto! No ice!"

"You just said Todoroki couldn't use his ice! But not me!" Monoma cackled, having copied Todoroki's quirk, and blasted his ice at Iida and Ashido, but Kaibara just used his Gyrate quirk to drill the ice to bits, "Come on, Monoma! Chill!"

"Is that a pun?" Shinsou snickered, and Kaibara frowned, "No -"

"Gotcha."

Kuroiro just flicked Kaibara's forehead, "Really, Shinsou?"

"Hey, the worst I would do is make him do a chicken dance."

Midoriya narrowly dodged two snowballs, awkwardly holding on snowball in his hand, not really sure what to do with it, before Uraraka yelled, using her quirk on one large snowball that Shishida threw at Tetsutetsu's group, "Izuku! Throw it at someone! Don't just dodge!"

The green haired boy just observed the area around him, as Aoyama blasted the gigantic snowball apart with a powerful laser that resulted in him getting a stomach ache, and Asui used her tongue to bat away a couple more snowballs. Her mobility was severely reduced, since she was being swaddled in so many coats that she didn't go into hibernation, so all she could do was use her tongue to swat away snowballs; she didn't like holding any snowballs with her tongue since they were too cold, so she couldn't throw any.

Midoriya just threw his lone snowball in Shiozaki's general direction, and Tsunotori didn't notice it until the snowball hit Mineta in the back of his head.

"Come on! Stop aiming for me!" Mineta complained, and Midoriya signed something, and Shinsou cackled, "He said that you keep disturbing girls!"

Koda threw another snowball at Sero, and the tape boy groaned in pain as it hit him in the shoulder, "Oww! Why is that snowball so hard!?"

"It has ice in it! You just packed snow around an ice ball" Yaoyorozu yelled, "Todoroki!?"

The dual haired boy just shrugged, as Fukidashi covered another ice ball in ice, giving it to Komori and Hagakure. Koda just shook his hands, and opted to make his own snowballs instead of using Todoroki's ice balls.

"Oh, no you don't! That's not fair! Not manly!" Tetsutetsu complained, tanking a couple of ice balls, before lobbing a few more snowballs in Todoroki's direction.

"Everyone take down Todoroki!" Ashido yelled, but Kirishima just retorted, "Ganging up on people ain't manly!"

Shinsou made a snowball, and Kodai used her quirk to enlarge it, and Dark Shadow cackled as he picked it up easily and tossed it in Shishida's direction.

"Oh no you don't!" Uraraka yelled, jumping in and activating her quirk on the snowball, and Sero yanked her back with his tape wrapped around her waist.

"And that's ours now!" Tokage grinned, detaching her hands to whack the floating snowball in Tsuburaba's direction.

"Come on! What the hell!?" Tsuburaba complained, using Solid Air to prevent the gigantic snowball from crashing into them.

Aoyama just shot a laser through the huge snowball, breaking it into pieces, but Yanagi used her quirk to catch some of the snow, flinging it in Kendo's direction. Shoji and Kamakiri swatted the remaining snow away in Kaibara's direction, but Ashido used her acid to destroy the remains of the snowball as Kendo smacked the snow away, before creating another large snowball with her larger hands, letting Shoda touch it before flinging it in Kirishima's direction.

Kirishima rushed to the front of his team, hardening up to tank the snowball, but Shoda activated Twin Impact, completely destroying the snowball up it's activation, and causing all the snow to just rush in Kirishima's direction, knocking him over and crashing into Ashido and Iida, with Kaibara just barely able to use his quirk to protect himself, and Kuroiro diving into the shadows cast by the snow just in time.

"Time out! Time out!" Iida yelled, pushing himself up, chopping his arms, "This is getting out of hand! Stop!"

"No can do, class rep!" Ashido screamed, popping out of the snow, "THIS IS WAR! NO MERCY!"

"No! Hero course students cannot start wars -"

"Sorry Iida." Kendo grinned, making another huge snowball, "This has gone too far!"

"No holding back!" Tetsutetsu yelled, starting to create another snowball, as Tsuburaba growled, "Bring it on! We can take it!"

"You're going to eat those words!" Yaoyorozu retorted competitively, as Uraraka, Jiro and Shishida started making another snowball.

"Come on! Yaoyorozu!?" Iida whined, "Stop this immediately!"

"Nope. She laughed at me." Todoroki pointed at Ashido, "If she wants a war, she gets a war."

"Shouto, you too!?"

"Well... this is a mess..." Honenuki muttered, turning to his team, "Are we participating?"

"Nope." Shiozaki sighed, "None of us can make large snowballs."

"We're not participating either." Shinsou spoke up, "Temporary truce until they run out of energy?"

"Sure, why not?" Rin replied, "We'll just sit back... relax... and wait for them to duke it out..."

* * *

Midoriya wasn't really sure if the snowball fight would even have a conclusion, and it only ended because Kendo, Shoji, and Shishida threw such huge snowballs at Todoroki that the boy used his fire to melt them, and the melted water practically drenched everyone else. Iida practically ordered everyone to go back to their rooms for a warm shower before anyone got sick from their drenched clothes.

Sato, Bondo and Bakugou were in the process of finishing up the food by the time Midoriya was done with his quick shower, having left the jacket that Yaoyorozu lent him hanging in the laundry room to dry.

Shinsou, Monoma, Kirishima and Tetsutetsu were also done with their showers, with the purple haired boy trying to dry his messy mop of hair with his towel as he trudged down to the common room.

"Do you guys have a Secret Santa going on?" Monoma asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Yeah. Kendo popped over a few weeks ago to ask me who my giftee was. Why? Are you guys having it too?"

Monoma nodded, "Yeah. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do with my gift, though. It's in my room."

Kirishima shrugged, "We'll probably get instructions later. Too many things going on at once and it'll be too messy. It's more manly to slowly finish up tasks instead of doing everything at once."

Midoriya ran his towel through his hair, trying to dry it, and Shinsou waved, "Hey, Izuku! Did you have fun during the snowball fight?"

The greenette paused in his attempts to dry his unruly hair, and glanced at Shinsou in confusion. Monoma, Tetsutetsu, Shinsou and Kirishima just stared at Midoriya as the boy tilted his head, seemingly trying to process the question, before signing,_ "A little, I guess?"_

Shinsou just smiled at him, "Well... that's good."

Midoriya just glanced around the newly decorated common room, not really sure what to do, as Yaoyorozu trudged down the hallway from the elevator, combing her hair; given how dry it was, Midoriya just assumed that she had used a hair dryer.

Yaoyorozu just smiled, "Hello!"

"What are the plans now?" Kirishima asked, and Yaoyorozu hummed, thinking, "I think we're going to have dinner, maybe play some games? Mina planned most of it, maybe you can ask her once she finishes her bath."

* * *

"Merry Christmas!" Hagakure yelled. All the food was set out on the tables, and Kaminari and Sero were currently using the television to play some boxing game.

"Aww yeah! Merry Christmas!" Tsunotori cheered.

"Telling us to do internships on such short notice... I bet we're the busiest freshmen in UA history!" Kirishima grinned.

"Christmas Eve is the best!" Mineta yelled.

"Momo, would you like to sit? You've been standing this whole time!" Asui spoke up, but Yaoyorozu just smiled, "No! That's perfectly fine! Thanks for offering, Tsu!"

Yaoyorozu placed a Christmas hat with a book on its end on her head, and started giving out other Christmas hats with unique objects hanging off the end. Midoriya's hat had a really fluffy white cat and bird on it, and Shinsou's had a small, purple cat on its end.

He noted that Uraraka's had a planet on it, and Jiro's had a music note. Asui's was a frog, and Hagakure's hat, unsurprisingly, didn't have anything on its end.

And oddly enough, Iida was... dressed up oddly. His hat had a muffler on its end, but he was wearing a full red coat with white rims, a fake beard, and he was carrying a bag filled with... something. It was odd, really. Midoriya wasn't sure whether to comment on it, but no one else seemed too weirded out by it.

"What are you sneaking around me for, Pinky!?" Bakugou roared, as Ashido smirked up at him, a Christmas-themed jacket in her hands, "What are you talking about? I ain't doing nothing!"

"Bakugou! Come help me with the drinks!" Kirishima yelled, grabbing the explosive blonde's attention, and Kaminari used that opportunity to slap a Christmas hat with a spiked end on his head.

"Get someone else, Shitty Hair!" Bakugou just slapped it off, before stalking off to help the red head, and Kaminari opted to place it on Kacchan's head instead, with the pomeranian yapping in annoyance, but made no move to remove the hat.

"Hey! We finally have a break after so long! How long are we going to sit around talking about school!?" Mineta whined, and Sato grinned, "Well... Mineta does have a point. Let's just enjoy the food!"

"Sorry we're late. Have you all started already?"

The door creaked open, revealing Aizawa, Yamada, Kan, and Kayama, in their casual wear, along with Eri, who was dressed in a mini-Santa outfit.

"Trick or... Treat?" Eri asked, confused, before turning to Aizawa, who replied, "No, you've got them mixed up."

"It's "Merry Christmas", Eri!" Yamada corrected, and Eri tilted her head, "Oh... okay! Merry Christmas!"

"So cute!" Uraraka cooed, and Asui smiled, "That looks very good on you, Eri! Kero!"

"Is Togata-senpai and Amajiki-senpai here too?" Kirishima asked, but Aizawa shrugged, "Don't know. Maybe. Their classes are celebrating, but their classmates have work studies tomorrow, unlike you guys. They might turn in earlier."

"Oh... her horn has gotten bigger... if I'm not mistaken..." Todoroki noted, and Aizawa nodded as he stood up, "Yeah..."

"I painted these eggs!" Eri held out some colourful eggs, and Uraraka smiled, "Very nicely done! They're so pretty! We can save them for Easter!"

"She's much more optimistic now..." Aizawa admitted, watching as Eri smiled cheerily, "You children really have helped to take a burden off her heart."

Uraraka gently took the eggs from Eri, and the white haired girl looked around, before she noticed Midoriya settled down in a bean bag, sharing it with Shinsou. They were seated by the low table, a small cup of soda in front of him, and immediately rushed over, "Izuku!"

Midoriya just turned to look at her, and Eri settled down between Midoriya and Shinsou, and the purple haired boy grinned down at her, "Hey, Eri."

"Hello!" Eri shyly replied, smiling brightly, as Ojiro turned to Yamada and Kayama, "Uh... Mic-sensei, Midnight-sensei, not to be rude, but what are you doing here? I thought you have your own homeroom classes?"

Kayama just laughed, "Yeah, but the general education classes aren't really celebrating. They have some important tests next week, so they just opted to study. They're nice kids, at least... somewhat... but they aren't partying. So I'm here now!"

"1-B is so much better!" Monoma grinned, and Kan nodded, "Yep! Hero course, check, better behaved than 1-A, check -"

"Vlad King-sensei, stop influencing him, please..." Kendo sighed, the stuffed hand on the back of her Christmas hat swaying about, and Yamada just laughed, speaking in English, "Alright! Let's get this PARTY started! We got this DJ right here!"

"Shut up." Aizawa groaned, "You're English sounds terrible!"

"No, it does not!" Mic retorted, but Kayama just pushed Aizawa against Yamada, both of them falling into the ground.

"Nemuri!" Aizawa growled, turned around and stood up, brushing the non-existent dust off his shirt, "Stop that."

"Come on, relax, Shouta!" Kayama just laughed, "We rarely get any time to relax, especially with how hectic things are right now. It's not good to be a worry wart."

"I'm not worried." Aizawa grumbled, but Yamada just laughed, pushing himself to his feet, "Sure you aren't! You worry about everything!"

"Dadzawa!" Kaminari piped up, "Can I call you that, please!?"

"No, you cannot." Aizawa glared at Kaminari, but Ashido just pushed the electric blonde away, "Come on, you're taking care of us, you're really grumpy all the time but you're also actually really nice! Can we call you Dadzawa?"

"Come on! Just accept it." Sero grinned, "Even if we can't call you that, you're still the official Dadzawa of 1-A!"

Shinsou didn't seem too happy that his parental figure was getting stolen by his classmates, but he just opted to remain quiet, burying himself into the bean bag.

"Let him decide later!" Yamada yelled, "For now, let's get this party started!"

* * *

It had taken some time for the students to finish up all the food, with some really off pitched singing from Tsuburaba, Kirishima, Sero, and Awase. Jiro was literally cringing at how bad it was, but she was also laughing at just how much the four boys could destroy a song.

Midoriya had shifted Eri into his lap so that she could reach the table; he wasn't really hungry, only having a small bowl of noodles, but he did like the apple soda. It wasn't too sweet, and it also wasn't too fizzy, so it was generally okay for him to drink.

The students started bringing their plates and the empty food bowls into the kitchen, and Sato literally had to pull out a plastic tray to put all the dirty dishes. No one wanted to wash all the cutlery at the moment, except for Midoriya, who just washed his bowl and placed it in the drying rack; he was still drinking his apple soda.

"Alright!" Ashido grinned, "Everyone, fill your cups! We're playing "Never have I ever"! You guys know how to play?"

"Not.. really..." Uraraka admitted, as she filled her cup with more hot chocolate, and Kaminari explained, "Basically, we'll just each take turns stating something that they've never done, and anyone who did the action will respond by taking a drink. We'll just play... maybe... two rounds? No stakes? Also, we might ask for the story behind it, but if you don't want to explain, that's also fine."

"Ah, understood." Uraraka nodded, and Midoriya just looked around the room. It had gotten pretty late, and Aizawa had brought Eri back to her room so she could sleep, and had already returned back to the 1-A dorms; apparently, Thirteen had offered to take care of her for that period of time.

The game had started off rather simply, with really simple questions, like never going to a carnival, stated by Uraraka, or never putting on any make-up, mentioned by Shoji; apparently, Hagakure tried putting on make-up once, but couldn't get anything in her eyes, and she almost gave herself a heart attack when she looked at herself in the mirror. Midoriya didn't want to talk, but Shinsou just translated his signing for him.

"Never have I ever gotten suspended from school." Yaoyorozu stated.

Ashido took a drink. Kaminari also took a drink. Sero had also taken a drink. Bakugou gulped down his water.

Midoriya grabbed his cup, and took a small sip of his soda.

"Wait, Midoriya!?" Ashido gawked, "You've gotten suspended before!?"

The rest of the dorms fell silent, and Aizawa nearly spit out the jelly from his jelly pack. He could understand how Ashido, Kaminari, and Sero had gotten suspended, though he doubted it was due to any malicious reason and more due to them just being cheeky, and was most likely in elementary school.

But Midoriya?

The green haired boy was so shy and quiet that sometimes, people just didn't notice him, and he literally did everything in his power to try and do something good. There was absolutely no reason for him to be suspended. Plus, he had been looking through Midoriya's records for Nezu, and Aizawa had literally not seen a single thing about any suspension from school.

Midoriya nodded awkwardly, not really liking all the attention on him, and sank into his bean bag.

Kaminari just laughed, immediately drawing everyone's attention towards himself, "Okay, okay, I was actually suspended in elementary school. Someone poked me, and I just freaked and shorted out ALL the electricity in school."

"Typical fucking dumbass. I destroyed a desk because someone threw a rock at me. Fucking idiots." Bakugou snorted. The blonde didn't even know why he was participating, but Kirishima absolutely refused to let him leave, insisting that he needed to "interact with his classmates more and be less grumpy". He wasn't fucking grumpy, but hey, at least some stuff was funny.

"Hey!" Kaminari complained.

"I made a fan explode because I shot tape at it." Sero grinned, "I nearly got hit by the fan blade.'

"Boo! Lousy!" Ashido jeered, "I accidentally melted this locker! And you know all those memes, with this water pipe or something pip inside the locker? Yeah, apparently, the locker I melted happened to have a water pipe inside it! So I accidentally broke the water supply, and they had to cut off the entire thing so that the water wasn't contaminated with acid!"

Midoriya just stared at his drink, with Reiko curled up on his shoulder, patting his cheek, and Ryuto just huddled down on his lap.

He didn't want to talk about it. That had been the last time he had ever spent any time with his parents.

The game continued on, and the game of "Never have I ever" transitioned into some Truth or Dare game mixed with Spin the Bottle, where someone chose a Truth or a Dare, completed whatever it was they had to answer or do, and then spin an empty juice bottle, and whoever the cap landed on would be the next person who had to choose a Truth or a Dare.

Ectoplasm and Snipe had also popped in at some point, with the Mathematics teacher still clad in his hero costume. Snipe was wearing some casual clothes, but he still had his gun holsters around his waist and his mask.

Midoriya hadn't really played any of these games before, so he really wasn't too sure what to do. At least, he didn't have to participate if the bottle never landed on him -

Yeah, the bottle was now pointing directly at him.

"Hmm..." Ashido hummed, "Truth or dare?"

_"Truth."_

Midoriya was not taking any chances to something dumb. Sero had dared Kaminari to do the chicken dance, Uraraka had been dared by Kaminari to eat a piece of paper like a cookie, and Kirishima was now stuck with two Christmas stockings hanging on his ears, courtesy of Hagakure; the red head looked really proud of himself though.

Ashido pouted. She wasn't sure what to ask Midoriya, since he already seemed a little upset from the previous question about school suspension, and she didn't want to risk making him even more upset.

A lightbulb lit up in her head, and she grinned, "In this entire class, who would you kiss?"

There was silence, as Midoriya processed the question, before he tilted his head to the side, signing, _"What's a kiss?"_

Shinsou, Kaibara, and Koda just blinked, and suddenly, he felt like he couldn't speak, "Uh... a kiss... how do you explain that... uh..."

"You guys okay?" Shishida asked, and Shinsou just turned to the class, "How on earth do you explain what a kiss is!?"

The rest of the students started murmuring amongst themselves, and the Erasure hero had to use his quirk on Yamada so he didn't blow their ears out; whether the Voice hero was laughing or crying, Aizawa didn't know, but he did not want to find out at the risk of losing his hearing.

"Uh... you kiss someone if you like them a lot?" Kaminari finally offered.

Kayama nearly had a spit-take, and was about to explain when Aizawa wrapped his capture weapon around her, groaning, "Leave them alone!"

"Just change the question?" Koda asked shyly, and Iida nodded, "Yes. Since Izuku can't answer it, we should change the question!"

"Alright... hmm..." Ashido hummed, before speaking up, "Out of everyone in this room, who do you dislike the most?"

"Isn't that a really obvious question?" Hagakure asked, "It's clearly Mineta..."

Her voice trailed off, as Midoriya glanced at the floor, not daring to look at anyone, before pointing his index finger to himself.

"Wait... why would you dislike yourself?" Shinsou quietly asked, and Midoriya just glanced at him, and shook his head. He didn't want to talk.

"Well.. we'll just... leave it at that... next?" Kendo awkwardly stated, but the cheerful atmosphere had already been destroyed.

* * *

The students had decided to stop playing party games, and just went back to watching television or playing video games while drinking soda. Hagakure and Kaibara were currently in a Beat Saber competition. Apparently, the Secret Santa gift exchange was only happening right at the end, and some of the students were already getting tired from all the preparations in the morning.

Shinsou found Midoriya walking back towards the staircase, most likely heading back up to his room; the boy didn't seem to enjoy the partying atmosphere, and there were a few sensitive topics brought up, even if Midoriya didn't want to talk about it. There were some things that he hadn't gotten over and they were clearly bothering him, but no one wanted to risk breaking the fragile layer of trust that Midoriya had given them.

The lavender haired boy walked up to Midoriya, calling out softly, "Uh... Izuku... can I talk to you about something?"

At least, it would probably be easier to ask the boy out in the hallway than when they're surrounded by all the other students. Most of the others were still distracted by Hagakure and Kaibara's bickering over which Beat Saber song to play.

Upon hearing Shinsou speak, Midoriya paused, and turned around slightly, gazing up at the taller boy. Reiko had been following Midoriya, and sat down by his feet, and Ryuto was probably cuddling with Kinu on one of the cushions on the couch.

Shinsou bit his lip. He didn't feel like waiting any longer; he'd probably bail from nervousness if he put this off for any longer. He cleared his throat, raising his voice, awkwardly speaking up, "Izuku, I... uh... I'm not really sure how to put this... but I really... _really..._ like you. And I was wondering -"

Shinsou didn't notice that the din created by his classmates had died down, as Midoriya completely froze up.

"I knew it... I knew this... "friendship"... it wouldn't last..."

Shinsou was cut off by some barely audible muttering, and Midoriya's eyes were covered by his hair, hiding his emerald orbs in ominous shadows cast by his messy green curls.

The lavender haired boy blanched as the green haired boy's voice wavered, "You think you're the first person... to think of doing this to me?"

Shinsou blinked in surprise, not knowing how to react as Midoriya, for the first time that day, finally spoke up, but with so many emotions in his voice, so much pain, so much anger, so much _loathing_.

"Is this... some sort of cruel joke? Am I really... that terrible of a person? Do all of you guys...really... hate me that much? How long more are you willing to wait?

Shinsou was literally stunned into silence as Midoriya lifted his head, his entire body shaking as he looked right at Shinsou, his eyes burning with sadness and betrayal.

"How long more until you tell me to go and kill myself?"


	127. Chapter 127 - In the make-believe

It had taken some time for the purple haired boy to fully process Midoriya's words, before he tried to take a step closer, finally finding his voice and speaking up, "Izuku... What are you talking about? I don't understand -"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Midoriya muttered, taking a step back, "It's always been like this. There's no such thing as being friends. You're all just treating me like some sort of joke, aren't you? Am I just a joke to you? Is that it? Do you really hate me that much? Do you hate me because I'm quirkless? You just think I'm so stupid and worthless and useless and I should just go and die -"

"You're not -" Shinsou tried to speak up, but Midoriya just growled, his voice waving slightly, "Stop lying to my face. You think that I can't tell!? You think that I'll fall for it again!? I'm tired of living in a world filled with nothing but _lies_."

Shinsou just blinked, not really sure how to react, as Midoriya's eyes glowed in the shadows, the rest of the students and teachers falling into complete and utter silence.

"You've been planning this from the very start… right? All of you just pretend, pretend to want to be friends with me, pretend that you actually care about me, pretend that my worthless existence actually has some meaning. You wanted me to trust you, and the second that I give my trust to you, you'll just break it. You'd just laugh and spit in my face, and tell me that I don't deserve to be alive, that I should just go kill myself. Tell me to hang myself, slash my wrists and bleed out, get run over by a car, dump gasoline on myself and burn myself alive, take a swan dive off the roof of a building, slit my throat and drown in my own blood..."

Shinsou distinctly heard a horrified gasp from behind him, but he wasn't too sure who made that sound.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Stop trying to pretend. You're all the same; you can't fool me. I'm not going to fall for it again. I'm not dumb." Midoriya miserably replied, taking a step back, away from Shinsou, "You were all planning this from the start, weren't you? What's next, you're going to leave red spider lilies on my desk? A black rose? It's not the first time it's happened."

"Izuku, no one's going to -"

"Shut up! Don't "Izuku" me!" Midoriya snapped, and Shinsou flinched slightly; Midoriya was never one to raise his voice. The purple haired boy just remained silent, glancing at the greenette as Midoriya took another step back hesitatingly, his voice quieting again, "Shut up. Just shut up. I don't want to hear it. I'm not going to listen to you. It won't work again. I'm not stupid."

Midoriya swallowed his saliva, as Reiko pawed at the boy's sweatpants, trying to do her best to comfort her human. The greenette clenched his fists, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he took another step back.

"You're just the same as everyone else. I'm just a joke to you. You pretend to want to be friends, you pretend that you actually care about me, and the second that I decided to trust you, you'll just laugh and spit in my face, and tell me to go kill myself." Midoriya muttered, his voice wavering slightly as tremors raced through his small body, "You're all the same… I should have known that... nothing would have changed…"

"Do you... really think... that badly of us?" Shinsou finally managed to find his voice, and stammered out. He felt terrible; while Midoriya did call them his friends a few times in the past, Shinsou knew that Midoriya was still shaky with the basic concept of friends.

It was obvious that Midoriya wouldn't want to change anything at this point and time, given his past, but yet, Shinsou had been selfish, and had tried to push a little too far.

Now, everything was ruined. He had probably just destroyed all the trust that Midoriya had placed in him.

"Of course not! I thought you guys really wanted to be my friend! For real!" Midoriya screamed, though, to his classmates and teachers, it sounded more like a desperate wail of agony, "I trusted you! All of you! I thought… I thought you were different... That's why… just the thought of you guys, of all of you… leaving me alone... just like everyone else… telling me that I should go and die… it just hurts..."

A lone tear trickling down his cheek, dripping to the ground, releasing the sadness and sorrow that he had held inside of himself for all this time, and yet, he didn't make a single sound.

"Izuku -"

"I don't know, it's normal for me... Everyone says "You're useless", "You're worthless", "You're just a waste of space", "You should go and kill yourself"..." Midoriya rambled, not even hearing Shinsou speak up, "I should be used to it. All my life, that's all I've been told... I don't know why it still hurts now…"

"Izuku, no -"

"No, that's the real truth... I should just die... I'm better off dead..." Midoriya's anger seeped away, leaving only sadness, despair, and self loathing, "I'm useless, I'm worthless, I'm just an utter failure… I don't deserve to be alive..."

_You pathetic Deku… you thought they actually cared about you?!_

Midoriya froze, realizing what he was rambling again, a bad habit that everyone absolutely detested, and bit his lip harshly as he tried to wipe his tears away. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, and now, he was crying; another sign of weakness.

Now they'd have an even bigger reason to laugh at him and call him a useless idiot who doesn't deserve anything, a worthless Deku, a useless piece of shit, but he didn't dare to leave; they'd just chase him down, corner him, leaving him nowhere to run, and humiliate him even more.

Shinsou reached out gently, not wanting to startle the boy. Sure, Midoriya's words were harsh... but the lavender haired boy couldn't blame him.

Not when he had gone through the same thing when he was younger; he understood the internal turmoil that Midoriya was feeling, his past experiences and his own conflicting feelings creating a huge emotional and mental mess that Midoriya had absolutely no idea how to deal with, and his only solution was to take it out on himself. Midoriya's words may be hurtful, but in reality, the greenette was the one bearing all the pain and the burden that should have never been left to a child.

"It's not going to work… I'm not stupid... I'm not dumb... I won't believe you... It won't work again…" His entire body shook, and he stammered, his shoulders heaving with emotion, "I'm not useless… I'm not worthless…"

Midoriya sounded more like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else, repeating his words like some sort of mantra as he stumbled back, slowly wrapping his arms around himself, his body shaking violently, doing his best to hold back his tears, "... I'm not broken… I'm not broken… I don't need to be fixed… there's nothing wrong with me..."

"You're right."

Midoriya completely froze up as Shinsou closed the distance between them, lightly wrapping his arms around the shaking greenette. He was the one that caused this; he didn't care if Midoriya would push him away, or if he didn't ever want to talk to him again. He needed to fix this mess that he had created.

"There isn't anything wrong with you." Shinsou murmured, "You're not broken. You're not worthless."

Midoriya made no movement to push Shinsou away, and just buried his face in Shinsou's hoodie, sniffling.

"You said… you liked me… What's there to like about me? There's absolutely nothing likable about me. I'm a quirkless, incompetent, good-for-nothing nobody. I'm a worthless freak, a useless anomaly." Midoriya mumbled, his voice laced with the venom of self-loathing, "I'm not normal. I'm useless, just an utter waste of space. I'm just a failure that can't do anything right. I'm just a defect. I should just die."

"You're not useless. You're not a defect. You're not worthless, and you're definitely not useless." Shinsou muttered, gently tightening his grip around Midoriya's shaking body.

"Everyone says so, so... they're definitely correct..." Midoriya pathetically countered, more tears forming in the corners of his eyes, "It's always the... majority that's right..."

"No. Just because everyone says so, doesn't mean that they're right. You deserve to be alive, Izuku. You deserve so much more than all the unwarranted hatred you've suffered through. Everyone else who's told you otherwise... they're all wrong."

Midoriya's eyes widened, as tears kept trickling down his cheeks. Because as much as he said... he still trusted Shinsou. And he had just ruined everything because his mouth had moved before he could think.

Somewhere in his heart, he could always tell when people were lying, telling him that they wanted to be friends, but he had still foolishly followed along, thinking that he was just overthinking things, not daring to trust himself, doubting himself, just hoping that they wouldn't be like the others and break his heart over and over again.

But when Shinsou had told him he had liked him, Midoriya could tell that he wasn't lying. He was telling the truth. He was serious. And yet, he had still overreacted, automatically disregarding what his heart was telling him, blatantly assuming that Shinsou was just like everyone else, that his friends didn't really want to be his friends.

But he still trusted them, because deep inside, he knew they were genuine.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I messed up again. I'm sorry." Midoriya muttered, repeating his words like a broken tape recorder, "This is my fault, I'm sorry. I ruined everything, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm just a fuck up, I'm sorry -"

"It's not your fault, Izuku..."

Midoriya's mask completely broke apart, his emotionless facade shattering to pieces as tears rolled down his cheeks, and the floodgates opened. He wept, letting out a heart wrenching wail, tears streaming out from his emerald eyes unceasingly as he grasped desperately at the taller boy's hoodie, tears running down his cheeks like a waterfall, without a sign of stopping. The greenette could no longer control himself as he let out loud, heaving sobs into Shinsou's chest, and he could no longer hear or feel anything going on around him, just the foreign sound of his sobs echoing through his mind, his body shaking, and the warm, comforting presence of his friend, gently wrapping his arms around him.

Because even after all these years, the pain was still fresh, like an open wound; Midoriya had no idea how to deal with it, all the pain, all the misery, and he just held it in, bottled it up, and they only grew stronger with time, festering and eating him alive from the inside out like some kind of deadly infection or parasite.

Midoriya was destroying himself, both physically and mentally, from the inside out, leaving himself completely vulnerable to the horrors of the world, and there was a something, a certain rawness to the way Midoriya cried that just made Shinsou's heart sting, his howls of sadness, pain, despair, and misery just making the lavender haired boy tighten his grip around the smaller boy. The sound of desolate sobbing that tore itself from his throat, the only kind of sound that came from a person who was drained of all hope, before it gradually transitioned to breathy, gasping wails.

The greenette's breathing was ragged, and he gasped for air as the strength left his legs, the only thing keeping him up being Shinsou's arms wrapped around him, supporting his weight. He was unable to speak, unable to breath, unable to do anything else but cough and pant for air as he hyperventilated, clinging to Shinsou like a lifeline.

His head was fuzzy, and he felt lightheaded, until everything darkened into nothingness as he passed into the oblivion of unconsciousness.

Shinsou felt Midoriya's grip on his hoodie loosen, the smaller and lighter body slumping against him weakly, and he gently tightened his grip around Midoriya, "Hey, Izuku? You... okay?"

Reiko let out an alarmed whine as Shinsou gently lowered the unconscious Midoriya to the ground, jumping up onto Shinsou's knee, before onto his arm, nuzzling Midoriya gently. Ryuto was perched on Iida's shoulder, and he glided over to Midoriya to check on his human.

Midoriya's breathing was ragged and uneven, his usually pale face now flushed, and Shinsou gently cradled his head, "Izuku?

Blinking out of his stupor, Aizawa numbly walked over to Shinsou, briefly checking over Midoriya, "Bring him to his room. Keep an eye on him while I call Nezu."

Shinsou nodded, and gingerly picked Midoriya up, before heading towards the elevator.

Aizawa sighed, and grabbed his phone to message Nezu, the only sounds remaining in the common room being Midoriya's haunting cries.

* * *

Shinsou pushed open his room door; Midoriya must have locked his door, because Shinsou could not open it, no matter how hard he tried.

The lavender haired boy gently placed Midoriya down on his bed, with Shirou perking up and jumping off to give him space. Reiko and Ryuto snuggled down with their human.

"I'm sorry... it was too early to ask you something like that..." Shinsou gently gripped Midoriya's hand, before he stood up to leave the room to inform Aizawa of the change in rooms, when suddenly, he felt pressure on his hand.

He looked down, confused, only to see that Midoriya had tightened his grip slightly around his hand, albeit unconsciously.

"...please... don't leave... I don't... want to be... alone..." Midoriya murmured weakly, desperately, barely even lucid enough to speak in coherent sentences, still breathing heavily, "... please... don't leave me alone..."

"Shh... It's okay..." Shinsou sat down on the edge of the bed gently, fishing out his phone to text Aizawa instead, "I'll stay, okay?"

He lightly ruffled Midoriya's hair, as the smaller boy unconsciously pressed his head against Shinsou's hand.


	128. Chapter 128 - But you told me

"Take care of the kids." Aizawa ordered the other teachers, before he walked up to the second floor to check on Midoriya and Shinsou, grabbing some water in the process; Midoriya was probably dehydrated after all his hyperventilation and crying.

He had already gotten the message from Shinsou, and had texted Togata to remain in his dorms and to inform his friends, who were no doubt going to crash the first year Hero Course Christmas party, before he quickly made his way to his adoptive son's room, only to find Shinsou sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing as Midoriya slept peacefully; or, at least, as peaceful as one could get with a tear-stained face and flushed cheeks.

"You okay, Hitoshi?" Aizawa quietly asked, closing the door behind him, and the lavender haired boy looked up, nodding, "Yeah... I... I knew it was bad for him... but I never thought that people would actually... be so mean to him... and I thought my situation had been bad..."

"I know..." Aizawa grabbed Shinsou's desk chair and sat down, noticing that Midoriya was still grabbing onto Shinsou's hand tightly, even in his sleep.

Aizawa could tell that Midoriya's words were still bothering Shinsou; after Midoriya's outburst, the teacher was sure that his words were still ringing in everyone's ears. But as much as Aizawa hated how much Midoriya's words were hurting Shinsou, he couldn't bring himself to blame the problem child; because this was the true Midoriya Izuku, not the emotionless, uncaring, apathetic facade that the child was always putting up.

The real Midoriya that had been abandoned by the world, the real Midoriya who had been beaten up and broken by the rest of the world, and still tried to see the best in everyone around him. The child that had been unrightfully wronged and discriminated against for no reason, and yet, placed all the blame on himself.

Just listening about all the insults that had been thrown at the boy, how many different ways the boy was told to kill himself, his classmates just leaving death wishes in the form of flowers on his desk, his teachers probably not really caring about the treatment of the poor quirkless boy… it just made his blood boil.

And Midoriya's words had rung another major alarm, something that they noticed from the start, but they originally brushed it off, and thought that it had been solved when Midoriya finally made friends with Shinsou, Koda, Iida, Uraraka, and Todoroki.

_Friendship is a relationship that has many negative emotions attached to it. All you can do is wait for the eventual betrayal, but is it betrayal if you both agree on it, if you both agree that one person does not deserve anything, not friendship, not companionship, not anything at all?_

_Trust the wrong person, and they'll come and stab you in the back, figuratively or literally._

_Combine them together, and all you have coming for you is the imminent pain and horror, that you made such a mistake, that the people you once thought to be friends are the ones causing the pain, that in reality, no one cares about you._

Midoriya had written that in his essay from the very beginning of the year, and with all the context that the boy had spilled, it just made the true, harsh reality of Midoriya's past all the more horrifying. The world had been unrightfully cruel to the child who was just trying to survive and live his life.

The green haired boy's breath hitched suddenly, and he let out a small, pitiful whine, curling in on himself slightly. Shinsou gently ruffled Midoriya's hair, eliciting a small purr from the boy. Aizawa noted that Midoriya seemed to like affectionate gestures, probably due to him being touch-starved ever since he was a child.

Shinsou asked softly, "You're not going to put him on suicide watch... are you?"

"I highly doubt it. That would be an even more toxic environment for him. Putting him in a place that would just monitor his every move would stress him out, and would do him more harm than good." Aizawa admitted, "I think... he finally understands that people actually do care about him... and he might be more willing to open up."

"So... what now...?"

"I don't know... we'll just wait until Nezu comes over." Aizawa replied.

* * *

"Poor Izuku..." Uraraka just stared down the hallway to the elevator and stairs, "We knew it was bad... but I never thought it was that bad..."

"I did... think that Shinsou would be more hurt by Midoriya's words though..." Tsunotori admitted, "They were very harsh..."

Monoma was the first to make a move, and he turned around, heading back towards the 1-B dorms.

"Hey, Monoma! It's not... nice? To leave at this point in time... after everything we heard..." Kaminari spoke up, and the blonde stopped walking.

"You guys don't really understand... do you?" Monoma said, "You'll never understand."

"Monoma... not the time for this -" Kendo tried to stop the blonde from saying something that would most likely aggravate 1-A, but Monoma was just staring at the ground gloomily before looking up, gently smacking away Kendo's hand, the usual manic energy that glowed in his eyes now gone, like it had been extinguished, "No... Kendo... this is the time for this. It's even worse than I thought."

Monoma looked like he was considering his words carefully, before he spoke up again, "Did you guys... ever get bullied in school? For your quirks?"

"Well... In elementary? I was pink." Ashido admitted, "It stopped around third grade though..."

Koda mutely nodded, and Shoji transformed his limb into a mouth, "A little bit into elementary, yes. Most of it stopped by the time I reached second grade."

Most of the other students hadn't really been bullied, and Komori raised the question that had been plaguing everyone's minds, "Why are you asking, shroom?"

Monoma looked away, before he started, "I'm not trying to offend anyone... but in basic terms... your quirks are simple. They're simplistic, and it's easy to see how your quirks are beneficial for heroics. Anyone would say that you can be heroes with quirks _like that._"

Some of 1-B blanched; there was some sort of venom in Monoma's voice, something that was usually directed towards 1-A, that was now directed towards quirks in general.

"You have quirks like mine... quirks that rely on others to be strong. Any quirk can be strong... but people don't look at that. They don't look at how you use it, they just look at the basics of a quirk. People were always telling me that I could never be a hero with my quirk, because Copy is useless due to its reliance on other people's quirks. My quirk is only as strong as the quirks that I choose to utilize, plus how I decide to use it." Monoma continued, "Then, you have quirks like Brainwashing; Shinsou's quirk. You've seen what people call him. A villain, simply because his quirk controls people. Something as simple as that got Shinsou labeled as a villain, even in UA. People doubting how he even got into the hero course."

"What are you trying to get at, Monoma?" Tokage blinked in confusion.

"Think about it. We live in a society that judges us based on our quirks. You have quirks that are considered villainous, quirks that are considered useless. How badly do you think a quirkless person is treated?" Monoma countered, "I've had classmates in the past who wanted to be my friend in order to make fun of my quirk and make themselves look better. And as far as I could tell from Midoriya's words... his former classmates hadn't just joked around and befriended Midoriya just for the fun of it."

"What do you mean?" Iida asked, looking at Monoma right in the eye. Monoma knew something that he didn't, and he needed to know what was going on in order to help Midoriya.

"They played with Midoriya's emotions. They pretended to be his friend, they got him to trust them... and then they threw him away because they thought it was funny. They didn't want to be Midoriya's friend; they just wanted a way to get close to Midoriya because it would hurt him more when they told him to kill himself. And apparently, that had happened so many times that even though Midoriya knew that his real friends in UA wouldn't hurt him, he was conditioned to correlate the thought of being liked and someone wanting to be friends with the betrayal and pain that came after. He's just defending himself, trying to lessen his pain, and Shinsou knows that. He's just scared."

The entire common room fell so silent that they could hear the fizzing of the almost flat soda, and Monoma murmured, "Suicide baiting is one thing... you know? Pretending to be someone's friend, only to break their heart again and again... that's something else altogether."

The blonde boy headed back towards his dorm, trying to get away from the suffocating and tense atmosphere in the 1-A dorms; he just wanted to go cool off, his mind racing. Sure, most of the people in UA respected Midoriya, but that was only because they didn't know he was quirkless until he had shown what he was capable of in the first round of the Sports Festival.

If they had grown up with him... the blonde really had no idea how he would have acted in the past. Would he have treated Midoriya the same, like a real friend would... or would he have ended up as one of Midoriya's bullies, trying to put him down to make him feel better about his "useless" quirk?

As much as Monoma wanted to think that he would be nice to Midoriya... the real truth was that he really didn't know. And he was scared of that answer.

The rest of the students just pondered over Monoma's conclusion, horror and shock seeping through them as the reality of the situation seeped into them.

Midoriya hadn't just been discriminated against. He had been actively told to kill himself. He had people who treated him like a toy that they could abuse as much as they want, they treated him like a joke, like he was worthless. No matter how harsh Midoriya's words were, his own pain was much, much worse, after being bottled up for who knew how long.

"I think..." Yamada took a deep breath, "You can do whatever you want... go back to your rooms, stay here... whatever makes you comfortable... I think we all need some time to process this..."

* * *

It had taken some time for Nezu to arrive in the dorms, and he raced up the stairs, reaching the second floor, before making a beeline to Shinsou's room.

Aizawa looked up as Nezu pushed the door open, and the principal closed the door behind him.

"Is he okay?" Nezu quietly asked, and Shinsou nodded, "I... think so?"

"He had a mental breakdown." Aizawa stated, "And then he cried and passed out. But... things were a lot worse than we thought they were. I think a lot more of the damage was done in his elementary school."

"I can tell..." Nezu sighed, glancing over at Midoriya's unconscious form, "What did he say?"

"I... can't say it word for word." Aizawa replied, "Various ways of how people told him to kill himself... and apparently, people pretended to befriend him in order to bully him later. There's some other stuff... but this was the bulk of it."

Nezu wracked his brain, before he settled down at the kotatsu, "I had my speculations about that... but I couldn't really confirm it. We really need to look into that elementary school."

"Wait..." Shinsou asked, "You investigated his schools?"

"Of course." Aizawa grunted, "A lot of people assume that you must have a quirk in order for quirk discrimination to take place. Even though Midoriya doesn't have a quirk, he's getting bullied and mistreated, and that still counts as quirk discrimination. Plus, due to his mistrust in teachers, it's very clear that his teachers either participated in the discrimination, or outrightly ignored it and let it take place, probably due to not wanting to deal with parent complaints, or not caring about him due to being quirkless, and that still counts as quirk discrimination."

"Am I even allowed to hear this? Isn't this... you know... private..." Shinsou murmured, as Nezu glanced up at him, "You're right. it's private and personal. But if Izuku is opening up... it's easier to help him heal if you know the full story. I think you deserve to know, given how much Izuku trusts you... Of course... if you don't want to know about it, Aizawa and I can talk about this later..."

"No... that's fine..." Shinsou replied, shoving his phone in his pocket.

"As heroes, we can't legally let those schools continue to accept students; the administration system is far too messed up, and it's only going to get worse as quirks continue to grow stronger and stronger." Nezu added, "We've already dealt with Izuku's middle school, but due to the training camp, and now, all the work studies, I've been busy with dealing with all the paperwork; the Hero Commission is really hammering down on all of us, but I'll push out some time to deal with his elementary school and to get a warrant for investigation. Plus... there's also something else that's bothering me. A lot of things, really... I'll talk to you about that and the other teachers later. And some health records that I think I should pass over to Recovery Girl..."

"Nezu, when the kids were playing those party games, Midoriya revealed that he had gotten suspended once. I'm not sure if it's important, but we should look into that too." Aizawa spoke up.

Nezu nodded grimly, and there was some silence, before the animal principal spoke up again, "I think you kids already know about the death of his parents... and due to being placed in a foster system, this just made it even worse for Izuku, since there was no one to support him. At least... I believe his parents took proper care of him and supported him."

Shinsou nodded, "You know that gift that... I forgot his name... but he gave Izuku a present?"

"Basilisk? What about it?" Aizawa asked, and Shinsou continued, "There was also a picture... Izuku with a green haired woman and a light blue haired man... I think those were his parents. They all were smiling... so I do think that they did really care about him."

The animal principal nodded; they could only find records of Inko and Hisashi in high school, since the rest is all secure information, but Shinsou's brief description did match the information they had.

"I'm not sure if Midoriya would want to talk about his past... but for now... we'll just have to wait until he wakes up." Nezu stated.


	129. Chapter 129 - Find a way to

Midoriya let out a small groan, as he groggily opened his eyes. He felt Reiko curled up by his chest, and Ryuto shifting slightly by his neck, as the boy blearily tried to survey the room. He noticed that Nezu was partially curled up under the kotatsu, and Aizawa was leaning against the backrest of a very familiar swivel chair, both of them asleep, but Midoriya still wasn't too sure where he was.

Clenching his hand slightly, he realized that he was holding onto something, and his eyes trailed up to Shinsou, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, supporting his head with one hand, and that Midoriya was holding onto his other hand. Midoriya blinked, finally realizing that he was in Shinsou's room; the kotatsu and the layout of the room were more than enough for him to identify it, but he didn't really remember how he got there.

He swore that he had been in the common room, playing some dumb games with his classmates... and then -

Midoriya whined quietly as his memories rushed back to him; Shinsou trying to tell him something, Midoriya just screaming at him before he started having a panic attack and started crying. Midoriya's brain felt fuzzy, his entire body felt tingly, an uncomfortable feeling crawling just under his skin, numbness seeping through his being. He didn't want to remember that. he had said many hurtful things to his friends, and he had no way of taking that back.

His heart throbbed, the pain was just too raw, too painful, and his body shook as Midoriya tried to push his memories away, his eyes clenching shut.

"Shhh, it's okay..."

Midoriya suddenly felt some comforting pressure on his head, and he instinctively pushed his head against it. He didn't know why, but it felt really nice, and he wanted more of it. He opened his eyes, realizing that Shinsou was gently running his fingers through his hair, caressing it, as Aizawa watched from a respectful distance from the chair.

The greenette subconsciously sensed that Nezu sat up, rubbing his eyes, seemingly having just woken up, and Midoriya felt more tears threatening to well up from the corner of his eyes.

"I'm sorry..." Midoriya whimpered, as Nezu stood up and walked over to him, "You have nothing to be sorry for, Izuku..."

Reiko reached up, using her paw to gently wipe away Midoriya's tears, as the greenette struggled to get some kind of control over his emotions. His entire body was aching, his veins lit alight as the phantom memory of his former home and parents burning down tingled down his spine, as Midoriya made a desperate attempt to grab ahold of his feelings and gain some kind over himself.

Biting his lip, Midoriya pushed the pain and the memories away, focusing on Nezu's comforting presence, something that he really did like and appreciate, a feeling that he'd never thought he'd experience again after the loss of his parents -

_No. Bad Deku. Don't think about that now._

It took him some time to calm down, wrangling his mess of thoughts, feelings, memories, and emotions into something manageable, and shoved them away, not wanting to deal with them now, and he just looked up at Nezu and Shinsou numbly.

"Feeling better?" Shinsou quietly asked, and Midoriya nodded slightly, pushing himself up gently so his head didn't feel like it would split apart. He didn't have a headache, and he knew he wasn't sick, but still, he didn't want to risk it; recovering from the dizziness and nausea would just waste more time.

Nezu looked up at his pup in concern, trying to figure out how best to proceed. After the boy's breakdown after the Kamino incident, Nezu was honestly terrified that they would get a repeat of that scenario; the principal wasn't too sure he would be able to take it if Midoriya just dissociated again and curled in on himself, ignoring the rest of the world as he let his mental wounds fester.

He was glad that Midoriya was opening up slightly, and even showing a bit of emotion, even though they were negative; bottling up his emotions would not help him in the slightest.

"Izuku... I know it hurts, okay? If you don't want to say anything... it's fine. But... I heard about the things you said... do you want to talk about it?"

Midoriya glanced at Nezu, then at Shinsou, before eying Aizawa warily. He knew that Shinsou and Nezu cared, and trusted them with his life... but he wasn't too sure about the Erasure Hero. Sure, Aizawa was a hero, and he had miraculously stopped addressing him by Problem Child, but he was still a teacher, and teachers couldn't be trusted no matter how good they seemed on the surface.

Aizawa seemed to understand that, and he stood up, "This... seems private... and personal. I'll leave for now."

"Yeah, I don't think that I can help here -" Shinsou stood up, but Midoriya just looked up in alarm and tightened his grip on Shinsou's hand, "No... no no... please don't go..."

He could feel more tears threatening to burst out from his tear ducts, and he had no idea how to stop that. He knew that Shinsou cared about him, but after all the horrid things he had said, no one would want to be around him; Shinsou probably didn't want to be around him, and since Midoriya was somehow in his room, the lavender haired boy couldn't even take a break or get some time to himself.

He was weak, he was letting his emotions get in the way of everything, he was utterly useless, all he did was selfishly upset everybody just because he couldn't control himself -

"If you want me to stay, I'll stay." Shinsou sat back down, and Midoriya just felt like crying again out of pure relief; he didn't want to be alone, and as much as Nezu's presence was comforting, Shinsou's presence was just... different. He couldn't really explain it, though.

Nezu gazed at the two boys as Shinsou gently reached out, wrapping an arm around the sniffling Midoriya and pulling him in closer, as the greenette practically melted into Shinsou's touch, and Aizawa pulled the door open, closing it behind him gently.

Turning his attention back to Midoriya, Nezu just looked at him, not wanting to put even more pressure on the emotionally vulnerable boy. Midoriya understood parental love, since he had received it from his parents, and perhaps that was the reason why it didn't take him too long to accept Nezu as a guardian or parental figure, and didn't have too much of an outburst over it; he knew that his former foster mother was treating him poorly, since he had something to compare it too.

But to him, friendship was something else altogether. All Midoriya understood from his past experiences was that people were trying to manipulate him in order to hurt him.

And Nezu, for all the intelligence his quirk granted him... did not understand emotions the way humans did. Sure, he understood them from a psychological perspective, but that was it. He interpreted emotions differently, because as human as he acted, at his core, he was still a different species of animal from humans. As much as he wanted to help Midoriya, there was still that limit, that barrier that prevented him from truly understanding the situation. He didn't want to do anything that might make Midoriya close up again.

Midoriya just curled in on himself slightly, his shoulders shaking as Reiko curled up on the boy's lap. Shirou was pressed against Shinsou's side, looking at the greenette in concern, as Ryuto nuzzled up against the boy. He didn't know if he wanted to talk about it, just thinking about his entire past hurt, and he just felt exposed and vulnerable. He had spent years building walls around himself, trying to protect himself, trying not to care about what people called him.

He thought he was immune to everything else; after all, he had taken the worst that the world could throw at him. But the walls were now gone, completely crumbled to bits, and Midoriya found that he literally had no idea how to deal with people actually caring about him.

But if he was going to talk, he was going to do it now. He was too mentally and emotionally drained to think too much about it, and he didn't know if he'd have the courage in the future to talk about it.

_If he even lived that long in the future, that is._

"I..." Midoriya softly spoke up, coughing slightly, and Nezu picked up a small glass of water sitting on the kotatsu, passing it to the green haired boy. Midoriya gently took the cup, his hands shaking, and took a small sip, before resting the cup on his legs. Shinsou took it from him, and gently placed it down at the kotatsu.

Gathering up his courage once more, Midoriya glanced up tiredly, "It's... nothing... my old classmates... they just said that they liked me... and wanted to be my friend... and then they told me to kill myself... it's nothing."

"It's not nothing. They hurt you." Nezu firmly stated, slowly sitting up to settle down beside Midoriya, "No one, especially not you, deserves treatment like that. If you don't mind me asking... how long did they... _pretend_...?"

Midoriya just stared at the ground silently, pondering over the question, "... it first started for an hour... the longest... and last time..."

The greenette coughed, clenching his eyes shut, the very memory hurting so much that Midoriya wished that he could rip his heart out. Shinsou gently rubbed his back, and Midoriya continued, "The longest time... was a month."

He wanted to cry again, and rubbed his eyes. It wasn't the time for crying.

Nezu's blood boiled. A month. A freaking month. His classmates had conjured up such an elaborate lie for an entire month, pretending to care about him, before throwing him away. Shinsou just growled as he tightened his grip protectively around the smaller boy.

Midoriya opted to remain silent. He usually liked it when it was nice and quiet, but now, the silence just felt so suffocating and smothering that the boy felt like throwing up.

Breaking the silence, Midoriya finally asked, "What... time is it?"

Shinsou glanced at his watch, blinking, "Around... two in the morning... why?"

Midoriya looked up in alarm. He swore it had only been around ten at night before he had decided to go back to his room and Shinsou told him that he liked him -

_Don't think about that now, Deku._

"I'm... sorry..." Midoriya whimpered, "You have... stuff to do... right? And you're just wasting time... taking care of me -"

"No. Making sure you're okay is not a waste of time. Despite how you were treated in the past, you're still doing your best to do the right thing." Shinsou interjected, "You're important to all of us, okay? This isn't a waste of time. You deserve to be loved and cared for."

Midoriya felt like crying again; he didn't know why, though.

"I'm not good enough." The greenette sniffled, starting to tear up again, hunching down slightly, "I'm not perfect... I'll never be good enough..."

"No one is perfect, Izuku, and no one has to be perfect." Nezu reached out, reassuringly patting Midoriya's arm, "You're doing more than enough for everyone around you. You're not infallible, Izuku, but no one's infallible. You're putting too much of a burden on yourself."

Midoriya just curled in more on himself, "But... it's the only way... to make up... for being quirkless... I _need_ to be perfect..."

"You don't need to make up for being quirkless. Being quirkless doesn't mean that you're lesser than everyone else. You're doing so much for everyone else, you're blaming yourself for something that's no one's fault in the first place." Shinsou stated, "If anything, it's the fault of everyone whoever thought badly of you, who ever thought you were useless and worthless simply because you don't have a quirk, everyone who pushed you down and refused to accept you for who you are. Because they have no right to do so. You're perfect just the way you are."

Midoriya felt more tears welling up, and Shinsou pulled him in for a hug, "Please, Izuku. You don't need to change anything about yourself, or try to make up for anything, okay?"

Tears started to drip down Midoriya's face, and he nodded hesitantly, shakily, wrapping his arms around Shinsou, before he burst into tears, letting the lavender haired boy comfort him.

Nezu just gazed at the two kids, before he mentally sighed. He always knew that Midoriya strived to be perfect; that much was obvious from his grades and UA, the various scores of the tests for his college credits, and just how much he blamed himself whenever things went slightly awry.

The principal knew that something had been up when he checked Midoriya's middle school scores; the students had to submit their scores while applying for UA to even take the preliminary entrance examinations, and one thing had stood out immediately, though, at the time, it had been brushed off and quickly forgotten about with everything else going on, like the rumours of All for One reappearing, Yagi needing a successor, Void's appearances and his apparent suicidal nature.

Midoriya's grades in middle school were, frankly speaking, terrible. He just barely met the minimum requirements to take UA's entrance exam, with many B's and C's, and Nezu knew that he had been questioning himself when he realized that the boy that had met the bare minimum for applying for the preliminary entrance exam had gotten full marks in the preliminary examination and the written entrance examination papers.

Sure, smart kids may be lazy sometimes, and not bother with their school work, instead opting to laze around and only put in their effort when it really mattered, but Midoriya wasn't like that. If Midoriya had the capability to easily breeze through college courses, UA's syllabus, and the entrance examinations, there was absolutely no reason why he would do so badly in regular public schools.

Nezu needed to look into that; maybe it would explain more of Midoriya's distrust in everyone around him. But for now, he needed to make sure that his kid was okay.

* * *

Aizawa exited the room, and sighed, before trudging down to the common room. He needed some water, and maybe a jelly pack, so that he could collect his thoughts. The common room was dark, with the only light being from the television playing some movie, but it seemed that no one was watching it. Some of the students were missing, most likely having gone back to their rooms, but the rest of the students were asleep, lying on the couches or on the bean bags, some were even lying on the ground, and those that were awake seemed to be lost in their own thoughts instead of watching what was on the screen.

"Hey, Shouta." Yamada quietly called out, and the Erasure Hero sighed, and walked over to him, "How are the kids?"

"They're all bothered by Midoriya's words..." Yamada admitted, "Some of the kids went back to their rooms, and it took a really long time until Yaoyorozu tried to suggest playing a movie to try and lighten the mood... but..."

Yamada just nodded towards the students, "You can... see how effective that was... I suppose..."

"I can tell." Aizawa gruffly replied, "I'm not too surprised. Compared to Midoriya, most of them lived quite normal lifestyles. I can bet that barely any of them had even had a quirkless student in their school. And the problem with bullying... if any of them were bullied, it was most likely in elementary school, where everyone's immature and speaks their minds. Most kids would have matured by the time they reached middle school, and would have stopped with all the bullying crap. This is just a completely messed up and warped scenario that none of them know how to deal with."

"Aizawa-sensei?" Iida perked up, just noticing the older hero, and Aizawa nodded, "Iida."

"How's Izuku?" Uraraka asked, and the Erasure Hero replied, "Hitoshi and Nezu are talking to him right now."

"Can we see him?" Koda meekly spoke up, and Aizawa tilted his head, thinking, before replying, "You should go up and check... I'm not too sure if he'll like the company or not. I just know that he doesn't enjoy mine."

"Why wouldn't he like your company? You're our homeroom teacher." Todoroki blankly asked. The dual hair coloured boy didn't really know what to feel; he originally thought that his situation with his father was bad, with the quirk marriage, all the separation, the abuse, the death of Touya...

He hadn't really considered how terribly Midoriya's life had been. And he had told Midoriya that he wanted him to get into the hero course just to crush him... sure, he may have apologized for that, but that didn't mean that his words still didn't hurt the green haired boy.

"I... don't know." Aizawa blearily sighed; Midoriya's crying and vulnerability had already upset everyone. If their authoritative figure, their teacher, also showed his vulnerability... he didn't know how that would destabilize everything further. He'd just hold it in for now.

"You can check on Midoriya if you like."

* * *

Midoriya wiped his tears, and stood up; he wanted to go back to his room and stop bothering everyone.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Shinsou asked, and the greenette nodded. He wanted some time to sort out all of his thoughts, but as much as he liked Shinsou and Nezu's company, he just felt like he'd never deal with his own problems if he kept relying on them.

There was a knock on the door, and to his confusion, Midoriya blinked, before opening the door.

"Izuku!" Uraraka wailed, wrapping her arms around the stunned boy, who just stood rooted in place, not sure how to react. Koda just hugged Midoriya and Uraraka.

"I'm sorry..." Midoriya's shoulders started shaking again, "I said... so many... terrible things... I'm sorry..."

"We're all here for you, okay?" Iida gently patted Midoriya's back, "It's not your fault. Anyone would be badly hurt if they were treated like you were."

"If anyone hurts you again, I'll beat them up!" Uraraka said resolutely, tightening her grip around Midoriya, as Todoroki nodded, remembering that one of the things Midoriya had mentioned previously was that _he should burn himself alive_, and spoke up, "I'll give them frostbite."

"I do not condone the breaking of rules and needless violence..." Iida pursed his lips, "But I shall not report you if you do so."

Midoriya broke out into quiet sobs, relishing in the warmth and comfort from his friends.

_"You can cry in front of your father and I, but until you can find someone else out there that loves and cares for you, no matter your quirkless status, you can't cry. You can't show other people how much they are hurting you. People would just hurt you more. Do you understand, Izuku?"_

His friends really did care about him, they didn't mind that he was quirkless, they didn't blame him, _they didn't hate him._

Nezu just looked up at the students, a small smile gracing his features, watching as Iida, Uraraka, Koda, and Todoroki comforted Midoriya. The child finally understood that he had people who accepted him for who he was. It would take a lot of time for Midoriya to heal and recover; he may never be able to fully escape from all the trauma, but he had friends who would support him and help him no matter what.

And Midoriya knew that. For now, that was enough.


	130. Chapter 130 - Bring you back to me

It had taken some time for the huge group hug to be broken up, and Midoriya signed something to Shinsou, and the lavender haired boy turned to the others, "Hey... Izuku wants you guys to follow him to his room."

"Oh?" Iida asked, "Is everything okay?"

Midoriya shyly nodded, before leading his friends up to the second floor of the dorms. Quietly pushing the door open, Midoriya let his friends into his room, before he plucked the small, pretty glass jar off his desk and gave it to a very confused Koda, who took it gingerly, before the boy noticed that the jar was actually a very small, terrarium, with a multitude of cute little green plants inside.

"Uh... Happy Christmas? Which... word was it again? I'm... sorry... I disrupted the... thing... just now..." Midoriya forced out, a bit confused and anxious, before he carefully opened his closet.

"Izuku? You have nothing to be sorry for..." Uraraka asked in confusion, as Midoriya carefully took out two figurines, passing them over to Uraraka and Iida.

"Is this... Thirteen!?" Uraraka gasped in surprise, as Iida's face lit up, "This is Ingenium! My brother!"

Todoroki frowned, muttering under his breath, "Oh... you're siblings..."

Midoriya pulled out two more hoodies, a very messy, multicoloured hoodie, as well as a dark grey hoodie with cat ears, giving them to Todoroki and Shinsou respectively. Todoroki immediately swapped his jacket out for the hoodie Midoriya had given him, and looked down at himself. Shinsou picked up the hoodie in confusion, noticing the cat ears, before he turned to Midoriya, noticing the small boy staring at the ground nervously.

"You said ... that you liked Thirteen... and they don't really... have a lot of merchandise... and we had the room tour thing... and I noticed that... Tenya didn't have any merchandise of Ingenium... even though he really looks up to him..." Midoriya stammered, "And... Kaminari showed Shouto something like that... and he said that he would want to wear it to piss Endeavor off... and Hitoshi likes cats... I wasn't too sure what to get Koji... but he likes animals... and nature... so I just thought..."

"Izuku, you didn't have to..." Uraraka blinked, realising that Midoriya had specifically gotten these items as gifts for them, and the smaller boy spoke up, "Even though... I wasn't really nice to you at first... you didn't abandon me... like everyone else..."

Midoriya felt himself tearing up again, "Thank you... for caring about me... "

"You don't need to thank us for that." Shinsou was the first to hug Midoriya, before all the other kids joined in the group hug.

"Hey... Happy Christmas to you too, Izuku."

* * *

Midoriya decided to remain in the safety of his own room as his classmates went back to their own rooms, and eventually, he managed to convince Nezu to take his leave. He needed some time to think about what had happened; everything was just going by too quickly for him to comprehend just what the heck had happened.

Midoriya gently closed the door behind him, and changed into a different hoodie, before he brushed his teeth, and flicked the lights off, throwing himself onto the bed. Reiko crawled up next to him, and Ryuto made himself comfortable by Midoriya's neck, nuzzling his human.

The greenette just sighed, and remained still, trying his best to not move around so as to not disturb the two animals. He wanted to sleep; his mind felt foggy, with static buzzing around inside his head. But he just couldn't; he had this weird, uncomfortable tingling feeling running down his spine, keeping his tired mind alert, almost like he had to look out for any threats. That was weird in itself, given that it was his room, his first home ever since his parents had passed and he had been forced into the foster system, and he never had that odd, uneasy feeling while in the safety of his room before.

Midoriya groaned slightly, and curled up, but that did nothing to quell the fire within him, raging around as if it were trying to search for some unforeseen foe. He felt too vulnerable, too exposed, like literally anything could just jump out from the shadows and maul him to death. But he needed to sleep, he needed some time to calm himself down so that he could sort everything out.

* * *

Midoriya tried his best to fall asleep, but despite how tired he was, his mind just refused to let him rest. His entire body felt stiff, but he just felt like the entire room was closing in on him. He could hear his heart pounding heavily in his chest, and the air around him felt thick and heavy, making it harder to breathe. The silence was shrieking in his ears, with lingering echoes of insults and screaming roaring through his entire being, and Midoriya clenched his eyes shut, trying to stop himself from shaking so violently so that he wouldn't wake Reiko or Ryuto up.

He didn't want to do this, he's already been more than enough of a burden to his friends, but he just couldn't take it anymore; the unnerving tension he was feeling, in his very own room, of all places, was eating at him from the inside out. He couldn't comprehend why he was feeling that way, but he was far too mentally and emotionally drained to even think of a comprehensive, logical solution.

Midoriya gently scooped Ryuto off, placing him down gingerly on the pillow, not wanting to wake him up. The bird just gave a small squeak, shifting around slightly, before falling back asleep. Midoriya carefully got up and made his way to the door, quietly closing it behind him, activating the motion sensors that switched on the lights in the hallway.

Hesitating slightly, Midoriya walked over to Shinsou's door, and knocked on it. There was no reply, and Midoriya just sighed internally. The boy didn't know what time it was, but he was sure that it was already pretty late... or really early in the morning. There was no doubt that the lavender haired boy was tired, and was most likely asleep at this point.

He'd just try and force himself to ignore the uneasy feeling that was plaguing his entire being.

Just as he turned to head back to his room, the door clicked open, and Shinsou opened his room door, blinking and rubbing his eyes from the sudden light shining in from the hallway.

"... Izuku?" Shinsou asked, confused as to why the smaller boy was standing outside his room door, and Midoriya stared at the ground, a bit guilty for disturbing the older boy in the middle of the night, "Did... I wake you?"

"Nah." Shinsou shrugged, "I couldn't sleep either. Don't worry too much about it."

Midoriya clenched his fists, almost like he was reconsidering his actions, before he finally forced the words out of his mouth, "Can I... stay with you?"

"Uh... sure..." Blinking in surprise, Shinsou just opened the door wider, allowing Midoriya to enter his room. The greenette felt his shoulders shaking; he didn't know why he felt like crying, he didn't know why he felt so useless and exposed and vulnerable, but he didn't know how to stop it.

"You okay there, Izuku?" Shinsou tiredly reached out, "Come here."

Midoriya felt more tears welling up in his eyes, and he shakily moved over to Shinsou, clinging against the taller boy's hoodie, before he felt himself wanting to tear up again.

"Shh... it's alright." Shinsou gingerly wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Midoriya coughed, and shook his head, and the lavender haired boy gently maneuvered them around, closing the door behind Midoriya, directing his attention to calming the smaller boy down. Out of the corners of his eyes, Midoriya dimly noted that Shinsou's laptop was sitting on his bed, the only source of light in the otherwise dark room, and he blearily directing his attention to the screen, noticing that there was some cat video playing on Shinsou's laptop.

Shinsou asked, "Want to watch? It might help."

Not wanting to be rude, the greenette nodded shakily, and Shinsou just flopped down onto his mattress, allowing Midoriya to sit down by the edge of the bed.

"Make yourself comfortable." Shinsou stated, and Midoriya paused in his actions, hesitating, before he cautiously crawled over so that he was lying beside the taller boy. Shinsou reached out, starting the video up, and Midoriya just tiredly watched as the cat in the video accidentally got themself tangled in some string.

Midoriya relished the warmth and familiarity of the other boy, letting it wash over his entire being, and he didn't remember when his vision turned dark.

* * *

Shinsou groaned quietly as the familiar sound of his alarm rang out, and he reached out idly, wanting to switch off his phone alarm, not knowing where the hell the mobile device was.

Opening his eyes to try and find the annoying device, the first thing that Shinsou noticed was something green. Blinking in confusion, Shinsou rubbed his eyes, before he realised that Midoriya was sleeping on his bed, and that he had one arm draped over the smaller boy.

His laptop sat on his pillow, completely out of battery, and Shinsou gently pushed himself up, but that movement seemed to wake Midoriya up, and the greenette shifted slightly, before he opened his eyes, his tired green orbs shining.

"Sorry to wake you..." Shinsou murmured, before Midoriya blinked, trying to regain his bearings, seeming to realise that he had fallen asleep in Shinsou's room, and he snapped to attention.

"I'm... sorry..." Midoriya muttered softly, and the taller boy laughed and patted his head, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Midoriya sat up, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, and Shinsou retrieved his phone off the floor, deactivating the annoying alarm, and noticed that he had gotten a message from Aizawa.

_"Eri's coming over to the dorms with the Big Three."_

"Seems like Eri's coming over again soon." Shinsou spoke up, stretching, before he headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth, "You going back to your room?"

Midoriya slowly nodded, standing up, before walking to the door, and paused.

"Hitoshi?"

"Yeah?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya looked at him gratefully, "Thanks. A lot."

Shinsou just smiled back at him, "No worries... take care of yourself."

Midoriya exited Shinsou's room, and the lavender haired boy just brushed his teeth, deeming his hoodie good enough to go down to the common room in, and closed his door behind him, noticing that Midoriya was also exiting his room, Ryuto snoozing in his hood and Reiko yawning as she followed behind her, as a familiar tuft of blonde hair appeared by the door way.

"Morning!" Togata grinned, holding Eri's hand, "Aizawa-sensei told us that we shouldn't come over yesterday... so we came over today! POWER!"

"Power!" Eri mimicked Togata's pose, and Shinsou greeted them with a, "Morning Eri, Togata-senpai."

"Good morning!" Eri chirped in reply, before she ran over to the green haired boy, who just reached down, gently patting Eri's head.

"So, how was the party?" Togata asked, grinning from ear to ear, "I bet it was fun, right? Must be nice to have so many friends around and just enjoying yourselves in general! All my classmates went to bed early!"

Shinsou and Midoriya shared a brief glance, knowing fully well what had taken place which resulted in the sudden disruption of the party.

The green haired boy dug into the pocket of his hoodie, pulling out a small box, and squatting down, "Eri?"

"Yeah?" The white haired girl asked, confused, as Midoriya gave her the box, "Happy Christmas."

"Isn't it -" Togata was cut off as Shinsou signed at him to stop, and Eri's eyes lit up, as she carefully took the box from Midoriya, and opened it. She let out an adorable squeal, and she smiled brightly, before gingerly taking the small, white dragon pendant out of the box, "It's so pretty!"

Midoriya's own pendant hung around his neck, and Eri immediately unclasped the necklace and put it on, fiddling with the claspe clumsily until Midoriya helped her with the small metal spring ring.

"Mirio! Mirio! Look!" Eri giddily waved up at the tall blonde upperclassman, "Look! Just like Izuku!"

"It looks really good on you!" Togata complimented her, "Didn't you have something for Midoriya too?"

"Hmm?" Eri looked up in confusion, before she nodded, and dug into her bag, digging out a small card, and passed it to Midoriya, "Happy Christmas!"

The greenette carefully opened the card, which had a messy crayon drawing of him, Togata, and Sasaki.

"Mirio said that he would help me take a picture and send it to Mr Nighteye!" Eri excitedly stated, "And I also made one for Mr Aizawa! I also have another for Ms Froppy and Ms Uravity and Mr Red... Rot?"

"Riot. His hero name is Red Riot!" Togata corrected, and Eri nodded, "Yeah! Mr Red Riot!"

"Uravity lives on the other side of this floor." Shinsou stated, "Froppy lives on the fifth floor, and Red Riot lives on the fourth floor."

"Thank you!" Eri smiled, and raced off towards the staircase, with Togata trailing behind her, "Wait for me, Eri!"

Shinsou just looked at the staircase Eri and Togata had disappeared off to, before he turned to Midoriya, "You okay?"

"Yeah." Midoriya murmured, "She's smiling."

"Quite a big difference from before. She wasn't able to smile, right?" Shinsou asked, "You saved her. You did that for her."

"... I can't..." Midoriya blinked, as his gaze trailed off towards the floor, bringing one hand up to touch his cheek, "I forgot... how to smile..."

"Don't worry about it. We'll get there slowly, okay?" Shinsou smiled kindly at Midoriya, patting him on the back, as the greenette looked up at him and nodded slowly.

* * *

"Alright!" Ashido grinned, even though it was obvious to literally anybody that the students of 1-A were a little subdued, and they were a little less enthusiastic than usual. The atmosphere seemed suffocating, and it was clear that Ashido was trying her best to keep the general mood of her peers up, though everyone seemed much better after Midoriya seemed relatively okay, a little quieter than usual, but he didn't seem on the verge of breaking down and crying again.

Plus, Eri had gone around showing everyone the gift that Midoriya had gotten for her, and it was almost impossible for anyone not to feel better after seeing Eri's blinding smile.

"Uh... basically... you guys just seek your Secret Santa Giftee out! And... obviously... you give them the gifts! And then they open it and everyone will be happy!" Ashido forced out a grin awkwardly, "Let's go!"

Deciding to set an example for his class, Iida promptly stood up, and walked over to Sato, giving him a wrapped up gift. Thanking the bespectacled boy for the gift, Sato gently opened it, noticing that Iida had gotten him a portable cooking set.

Sato's face immediately lit up, and that sparked a huge chain reaction where Shoji gave Iida a very strong and durable spectacle case, just in case Iida decided to bring spare glasses for any trips, Koda giving Jiro the music discs that he had gotten, and Uraraka walking up to Kirishima and giving him his gift, which was the Crimson Riot poster from the thrift store.

"Oh my god! Uraraka!" Kirishima smiled brightly, "Thank you so much! That's so manly of you!"

"No problem!" Uraraka grinned back at him, giving him a thumbs up, "Only the manliest posters for the manliest guy in 1-A, am I right?!"

Aoyama sauntered up to Tokoyami, and gave him a very elaborately wrapped gift, which was revealed to be a really black and dark purple glittery T-shirt with an equally shiny and glittery white skull and crossbones on it, "Mon amine! I'll still shine the brightest, but now, you can be sparkly, just like me!"

Aoyama looked really proud of himself, and Tokoyami just inspected the shirt quietly, with Dark Shadow popping out, before the emo bird slipped the shirt over his head, putting it on.

"Revelry in the dark." Tokoyami nodded approvingly, "Thank you for this shirt. I shall treasure it."

Aoyama just smiled at him, before Ashido butt in, and gave her gift to Aoyama, which was actually a bunch of very sparkly shirts. Aoyama started gushing about the sparkles, and Ashido grinned, "You know what's better than sparkles, boys!?"

Aoyama and Tokoyami both shook their heads, and Ashido flicked off the lights, revealing that the shirts she had gotten for Aoyama also glowed in the dark, "Ta-da! They glow! Even in the dark, they sparkle!"

"Fuck you, Pinky!" Bakugou roared, followed by some barking, "Who the fuck let you switch off the lights!?"

Ashido begrudgingly switched the lights back on, as Yaoyorozu gave Uraraka some specialized brushing combs for chinchillas. Tokoyami and Mineta had given Asui and Ojiro their gifts respectively, and Kaminari gave Todoroki a very tacky-looking, light blue and pink Christmas shirt, and Todoroki glanced at it, before putting it on proudly, "I shall wear this, and hoodie that Izuku gave to me, and go home. My dad would probably have an aneurysm if he saw me in this."

Midoriya wasn't too sure what the others were doing; there were several people giving gifts at the same time, but he did notice that Sero had given Kaminari a tape dispenser in the shape of a toilet, resulting in both of them, with the addition of Ashido, rolling on the ground laughing immaturely at the weirdly shaped gift. All he knew was that Ojiro was talking to Hagakure, who was most likely his giftee, Asui had given Sero something, Ashido was Sato's giftee, Kirishima had gotten Shoji something that the larger boy seemed to like, and that Todoroki had gotten Bakugou that the blonde had, surprisingly, accepted without too much of a fuss.

Bakugou stomped up Mineta, before flinging a box shaped item at him, "Here. Merry Christmas or whatever bullshit."

The grape haired boy peeled the wrapped off, revealing a book called "Respecting Woman for Dummies". Mineta raised an eyebrow, and looked up at Bakugou, "Really? On Christmas? You're dissing me even on Christmas?!"

"You still have to fucking respect woman on Christmass, you ass." Bakugou spat back, as Uraraka, Hagakure, and Ashido burst out into roaring laughter that filled the common room.

"Bakubro's been drinking his Respect Woman Juice!" Ashido cackled, "I knew you loved us!"

"I don't!" Bakugou snapped back, "I'm trying to be nice, you fucks! And don't call me Bakubro!"

"I'm glad you're making the effort!" Iida added, his arms chopping around almost comically, "But you still shouldn't swear!"

"Fuck off, Four-eyes!" Bakugou growled.

Hagakure had given Koda his gift, and Jiro had done the same for Yaoyorozu, but Midoriya was too busy watching the rest of his classmates, doing a mental count in his head, before he realised that the only ones remaining were Shinsou and himself.

Shinsou was looking around, seemingly not knowing what to do with the wrapped up gift in his hand, and Midoriya mustered up all his remaining courage, moving over to the taller boy and giving him his gift.

"Wait... I'm your giftee?" Shinsou asked, confused, and Midoriya slowly nodded.

"I... thank you..." Shinsou carefully unwrapped the gift that Midoriya had given him, noticing that it was another hoodie, but this one had a band of grey from the shoulder area, to halfway up the hood. Shinsou found the colour combination a bit familiar, but couldn't put his finger on it, and he put it on.

Then it hit him; Aizawa's capture weapon.

"It's... Eraserhead... right?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya nodded, opting to sign instead, _"Yeah...I know you like him as a hero... and he's your dad... but he doesn't have any merch since he's an underground hero..."_

"I love it. Thank you." Shinsou smiled softly at Midoriya, before passing over his gift to Midoriya, "Happy Christmas."

Midoriya blinked, processing that Shinsou had also gotten him a gift, and he carefully unwrapped the package, before he stared at the multitude of cubes and a wide variety of weirdly shaped solids that had sides of different colours.

"Colour cubes?" Midoriya quietly asked, a faint memory of him trying to solve one of these puzzles on his own popping up in his mind. He remembered fiddling around with one of these cubes while his mother and father were busy with their own work, all three of them sitting on the couch in the living room, mere days before his home had been set alight, the good times before his life had turned into an eternal hellhole.

"Well... Rubik's Cubes... to be exact... and stuff that aren't exactly cubes... I wasn't too sure what to get you... Nezu said you liked puzzles... so I thought you might like these..." Shinsou sheepishly stated, before he noticed that Midoriya's shoulders were shaking, and a tear ran down his cheek.

"Are you okay? Do you... not like it?" Shinsou worriedly asked, before Midoriya looked up at the taller boy, his eyes brimming with more tears, his throat tightening, "No... I like it... a lot... I just... haven't seen one of these... in so long..."

"Thank you..." Midoriya shot forwards, wrapping his arms around Shinsou, "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome." Shinsou hugged Midoriya back, and the smaller boy immediately teared up again, clinging onto Shinsou tightly.


	131. Chapter 131 - My hate, left behind

Given that it was still rather early in the morning, most of the students just hung around the common room, enjoying their Christmas gifts. Apparently, 1-B also had a Secret Santa event, so most of the other students were just hanging out in their respective dorms.

Midoriya gently traced his finger over the packaging of the huge set of Rubix's cubes that Shinsou had given him as he settled down in his bean bag, and gently peeled the plastic packaging open, taking care not to rip it, and took out the really basic, three-by-three-by-three cube.

He had seen a two-by-two-by-two cube, but he had first started off with the three-by-three-by-three cube. Midoriya gently turned the sides of the cube, messing up the colours, the feeling of the cube turning about in his hands simultaneously being both familiar and foreign to the green haired boy. He hadn't known it had been called a Rubik's Cube; he had just called it a Colour Cube ever since he found it.

He remembered first seeing the cube while helping his mother to clear out the storage room in their apartment, and he had taken it out to show his mother. His mother had revealed that it had been his father's while he was still a teenager, and that he had always enjoyed playing around with it in between tinkering around with his support items. Midoriya's five year old self had been really intrigued by the colourful toy, and he had started playing around with it, with his mother's permission; after all, he didn't want to mess up anything by accident.

As a child, he had never been able to figure out how to solve the puzzle. He had only been able to solve one face, and he had even gotten up to the point where one face, along with the first layer of the adjacent sides being solved, but he could never have figured out how to solve the rest of the cube. His mother didn't know how to solve the cube either, despite having a bit of knowledge of support items and engineering, so Midoriya was just left fiddling with the cube every day until his father came home from overseas.

Midoriya's hands shook as he held the now messed up cube in his hand.

His father had been the one to teach him how to solve the cube, and Midoriya had spent countless months just playing around with it, entertaining himself while his parents were busy. He really liked to spend time with his parents, and his father had even set aside and entire day for them to play around with coming up with support items, and even though Midoriya had no idea of all the big, scientific terms, or the names of all the equipment his father had liked to ramble on about before his mother stopped him, he just enjoyed hanging out with them.

Midoriya felt his throat getting tighter.

He didn't have any friends in neither preschool nor elementary school; at first, he had been small and scrawny, and had been the target of kids who had very obvious mutant quirks. Then he had been declared as quirkless, completely destroying his chances of making any friends at all. His teachers didn't care at all, believing everyone else over him, and outside of his own home, Midoriya had no support at all.

His parents were the only one that cared about him, and they were gone.

The greenette felt tears threatening to spill from the corners of his eyes, and he just locked his eyes on the cube, his shoulders drooping.

He knew how to fix the cube; he had done it countless times, just shuffling the sides around, the only sound in the room being the plastic pieces rubbing against each other as Midoriya gradually increased the speed at which he solved the Rubix's cube, though his small hands had mainly been a reason why he still took a few minutes to solve the puzzle. He had even attempted to solve the puzzle without looking at it, since it was one of the challenges that people did when it came to solving Rubix's cubes, though he had never been able to do it properly, always being off by a few steps. But it did help him to train his memory and his ability to think ahead, though the context of solving a puzzle and fighting a horde of villains were two very different things altogether.

And then he had gotten suspended from elementary school, and those had been the last few days he had ever spent with his parents.

Midoriya's hands shook even more violently as he stared at the cube, and he reached up, wiping away several tears that had escaped, and he placed the messed up cube on the table.

Midoriya just grabbed the two-by-two-by-two cube, and started messing it up, though given that there were only eight corners in total, much less compared to the regular Rubix's cube, there really wasn't much he could do to mess it up; he was just unable to focus on the three-by-three-by-three cube without wanting to tear up and cry.

His heart throbbed, pounding in pain.

He knew how to solve the regular Rubik's Cube; he just couldn't solve it.

* * *

"Hitoshi." Aizawa glanced up at the lavender haired boy, as Shinsou closed the door behind him as he entered the teacher's room.

Aizawa's desk was covered in paperwork, with the cat and cockatoo plush sitting in a corner of the table, and the Erasure Hero leaned back into his swivel chair, wearing a black "Put Your Hands Up Radio" shirt, most likely given to him by either Kayama, Tensei or Yamada himself, and a pair of horrifyingly bright pink sweatpants.

Hizashi was sitting on the bed and tapping away, still dressed in his pajamas that consisted of Eraserhead "merch" that was quite literally a white t-shirt with Aizawa's messy scribble of Eraserhead written on it in a bright yellow permanant marker, along with some baggy grey pants.

Shinsou just turned to face his adoptive parents, just as Hizashi looked up from his phone, grinning, "Hey Hito! You doing okay? I heard from Tenya that they pushed the Secret Santa to this morning!"

"Yeah... we just finished it." Shinsou replied, before he sat down on the edge of the bed, fiddling with his fingers.

"You okay?" Aizawa asked gruffly, sorting out through more paperwork, "You kids only have like... three more days until your internships start back up. I thought you would want to hang out with your friends before your lives get all hectic again."

"I'm fine..." Shinsou murmured, and Aizawa glared at the boy, "Well, you're clearly not if you're coming here. Spill."

Shinsou just sighed, "You guys know that Izuku said some... _stuff_... yesterday... right?"

"Yeah." Yamada replied, and Aizawa just opted to remain quiet; emotions weren't his strong suit. He'd just leave it to Yamada; the blonde had always been better at feelings and all that kinds of sappy stuff.

"I don't know... I know that Izuku's just scared and he's been hurt by everyone in his life before... so his reaction is natural... he's just trying to protect himself... and he doesn't really mean it... and I know that feeling because... you know that already..." Shinsou sighed, scratching his neck nervously, "It just... really hurts..."

"It's natural." Hizashi butt in, "You have feelings too, Hitoshi. Midoriya's words would hurt anyone, not just you. I'm sure your classmates and friends are also upset over it."

"It just feels like... he doesn't trust me. It's stupid to see it like that, I know it's selfish of me to think of that, but -" Shinsou murmured, and Aizawa immediately butt in, "It's not selfish of you. It's a natural feeling. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything; Midoriya's words cut deep. They're hurtful, but it isn't his fault that he said something like that, and it isn't your fault for being hurt by his words. It's the fault of the harsh reality we live in, the world that only judges peoples' worth by their quirk. You're allowed to feel hurt, Hitoshi."

Shinsou just looked up at Aizawa, who just stared back at him, "I'm not sure if he knows or remembers what he says, but I'm sure he didn't have intention to hurt you. I don't know him that well; Midoriya's a very hard person to read, even for me, but it's clear that you've made an impact on his life. If anything else, Midoriya trusts you the most. The only ones he probably trusts more than you are Nezu, Reiko and Ryuto."

"Also, if you're worried about confessing, don't worry about it." Yamada laughed, trying to lift the mood, but Aizawa just rolled his eyes at the blonde, "Hizashi, shut up."

Shinsou couldn't help but chuckle at his parents' antics, as the Erasure hero turned back to him and continued, "Anyhow, one thing is for sure, you're allowed to feel upset. You just need to be honest with yourself, with what you really want."

"Yeah... I know..." Shinsou gave a small smile, "Thanks dad."

"Anytime, kiddo." Aizawa huffed, turning back to his paperwork, and Yamada laughed, "And you say this emotions stuff isn't cut out for you."

"They're irrational if you let them affect you at a bad time, but they're still important for mental growth." Aizawa growled, and Shinsou stood up, stretching, "I'm going to go back to the dorms."

"Alright. Have fun." Yamada grinned, as Shinsou paused, and turned back around, "Oh, dad, guess what Izuku got me for Christmas?"

"That hoodie, I'm presuming?" Aizawa pointed at the hoodie Shinsou was wearing, and the lavender haired boy snickered, pulling on the hood, revealing the band of grey that ran around the hood portion of the hoodie, starting from the upper portion of the shoulders all the way up to around a quarter of the hood itself.

Aizawa raised his eyebrow, instantly making the connection, and Yamada blinked several times, processing the hoodie, before he shrieked, "Oh my god! Is that -"

"Shut up!" Aizawa snapped, erasing his quirk in time, and Shinsou laughed cheekily as he exited the room.

* * *

Shinsou walked back towards the dorms, gently pushing the door open and enjoying the warmth of the common room, before Ashido ran up to him, whispering, "You... uh... think you can cheer Midoriya up?"

"What's going on?" Shinsou lowered his voice, observing the room. Nejire and Amajiki sat with Eri, watching some childish cartoons with Kaminari, though it was clear that the three students were turning around occasionally to look at Midoriya, who was still settled in the bean bag, not moving at all.

Even though Eri had no idea what was wrong, it was clear that she too could feel that something was off.

"We're not sure..." Ashido shrugged, "He seemed okay, playing around with the Rubix's Cubes... and then he just froze up completely. You only left for around half an hour..."

"Yeah, I'll... deal with it." Shinsou murmured, gently walking over to Midoriya. Reiko was sitting on Midoriya's lap, while Ryuto sat on Midoriya's shoulder, and the boy was just staring at the messed up three-by-three-by-three cube in his hand, the two-by-two-by-two cube being the only other puzzle to be out of its packaging.

"Izuku?" Shinsou softly asked, and Midoriya blinked, seemingly startled, before he looked up at the lavender haired boy.

Shinsou just looked at the boy, and realised this was the first time Midoriya's was ever so... expressive. Pain was prominent in his eyes, his mouth turned into a small, almost unnoticeable frown, and Shinsou felt like he was staring right into the greenette's soul, looking past Midoriya's facade to reveal a child who had lived a life filled with nothing but pain and despair.

"Did you solve the two-by-two cube?" Shinsou asked, temporarily breaking the silence between them, and Midoriya nodded slowly, quietly speaking up, "It's... kind of similar to the three-by-three..."

Midoriya froze up, and Shinsou could clearly see that something was bothering him; not the Rubix's Cubes in general, he seemed really excited about them, but there was something about the regular Rubik's Cube that was making him upset.

"Why don't you try the four-by-four one?" Shinsou suggested, and Midoriya slowly nodded, before reaching into the package, rummaging around for the larger, slightly more complicated cube. Shinsou straightened up, and was about to head back to his room, but Midoriya's head just shot up in alarm, his hand still in the package, staring up at Shinsou.

"I'm just going to grab my Switch, okay? It's just going to take a minute or two." The taller boy gently bent down, ruffling Midoriya's hair, and the greenette pressed his head back against Shinsou's hand, before Midoriya slowly nodded, curling back in on himself, his emerald eyes now dull and cloudy.


	132. Chapter 132 - I held my hand to take

Shinsou sighed, and was about to go up to his room to grab his Switch when Bakugou stomped out of the kitchen, "We need more f-... groceries."

"Bakugou! It's not nice to swear!" Hado chided him, as Eri looked up at the bubbly third year, "What's a swear?"

"Nothing you have to know of!" Togata cheerily interrupted, as Shinsou pulled out his phone to text Aizawa.

It took a minute for the teacher to reply, and Shinsou looked up from his phone, "Sure. Just that he wants to stop by the cafe to get some coffee."

"CAFE!" Ashido shrieked, jumping off the couch and cheering, startling Midoriya enough to make him flinch and nearly drop his Rubik's Cube, and the greenette looked up at the pink girl in confusion.

"Calm down." Shinsou rolled his eyes, "We can get a group of students to grab groceries, and another group to get coffee for everyone else."

"Coffee!" Ashido raised her hand determinedly, and Bakugo rolled his eyes, "We need food to cook, Pinky."

"I'm getting groceries too." Sato raised his hand, and Eri perked up, "Can we make candy apples?"

Sato blinked, and he grinned, "Oh yeah! I did say that! Not today, though, we're all a little tired, but we can definitely make them in the future! You okay with that, Midoriya?"

Midoriya looked up at the mention of his name, and tilted his head, considering the statement, before nodding. Eri's face lit up, and she shot to her feet, cheering, "Yeah! Candy apples! I can wait!"

"You really liked that candy apple I made, didn't you?" Sato smiled, and Eri nodded eagerly, "It was so sweet! I loved it!"

"Well... I'm getting coffee." Shinsou muttered, "I want coffee. You going, Izuku?"

Midoriya nodded as well, placing his Rubik's Cube down, and signing, _"Can I go to the cafe too?"_

"Yeah, sure." Shinsou grinned as he sent a message into the group chat about the shopping trip, "Alright, let's just see what the others choose to do."

* * *

Almost all of the students had left the dorms to come on the grocery and coffee trip, and the only ones who were still in the dorms were Mineta and Aoyama, the later having gotten a stomach ache due to his more sensitive stomach caused by his quirk. Kayama had offered to take one of UA's buses for easier transport, and to help babysit the grocery group while Aizawa grabbed a coffee.

Out of the students that did come, most of them had gone to the supermarket with Kayama, leaving Shinsou, Midoriya, Shoji, Kaminari, Hagakure, Koda, and Ashido with the buying of drinks and any other beverages and snacks the others might want.

Midoriya peered up at the menu that was pinned on the wall behind the counter, looking over the options. Needless to say... he had absolutely no idea what half the words on the menu were. What on earth was a frappuccino, or a cappuccino for that matter? Or a latte? Why were there so many different types of tea? Why were people drowning fruits inside the tea? Midoriya swore that dunking strawberries in black tea wasn't the most edible option.

Most of the other students didn't seem to have too much of a problem picking out their drinks, though; they had already ordered, and were waiting on the other side of the counter for the cafe staff to finish making their drinks. Aizawa was sitting in one of the chairs, waiting for his drink, but it seems like he had fallen asleep while waiting.

"Do you know what you want?" Shinsou quietly asked, waiting patiently as the smaller boy squinted at the menu like it would somehow decipher the words and make them make more sense, and Midoriya internally sighed, and shook his head; he couldn't make heads or tails out of the menu anyways.

_"You can order first... you don't have to wait for me. I'm probably not going to get anything."_ Midoriya signed, and Shinsou tilted his head slightly, frowning, "You don't know what to order? Or you just don't feel like getting anything?"

Midoriya sheepishly, looked towards the floor, and shifted his foot nervously, _"First."_

"I'll get you something. Hold up." Shinsou shrugged, and shifted towards the counter.

* * *

Nezu frowned as he scanned through Midoriya's files. Aizawa had told him of Midoriya's supposed suspension from school, and he, along with all the other teachers, had agreed that it was very uncharacteristic of the usually mild, expressionless boy. Midoriya was a very polite, quiet child; he wouldn't act out for no reason, and if he did do something to warrant getting suspended from school, it was most likely someone else's fault, but it had been pinned on the poor green haired boy, probably due to his quirklessness.

Luckily, he didn't need to get a warrant to check through Midoriya's records; all the students had some sort of file that contained information from their time in elementary school, all the way up to their university years. It was mostly used to help manage information and help employers ensure that students weren't lying in all their resumes. Even if they needed a warrant, they had already started investigating in Midoriya's elementary school months ago, but they had only really looked through the security feeds instead of all the other records.

Nezu was a little lost, since he hadn't really used those records to dig so deeply into a student's past before, but he finally managed to find the one section he was looking for, and he clicked the folder open.

_"Date of suspension: 14th July._

_Reason for suspension: Acts of violence against various classmates for no apparent reason. Injuries afflicted include several broken fingers, a cracked wing joint, several dislocated jaws, a bloody and broken nose, several sprained wrists, bruising. Acts of violence are reported to include punching, kicking, tripping students, throwing students against the walls and lockers. Student had also ignored the authority of the teacher and left the scene before the teacher dismissed him."_

Nezu frowned; Midoriya had been suspended a few months into his first year at elementary school, a day just before the child's birthday. As far as he knew, the Midoriya he knew now didn't react to bullying by fighting back; he just chose to ignore them and tried to live his own life. Of course, Midoriya had just been six, almost seven, so it was obvious he had much less control over his emotions as a child, but it still didn't make sense. Sure, other kids might point fingers at Midoriya, but there had been a very clear sign that something had happened due to all the recorded injuries.

He really needed to get to the bottom of this; there was clearly something else going on.

Nezu's phone beeped, and Snipe peeked into his office, "You have a delivery, sir?"

* * *

It had taken some time for the cafe to finish up all the various orders, and Midoriya noted that Ashido's hot chocolate had a ridiculous amount of cream on it. Shinsou finally grabbed his two drinks from the waiter by the counter, thanking him, before he slipped on the cardboard cup sleeves so he wouldn't burn his hands, and picked up the two cups.

"Here." Shinsou passed one cup over to Midoriya, and the greenette took it curiously, "I told them not to put cream or extra sugar."

"How... much is it?" Midoriya quietly asked, examining the tall paper cup and the weirdly shaped plastic cover, wrapping his hands around the cup, letting the warmth from the paper cup flow through his hands and up his hands, and Shinsou shrugged, "Don't worry about it. My treat."

"I guess..." Midoriya softly murmured, "Next time... I'll pay?"

"If you want a next time." Shinsou smiled back, flipping open the small opening on the plastic cover and taking a sip of his espresso.

Midoriya copied Shinsou's movements, carefully slipping up the plastic tab to reveal the opening, and he carefully brought the cup to his lips, slowly sipping his drink, and his eyes widened slightly as the taste of milk and espresso touched his tongue. It wasn't too sweet, but there was also enough milk to cover up the bitter taste of espresso. It was perfect, and Midoriya eagerly took another sip.

Shinsou gazed at Midoriya's face as he drank his latte, and the green haired boy glanced up, curiously looking back at the taller boy, a bit of the white milk foam lingering on the tip of his lips.

"I like you a _latte_." Shinsou blurted out, and immediately turned red and blanched internally. He hadn't meant to say that out loud; he literally just had a gay panic because Midoriya was just too cute and had no idea what was going on, and the first thing that popped into his mind was a pun.

He distinctively heard some choking and laughter from where Aizawa and the other students were sitting, waiting for the grocery team to alert them that they were done with all the purchases.

Midoriya just blinked in confusion, and looked at Shinsou, having absolutely no idea what the taller boy had just said, "...What?"

"N-nothing! I just meant that what you're drinking is called a latte..." Shinsou stammered, "Also... I think you've got something on your lip..."

Midoriya nodded slowly, still rather confused, and licked his lips, getting the remains of the milk foam off, and Aizawa nearly facepalmed at the sheer stupidity that was taking place right in front of him. He really was going to have to murder his blonde cockatoo when he got back to UA; Yamada was the one who thought it would be a good idea to teach Shinsou puns when he was younger in order to throw his opponents off guard so that he could use Brainwashing more effectively. Look where it got him now, using it in an attempt to flirt with the oblivious green haired boy who literally took things at face value.

Then again, Aizawa couldn't _exactly_ blame Shinsou for having a gay panic, so he was going to blame Yamada instead.

Hagakure burst out into loud laughter, but Ashido just slammed her hand over the invisible girl's mouth, stifling her laughter as she tried to do her best to not spill anyone's drinks, with Koda and Shoji chuckling quietly.

Shinsou felt his phone vibrate, and he fished it out, noticing it was a message from Kaminari.

_"Nice save bro XDXD!"_

The lavender haired boy just chucked the phone back in his pocket, and glared at the electric blonde as Midoriya just seemed to notice how red Shinsou's face was, and hesitantly reached up to touch his forehead, "Are you... okay? You're... really red..."

"I'm fine..." Shinsou muttered, averting his eyes and focusing on his drink, "It's probably nothing..."

* * *

"Welcome back!" Eri smiled, waving her hands as the students returned from the supermarket.

"Eri!" Ashido grinned, "We've got apple juice!"

Eri's eyes lit up, and Aizawa raised his eyebrows at the two newcomers, just noticing Ectoplasm and Nezu sitting on the couch, playing with Eri.

"Did something happen? Only Mineta and Aoyama didn't go out, what did they do?" Aizawa exasperatedly asked, and Nezu just smiled widely, "Nope. Nothing happened, actually. I just needed some help putting something in Izuku's room."

Midoriya looked up in confusion at the mention of his name, placing both hands on his cup so that he didn't drop it by accident, and Nezu grinned at the greenette, hopping off the couch, "Come on. Go take a look."

Midoriya nodded politely, before he took the stairs up to his room, with Nezu and Shinsou following behind him, and gently opened the door, before his eyes were drawn to the large, black bean bag that was almost the size of a bed, sitting right in the center of his room.

The greenette's eyes grew wide, and he turned to Nezu, tears forming at the corner of his eyes.

"I thought it might help you sleep better... and curling up in the other smaller bean bags aren't good for your spine..." Nezu looked up at the green haired boy, "Happy Christmas, Izuku."

Midoriya's heart throbbed, and he wiped away the tears forming in the corners of his eyes, "...Thank you..."

Nezu reached up, softly patting Midoriya's leg, the greenette's hands being occupied with his latte and wiping his face, and Shinsou just reached out with one hand, a firm yet gentle, reassuring grip on the smaller boy's shoulder.

There was some screaming coming from downstairs, and the trio went back down to figure out what was going on, only to realize that after the students had put away the groceries, Kirishima had tried to help cook lunch, only to accidentally spill boiling water over his arm when Sato started cutting the onions.

"Fucking idiot!" Bakugou snapped, firmly holding Kirishima's arm under the running tap, "I told you to be more careful, you stupid Shitty Hair! What, you want to be like Dunce Face and Home Depot and Pinky with no fucking brain cells?!"

"I have brain cells!" Kaminari shouted from the common room, but Bakugou just screamed back, "Like hell, you fucking Pikachu clone!"

Kacchan barked in agreement, snuggling up against Kirishima's leg, as Aizawa grumbled, "Go see Recovery Girl."

Eri was cuddling with Ryuto, Kinu, and Reiko on the couch, enjoying some apple juice that the students had bought as Uraraka covered her ears, "Bakugou! Stop swearing! We've got a kid here!"

Togata suddenly jumped up from his seat on the ground, yelling, "Here!"

Togata took a small plastic bag out of his pocket, and passed it over to Midoriya. The green haired boy placed his coffee on the table, cautiously taking the bag from the taller blonde, and Togata grinned.

"Merry - I mean, Happy Christmas!" Togata noted that Shinsou, Koda, Uraraka, and Todoroki were glaring at him, before he continued, "We got you something too!"

Midoriya gently pulled out a key chain with a green ball of fluff attached to it, and softly spoke up, "Thank you..."

Togata grinned even wider, cheering mentally, as Hado shot to her feet, "You're so cute! There's something else inside!"

Midoriya blinked in confusion, and he reached into the bag again, pulling out a hairband green cat ears on it, and Hado just smiled brightly at him, "Amajiki and I picked it out! Put it on!"

"I didn't choose this..." Amajiki softly murmured, turning away, and with a bit of coaxing from Eri and Uraraka, Midoriya gently placed the hairband on his head.

He couldn't really see himself, but Reiko was giving him a very odd, confused look, appearing to be both amused and very unamused at the same time.

"Cute!" Eri gushed, and Uraraka nodded, giving him a thumbs up, "Looks good!"

Midoriya turned to Shinsou for his approval, tilting his head slightly in a silent gesture for the taller boy's input, and Shinsou swore he was going to get a fucking heart attack from sheer adorableness.

And Midoriya wasn't even trying. If the boy actively weaponized his cuteness, Shinsou wasn't sure if anyone could ever stand up to the boy, except maybe all the sick psychos who enjoyed hurting cute and adorable things.

"UH... You're hot." Shinsou blurted out, immediately turning red, and Togata and Hado burst out into loud, howling laughter. Uraraka sounded like she was choking, and Amajiki was looking around, trying to find the closest corner to hid in.

Midoriya reached up, and patted his own forehead, "I... don't think I have a fever...?"

Eri stood up on the couch, and reached up to check Midoriya's temperature as well, while Shinsou just pulled his hood on, trying to hide the redness of his face.

Nezu just cackled in amusement, and Aizawa just resisted the urge to facepalm again. He was going to need more coffee; either that, or he was finally going to break into Kayama's stash of alcohol that she left in UA's staffroom, just for the times when the teachers' couldn't deal with all the bullshit that the students handed in as homework.

* * *

Midoriya fiddled about with the four-by-four-by-four Rubik's Cube, trying to figure out how to solve it. He had a gut feeling that he should solve the centers first, before lining up the middle portions of the edges of the cube, so he should theoretically be able to solve the cube like a regular three-by-three-by-three cube. At the moment, he was trying to fix up the centers without disrupting the other centers on other sides of the cube, and he found that solving two opposite sides first, followed by the other four was better than solving two adjacent sides.

The Big Three had gone back to their dorms, and Aizawa had brought Eri back to the teachers' lounge, since he was hoping that Thirteen might be able to help Eri control her quirk, or at the very least, share their own experiences with a powerful quirk like Black Hole.

Some of the students were playing something called Super Smash Bros Ultimate, with Kaminari, Ashido, Awase and

Settled right beside him was Shinsou, who was sharing the bean bag with him, and Midoriya took one final sip from his latte before he glanced over at Shinsou's gaming console, getting distracted from his puzzle by the large, bright screen that was nearly three times the size of a regular phone.

Ashido's controllers were neon pink and green, Kaminari's controllers were mostly yellow and brown, Tsuburaba's were red and blue, and Awase's were both grey, while Shinsou's controllers were a very pretty shade of pastel green and blue.

Apparently, Tsunotori also had a Switch, and her's was light pink and yellow, but she had left it in her room. Kendo and Kodai also apparently owned the gaming consoles as well, but they didn't want to bring too many consoles together or it would get all the controller, or "joy cons", as they called them, mixed up, which did make sense, but why were there so many controllers in the first place?

Shinsou seemed to be rearranging some furniture on his game, and Midoriya just put his Rubik's cube down, curious as to what Shinsou was doing.

"Don't kick me, Tsuburaba!" Kaminari whined, and Ashido flailed about, trying to evade as Awase's character tried to kick or punch her off the stage, and Shinsou looked up at the commotion as some of the other students started cheering like it was some kind of sports match instead of a video game.

"Here." Shinsou plucked an earbud out, and handed it to Midoriya, "The music's pretty good."

Midoriya gingerly took the earbud, and placed it in his ear, and just watched as Shinsou shifted more furniture around, enjoying the calming music, before he shifted around slightly in the bean bag, dozing off with the excited chattering of his peers being drowned out by warmth and comfort.

He was going to miss this when the work studies started back up; better relish everything while he still could.


	133. Chapter 133 - Been looking for a way

_**A/N Sorry for the late update. I had to deal with university and packing stuff...**_

* * *

Midoriya sighed and placed his phone down on the ground after checking the news, curling up in his bean bag, before looking up at the news that was playing on the television. It wasn't too early in the morning, but he assumed that most of the students were sleeping in due to the cold weather, with only Monoma, Iida, Kendo, Yaoyorozu and Shinsou up and about in the common room. Ashido was sleeping on the couch for some reason, and Kaminari was sprawled out in one of the other bean bags.

For once in his life, Midoriya had felt really refreshed when he woke up; he wasn't sure if it was the huge bean bag in his room that allowed him to just flop around and feel protected from all the various sides and corners when he sunk into it. Maybe that was why Reiko and Ryuto like to just curl up on his pillow whenever he wasn't using it, or on one of the cushions on the couch, or just one of the bean bags in the common room.

Or maybe it was because he had also overslept and had woken up almost an hour later than usual.

Bondo walked into the 1-A dorms, yawning, and Midoriya didn't really care too much until he heard a distinct cracking sound that woke Ashido and Kaminari up. Midoriya looked away from the television just as Bondo paused, and looked down, taking a step back, before he quickly apologized, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Midoriya... I didn't see it there..."

Midoriya slumped down slightly, a small, quiet rumble from the back of his throat, and Ashido and Kaminari stumbled over to examine the remains of Midoriya's mobile device. Midoriya reached out, picking up his destroyed phone, and ripped the cracked back cover right off, the plastic just crumbling to bits as he did so. Luckily, he always had a habit of backing up his phone data every other day, so he didn't really lose too much if he had to change his phone again.

"Hey... Midoriya... did you get a new phone?" Ashido asked, "I mean, it's all cracked and stuff... but the one you have now is black... I thought you had a blue one."

"No, he had a dark purple one." Kaminari countered, as Bondo squatted down, "I can glue it back together if you like?"

Midoriya shook his head, further examining the internal components of his phone. Whenever he broke his phone, he would always check to see if any of the components could be salvaged and reused. While Midoriya did know how to fix up phones that had been thrown away or washed up on Dagobah Municipal Beach Park; sure, they were waterlogged and had all sorts of problems like shorted-out circuitry or rust, but most of them could be solved by just swapping out a few parts. People always took things they had for granted, and threw away devices when one small component stopped working.

Sadly, in the case of Bondo stepping on his phone, everything had been crushed. The screen, the main body, the inner circuitry, everything.

"I thought Midoriya had a red flip phone?" Kendo piped up, grabbing some coffee, "Granted... I've never taken a good look at it... but I thought his phone was bigger than this..."

Shinsou peered over at the wreckage, "Maybe we can go out and get a new one? Or ask the Support Course... if they can make support items, I'm sure that a phone wouldn't be too hard for them to make."

_"It's fine... I should have a spare."_ Midoriya signed, sweeping up the bits of the broken phone as best as he could, before completely crushing the read-only memory chip, breaking it into bits completely. It was already broken, sure, but he needed to be sure; he had sensitive information on his phone, and he needed to make sure that no one would be able to read any of the data from the memory chips.

Dumping the remains of his device into the trash, Midoriya went back to his room, with Ashido, Kaminari, Monoma, Shinsou, and Kendo following behind him curiously, and Bondo trailing behind at the back, very much guilty for creating a mess.

Midoriya pushed his door open, and swept the papers on his desk aside, before he pulled out his laptop, punching in a password that was, oddly enough, just a four digit password. He flicked through his files, coming across a folder called "Backup" before he turned his attention back to his drawers.

He dug around a little, before he took out a phone, though it looked more like a brick than anything, and set it on his desk, before he dug around a bit more.

"That's... actually a phone?" Kendo asked, sweat dropping, as Midoriya fished out a few charging cables, before he started digging around in the other drawers.

Midoriya growled internally. He frequently backed up his data, and he always had quite a few fixed up phones as spares, though apparently, he had kept on breaking them, either from his former classmates breaking them while he was younger, the phones getting crushed by villains or from a past suicide attempt, or the phones just failing after some time due to other problems that Midoriya could no identify.

And apparently, so many things had been going on that Midoriya had just forgotten to visit the beach dump, or to fix up more broken devices that he could reprogram and use as a mobile device, and all he was left with was just a bulky, old fashioned brick phone; Midoriya had ripped off the number pad and that small screen, since it was very inconvenient to use, and instead, replaced it with a touch screen from a more modern phone, along with a lot of duct tape along the edges to make sure that nothing fell apart.

It was definitely not the prettiest phone, but it still worked, and it was pretty durable; Midoriya had been around eight when he had tried to start fixing up broken mobile devices when his foster mother made it very clear she wasn't going to waste money on him, and he needed a way to know where he was whenever he went out fighting villains and exploring in the middle of the night, and it had been the first phone to not explode in his face when Midoriya first started up the device.

It definitely wasn't a _mobile_ device, but it was all he had left, so he didn't really have much of a choice until he could visit Dagobah Beach to see whatever broken phones or devices he could salvage. They always had this weird lens thing on the back that was cracked, but Midoriya had no idea what it was for, and just put duct tape over it so the glass didn't fall out. But winter was generally a terrible time to be digging around in the beach dump, so he was going to have to find another way.

Midoriya pulled out the correct USB cable from the bunch, and plugged it into the absolute brick of a phone, connecting it to his laptop, as well as charging it; the great thing about it was that the phone originally had a really large, bulky and corroded battery pack that was literally leaking some weird colored liquid, so after cleaning it out properly, making sure not to let the battery acid make direct contact with his skin, Midoriya was able to shove a few more modern phone batteries into it. They didn't retain their charge very well, but the phone could last quite a long while between charging sessions, so Midoriya had no right to complain.

Midoriya had to log into his laptop again, and Ashido frowned when she saw Midoriya punch in a different combination of four numbers. She didn't know what the password was; she just knew that they had been different. Maybe her eyes were just playing tricks on her.

It took Midoriya a few minutes to back up all his data into his phone, and Midoriya lifted it up, unlocking it, and checking the contents.

"You... can't be serious about using that... right?" Kaminari deadpanned, "That literally looks like a brick."

Midoriya ignored Kaminari, and flicked through his phone. It seemed to be working properly, all Midoriya had to do was plug it in for a couple of hours for it to be fully charged, but he was going to have to find a way to carry it around; it was too bulky and heavy for him to just stick in his pocket, so maybe he was just going to find a bag to carry it around?

Yeah, he was going to have to get a replacement for this soon, hopefully before the internships start up again, which is in two days.

Midoriya just shrugged, grabbing a really old and tattered book that looked like it was about to fall apart, and Kaminari examined the cable Midoriya was using, "I've got a faster cable in the common room, you can use it if you want."

* * *

Shoji turned towards the television, where some cartoon was playing, as Midoriya curled up in the bean bag, keeping an eye on his phone that was currently plugged into the wall by the television with Kaminari's cable.

"Hello, Shoji!" Iida waved, "Good morning!"

Shoji nodded, heading towards the kitchen to get something for breakfast, when a loud sound blared out from the television, startling everyone. Kaminari tapped at the remote control, trying to figure out just what had happened, as Shoji took a few steps back in surprise, and flinched when he accidentally stepped on something, eliciting a loud, cracking noise.

Midoriya's head immediately shot up, zeroing onto Shoji, as the larger boy removed his, not really sure what was going on, but he knew that he had stepped on something, "Did I break something?"

Shoji peered at the ground, where the floorboards were cracked and splintered, with some brick-like object lodged in the hole that Shoji had made by accident. Kendo, Monoma, and Shinsou blinked in surprise, as Midoriya retrieved his phone, with Shoji still being utterly confused on just what the heck was going on.

"You... broke the floor?" Ashido choked out, still stunned as she stared at the hole in the ground, and Shoji looked around apologetically, "I'm... sorry?"

"That thing is durable." Monoma commented, as Midoriya flicked his phone on. It was around twenty percent charged, but it didn't seem to have any other problems other than the fact that it took a really long time to charge. Midoriya just shrugged, and placed his phone down, not really too bothered with its battery life, and looked up at Shoji, quietly asking, "Are you... okay?"

Shoji nodded, smiling under his mask, "I'm fine. Don't worry about it... I guess... we'd just have to deal with the floor?"

"Dude, Midoriya could probably clock a villain with that and win." Ashido giggled, finally having regained her senses, before she hopped to her feet and started waving her hands around, "Just, you're out patrolling, you see a villain, and before you can do anything, the villain gets that brick phone to his face and is immediately knocked out."

Kendo poked the phone with a finger, "I mean... can he even bring this out on patrols? It looks really heavy. Not to mention that it's definitely not going to be easy to carry around something of this size."

"I mean... why not?" Ashido grinned, "He already carries around so many knives!"

"Knives and this... phone... are different..." Monoma sweatdropped. He wasn't even sure that this device that Midoriya had could even be considered a phone.

"Well... we're going to have to do something about the floor..." Iida blinked, trying to figure out and piece together just what had happened, before he grabbed his own phone and started texted Aizawa.

* * *

Aizawa sighed, and he stood up, throwing on a jacket, before he headed to the 1-A dorms. Apparently, according to Iida, those idiotic kids had somehow broken the floor. The floor, of all things. Aizawa wouldn't be surprised if a wall was broken, since not all the walls had equal structural strength, and the students definitely had a sufficient number of quirks that would be capable of destroying a wall. Aizawa definitely wouldn't be too surprised if the washing machines blew up again, or the television was broken, or that the kitchen needed to be repaired because something broke, or a pipe in someone's bathroom had busted.

But the floor?!

The Erasure Hero stepped into the 1-A common room, and immediately noticed a small hole in the ground, next to one of the charging ports. Honestly, he had expected the hole to be bigger; he was actually surprised that there didn't seem to be too much damage besides a couple of broken floorboards.

"What happened here?" Aizawa asked, pointing to the floor, and Kaminari piped up, slinging his hand over Bakugou, who was trying to eat some toast, "Oh, Shoji accidentally stepped on Midoriya's phone and it kind of cracked the ground?"

"Get your hands off me, Sparky!" Bakugou roared, and Kaminari screamed, with Ashido pulling him out of the way just in time, and Bakugou's hand ended up making contact with some weird object on the table, blasting it into the wall.

"What the fuck that?!" Bakugou growled, shaking his smoking palm around, as he glanced at the portion of the wall that the object had hit, a bit of smoke wafting from the point of impact.

Aizawa just sighed; he guessed that they had to fix the wall as well. He had no idea what the object was, but by logical reasoning, it was most likely someone's phone, or a really small and bulky laptop, or a pocket computer, or something. They were probably going to have to get that fixed as well, especially if it was a phone; with the internships coming up again, all the students needed to be able to contact the teachers or the school if something did pop up.

UA had done their best to try and ensure that the students all went with reputable heroes that would be able to protect the students, but there were still so many other factors that they had to take into consideration. Having the ability to communicate with the students would make it much easier to keep track of where they were, and it made it easier for the teachers to help out in case something did happen. That begged the question; did they also have to fix Midoriya's phone? Kaminari didn't mention anything about Midoriya's phone being broken, so Midoriya either already had a spare, or it wasn't broken. The latter didn't seem very likely; phones nowadays weren't exactly the most durable, and would break if anyone stepped on them, not to mention that Shoji was stronger, bulkier and heavier than any random average person.

Midoriya just sighed as his phone continued to be abused by accident, and the smoke slowly cleared, only to reveal a large, bulky object lodged into the wall, having created a hole from the power of Bakugou's explosion, with some chipped paint and broken bits of plaster having fallen to the ground.

"What the fuck is that?!" Bakugou roared, still completely confused, "What the fuck!?"

Aizawa walked over to the hole in the wall, and plucked out the object. It was black, and it seemed to be some kind of really old phone that apparently had a touchscreen instead of number buttons, and looked like it was being held together more by duct tape and super glue rather than other technical means.

He pressed one of the buttons by the side of the device, and the phone flickered on. The time and date on the home screen of the phone seemed to be much bigger than any of the other operating systems that Aizawa had seen before, but he wasn't really a tech person. Aizawa only used his phone to check emails and read news, and maybe to take pictures of his family and the cats. Maybe it was made by some obscure brand that Aizawa had never heard of before.

As bad as it looked, Aizawa was sure that it had to be, at the very least, pretty well made for it to survive one of Bakugou's explosions head-on, and for it to not break even after it smacked into the wall.

"What is this, and whose is it?" Aizawa asked, turning towards the class, and Shinsou spoke up, "That's Izuku's phone."

The Erasure Hero raised his eyebrow, "As far as I remember, Midoriya's phone was not a bulky brick that's way too heavy to be carried around properly."

"I broke it. Sorry." Bondo meekly interjected, "This is his spare."

Aizawa stared at the phone, and returned it to Midoriya, "I don't know where you got this from, but you need another phone. This is way too bulky for you to carry around for internships."

Midoriya looked away, signing, _"I was planning to go to the beach dump."_

"Beach dump?" Aizawa blinked, "You mean Dagobah Beach? Why?"

_"I can usually find a few phones that people have thrown away. I'd just have to clear all the data in it, clean it out, replace a few components, solder some of the broken wires, and maybe add a couple of extra processors. Then I can -"_ Midoriya signed hectically, and Aizawa stopped him, "Wait, wait, wait, stop."

Midoriya's hands paused in mid-air, and the greenette looked up at Aizawa with an almost fearful expression, and Aizawa took a step back, "You're telling me that you know how to fix phones?"

_"Kind of. They're not too great, but at least, they're functional. They break very easily, though, so I need to keep replacing them."_ Midoriya admitted, and Aizawa glanced at the boy, "How often do you have to change phones?"

_"Every couple of weeks? The longest a phone lasted was three months..."_

Aizawa frowned slightly, "Do you at least have a backup of all your data?"

_"Yes. I backup my data every other day."_

Aizawa sighed in relief; at least, the boy wouldn't lose any important data. Aizawa looked back at the boy, "Have you ever used a phone from a store, or a second hand shop? Or have all the phones you used before always originated from the dump?"

Midoriya shook his head, "My former foster mother said it was a waste of time and money and effort to get a proper phone for me."

Aizawa growled under his breath, before he forced himself to calm down, "I suggest going to the Support Department to get a new phone. It shouldn't take too long for them to make it, and if you want extra processors or whatever, I'm sure they'll be able to do it easily."

_"Isn't it too much of a bother -"_

"Power Loader's been complaining that Hatsume's trying to work on too many things at one go and she's just creating a mess." Aizawa rolled his eyes, "She'll probably be more than happy to make you a phone if it meant that she could do some tinkering with a specific goal in mind."

Midoriya slowly nodded, a bit hesitant to listen to Aizawa, and the Erasure Hero nodded, before heading to the door, "Go whenever you feel like it. I'm going to call someone to fix up the holes."


	134. Chapter 134 - Bring you back to life

_**A/N I needed some help to write the later part of this chapter, so I had some help from momokolove (Ao3) and KokoBeanArt (Ao3) OwO.**_

* * *

Aizawa left the 1-A dorms, and Midoriya just sighed. He hadn't been planning to go out, but Aizawa was right when he said that his phone was too bulky to carry around. It was too heavy for him to stick in his pockets, and it was too big to even fit in his pocket in the first place.

Midoriya grabbed his phone, and quickly headed back up to his room to change into something that would block the wind better than his regular hoodie, before he returned to the common room. Most of the students were doing their own stuff, eating, or had gone back to his room, but Shinsou was still sitting in the common room, playing around with his phone.

The greenette slowly walked up to Shinsou, and paused hesitantly, before Shinsou looked up, from his phone, "Going to the Support Course, Izuku?"

Midoriya tugged on his sleeves shyly, nodding, before signing, _"Can you come with me?"_

The lavender haired boy smiled, and pocketed his phone, standing up, "Sure."

It took some time for Shinsou and Midoriya to make their way to the sections for the Support Course students, but it wasn't too bad once they entered the main UA building. They finally made their way to the Development Studio, and Midoriya yanked Shinsou out of the way just as the door exploded.

"What the -" Shinsou gawked, as black smoke billowed out of the room. Reiko and Ryuto peered over Midoriya's shoulder from their position in his hood, trying to figure out just what was going on.

"Oww..."

"You know, you really shouldn't just put everything you think of together! If you don't have any ideas, stop tinkering and brainstorm! Make a blueprint!" Maijima groaned exasperatedly, "Please, will you listen to me for once, Hatsume!?"

The smoke cleared, revealing Hatsume, who was lying on the ground. She quickly pushed herself up, noticing the two boys, "Hey! Shinsou! Midoriya! It's been a while, huh?"

Maijima raised his eyebrow upon noticing the two students, "Ah, Aizawa did say that you need a new phone, right, Midoriya?"

"You need a new phone?" Hatsume asked, practically vibrating with excitement, "Sounds interesting! What do you need?! What CPU or processing spec?! What kind of operating system do you use!? What size? Any other specifications!?"

Midoriya took a step back as Hatsume lunged forwards, a notebook in hand, and Shinsou quickly stepped between them before Hatsume could get too close.

"Hatsume, calm down. You're going to overwhelm him." Maijima groaned, "I know you're enthusiastic, but please, just tone it down a bit."

"Sorry!" Hatsume grinned, before she stuck her phone out, "What phone are you using now?! Let me see!"

Midoriya gingerly fished his phone out of the large pocket of his hoodie, and Maijima practically gaped at how large the phone was. It was ridiculously big, around the size of a small tablet instead of a phone, and was literally as thick as a brick.

"Yup, too big, too heavy..." Hatsume mused, turning the phone around with both hands, trying her best to be careful so as to not drop it, "And this phone model and brand is ancient! Almost a decade old! How the fuck is it still operating smoothly!? And so quickly?! But duct tape? At least it provides waterproofing..."

She peeled away a bit of the tape, and frowned in confusion, "So much glue? You shouldn't use glue, water makes it weak and easier to fall apart... but then again you did put tape over it... And you just stuck a touch screen on it? That's ingenious!"

Powering the device on, she exclaimed, "It actually works! Holy shit! But I don't recognize this operating system... looks like a mix between several other regular operating systems... as far as I can tell... but that shouldn't matter... Midoriya, can I peel this thing apart?"

Midoriya just shrugged. If he was going to get a new phone anyways, he guessed it didn't really matter what happened to his current phone. He wouldn't be able to use it efficiently anyways, there wasn't any loss.

"Alright..." Hatsume peeled off the remainder of the tape and pried off the back of the phone with a screwdriver, muttered, "As long as I map the buttons in the same way... the operating system doesn't matter... he can just fix that part... Midoriya, do you have a copy of the operating system you use?"

Midoriya nodded, and held out a thumb drive. Hatsume snatched it from him, and Shinsou just looked on in confusion Hatsume stabbed it into the monitor so hard that the entire device rattled, and she sieved through the contents of the thumb drive, all the while checking it against the phone as she slowly tore it apart piece by piece.

"As I thought... it's a mix... also faster computing due to the many processors... this is so efficient! And maybe I can add a robotic arm -"

"Why would you need a robotic arm in the phone?!" Maijima asked incredulously, but Hatsume just grinned widely, "Why not!? It can help in fights!"

"Phones are supposed to be light. And mobile! You know, _mobile_ phone!?" Shinsou interjected, "I don't think a robotic arm of all things is going to ensure that the device is light and easy to carry around."

"Huh... true..." Hatsume muttered, "Maybe I can make a robotic arm and stick it into something else..."

Hatsume dashed towards one of her drawers, pulling out a few spare phones of various models, "You know, we keep breaking these things all the time! And we have so many spares that it's just ridiculous! Don't worry about it, I'll get one of these babies fixed up and ready for you to bring anywhere in no time!"

She grabbed a couple of the broken phones, ripping the covers off and taking out the processors, before trying to figure out the best combination of them that was both efficient and light. Some of them were broken, though, so she just threw them away as she chattered at breakneck speed, "So, Midoriya, anything else you want in the phone besides increased processing speed?"

Midoriya thought about it for a quick second, before he signed, _"Plasma cutter."_

"What?" Shinsou asked in confusion, and Hatsume glanced at Midoriya's signing, before nodding, "Alright! One compact little plasma cutter! It'll be so light that you won't even remember it's there, and it'll be powered by the phone battery itself, no external battery needed! And it won't drain too much energy because it can also store heat! Maybe I can add a solar panel or two... or maybe..."

"You know sign?" Shinsou asked, and Maijima sighed, "All the Support Course students know sign language. With so many explosions in the lab, they're going to need some way to communicate while waiting for the ringing in their ears to go away. Hatsume was one of the quickest students to pick it up, though I think it was only because I wouldn't let the students build anything until they had some grasp over it."

Luckily, once Hatsume had a good idea of what Midoriya wanted, and the right materials to make it, it didn't take her too long to put the entire phone together. The phone itself was around the size of a normal phone, but it had several smaller, compact processors that were much lighter, but allowed for higher processing speeds. She had also fixed up the wiring, added some cooling features to ensure the parts lasted longer, as well as several other features that Shinsou couldn't keep track of, but he was relatively sure that Midoriya knew exactly was going on; the boy was watching Hatsume like a hawk, stopping her before she added something that he didn't exactly need.

He wasn't exactly sure where the plasma cutter was; maybe they had ended up scrapping it because they couldn't fit it in? Shinsou found that unlikely, but still, it was a possibility.

Once the phone was finished, Hatsume hooked up the phone to her computer, uploading the operating system into the hard disk, before she started fiddling with the set up controls, under Midoriya's supervision. It wasn't long before she passed the phone over to Midoriya, "One phone, done! I noticed that you also use your phone for hacking and coding and stuff like that. This phone should also be able to cover whatever you need it to do. You can even access those applications stores that other phones can usually access. Do you have a backup of your contacts and stuff?"

Midoriya nodded, and Hatsume grinned, "Awesome. We're good to go! You know where the plasma cutter is, and there's a button to operate it! You can set your password and upload all your data back up into the phone from the backup!"

The green haired boy nodded, tapping through the phone with practiced ease, before he turned to Shinsou.

"Ready to go?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya nodded, turning to Hatsume and Maijima and bowing his head slightly in thanks.

"No problem! Have fun!" Hatsume yelled, before she dashed to the other side of the workshop to grab her power tools, and Maijima sighed, "Well, at least she's inspired. You're welcome, Midoriya. Feel free to visit any time if you need anything. You too, Shinsou. I swear, you're the only few people that Hatsume would _actually_ pause and listen to."

* * *

The second Midoriya got back to the dorms, he quickly uploaded all his data onto his phone, before bringing up a menu for password settings that Shinsou had never seen before. Midoriya set his password in a _really_ unconventional, round-about way, before he deemed it sufficient enough for usage.

They were currently sitting in the bean bag in the common room, sharing a set of earphones as Shinsou played on his Switch. Midoriya was just watching him play, still not sure what was going on, but he did like the music from the game. He occasionally checked his phone for news, and kept an eye on his other classmates, who were playing some game that required them to wear some brick looking thing on their faces and wave some weird controllers around.

Reiko lay down on Midoriya's chest and purred, reaching up to pat Midoriya's chin with her paw as she kept an eye on Shirou, who was just curled up with Yuwai. Ryuto just nibbled on Midoriya's earlobe, as Kacchan barked and sat next to Kaminari as Krishima stood up for his turn to play Beat Saber, since Bakugou was cooking. Kinu was sitting on Uraraka's legs as she carefully combed the chinchilla, taking care not to rip out any fur.

Midoriya's phone vibrated, and he unlocked his phone with another set of four numbers, before Ashido, who was waiting for her turn to play, piped up, "Hey, Midoriya, I've been meaning to ask, but how do you keep changing your phone password?"

"Uh... I don't change the password?" Midoriya blinked, confused, as Uraraka deadpanned, "You're not supposed to say that, Izuku... what if someone gets into your stuff?"

The green haired boy turned to her, confused, as Ashido explained, "Like, I've seen you log into your computer a few minutes apart, and your password is completely different, and every time you unlock your phone, it's always a different password. How the heck do you keep changing it with no one noticing?"

Shinsou paused his game, and pulled the earbud out, trying to figure out what was going on as Midoriya looked away, replying, "I don't... change the password... The password... changes according to the date and time..."

"It... changes automatically?" Ashido asked, and Midoriya nodded slowly, "It's... programmed... like that. There's a formula used for calculating the password... based on the date and time... I just... do the calculations and use the... first four numbers..."

"Woah..." Ashido gasped, "Wait... so you have to calculate it to unlock it? Every single time!? And it's different every minute... how fast can you even calculate that!?"

"A few seconds..." Midoriya curled in on himself nervously, "It's not too difficult..."

Iida walked into the common room from the kitchen, chopping his arms, "Dinner will be in one hour!"

"Shut up, four eyes!"

* * *

After the students had finished dinner, some of them thought it was a good idea to invite some of the 1-B students over to play some horror game that elicited a lot of screaming and yelling. Midoriya found the noise to be too much, and hastily decided to retreat to his room for some peace and quiet. He wasn't going to be eating anything else, so he quickly brushed his teeth and changed into a clean hoodie and pants, before he threw himself onto his huge bean bag to rest.

His room was too quiet, though, and the mere thought of the suffocating silence just made Midoriya feel like throwing up, and the boy sighed, standing up, and made his way out of the room, with Reiko and Ryuto right behind him.

He noticed that Shinsou's room door was slightly open, and he paused. Reiko let out a faint meow, and Midoriya looked down at her curiously. Reiko nodded towards Shinsou's door with her head, and looked up expectantly at Midoriya. The greenette just sighed, and knocked on Shinsou's door, taking care not to push the door even more open by accident, and he heard Shinsou call out, "Come in?"

Midoriya gently pushed the door open, noticing that Shinsou was sitting by the kotatsu, his legs under the blanket, and his Switch on the table as he gazed up at Midoriya, "You okay, Izuku?"

The greenette nodded, quietly closing the door behind him, nodding his head towards Shinsou's side, "Can... I..."

"Sure." Shinsou replied, and Midoriya settled down by the kotatsu, right next to Shinsou, and rested his head on the table, enjoying the peace and quiet.

"You can keep playing..." Midoriya muttered, "It's just... too quiet in my room..."

"That's fine." Shinsou replied. There was some silence, before Shinsou spoke up again, "Do you mind the game music?"

"The music's okay." Midoriya murmured, as Shinsou unpaused his game, the calming music starting back up again. Between the occasional button presses and the music playing in the background, Midoriya found himself slowly dozing off, his thoughts swirling around randomly. He did feel really bad about shouting at Shinsou the other day... but the lavender haired boy didn't seem to hold it against him, and Midoriya was eternally relieved that he didn't accidentally break off the friendship with the first true friend he ever had.

Speaking of that day... there was still something on his mind, something that was still bothering him, something he hadn't yet cleared up with Shinsou.

"Hitoshi?"

"Yeah, Izuku?" Shinsou replied, paused his game to look down at the greenette, and Midoriya sat up, replying hesitantly, "You remember... during the Christmas thing... before I... kind of... yelled at you... you said you... liked me?"

"You... remember I said that?" Shinsou froze, before he sighed, "I'm sorry... it was a bad time to talk to you about that... "

"I just... what were you trying to say?" Midoriya just looked away, "Before I... kind of cut you off..."

"Uh..." Shinsou bit his lip, and averted his gaze, but Midoriya just patiently waited for him to continue, and Shinsou just rested his head on the kotatsu next to him, "I mean... I kind of... uh... I think you're... uh... I don't know how to say it... I just... I mean..."

Midoriya blinked, having absolutely no idea what Shinsou was trying to say, as the lavender haired boy groaned, "I think... uh... you're amazing... and you're really cool... and... uh... why is this so hard?!"

Shinsou sighed, nearly bashing his face against the tabletop because he just couldn't speak properly. He had a quirk that relied on him talking, but now, all his words were stuck in his throat and he just couldn't force anything coherent out.

The silence dragged on for a few minutes, until the taller boy looked up, gazing at Midoriya, and tried to figure out just what to say, as Midoriya just stared back at him with a very confused, adorable expression on his face, and he just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Date me."

Shinsou completely froze up when he realized what he said, and it seemed like Midoriya had exactly the same reaction as him, though it seemed like the younger boy was trying to process and make sense of the situation instead.

"Fuck... I just... I really like you." Shinsou stammered, trying his best to keep his voice even. He took a deep breath, "I'm sorry... you deserve a better confession..."

Midoriya just stared at the taller boy; he deserved a better what now? He did understand Shinsou's earlier statement, though. He had a basic understanding of what "dating" meant; he's seen his classmates dating before, and Utsushimi had brought it up during his internship with Uwabami.

But out of everyone that Shinsou could have chosen, he chose him, a broken, useless, worthless waste of space?

"Why me? I'm just a nobody." Midoriya murmured weakly, looking away, not daring to make eye contact with Shinsou. He sluggishly pulled up his sleeve, revealing the white scarring that had been inflicted by Midoriya himself after he had been yelled at by the lady at the mall, "You know I... did this to myself... I'm too broken. You can't fix some like me."

"I'm not trying to "fix" you, because you're not broken. You were just trying to cope with you circumstances." Shinsou gently grabbed onto Midoriya's clenched fist, "And you're not a nobody, Izuku. You're kind and patient and amazing, and you can always come up with solutions and plans on the spot... you're always doing your best to help everyone... no matter what happens, you just keep trying... you never give up... I owe you everything, Izuku... If you hadn't saved me that day, I might not even be here today. You remember what you said that day, right?"

_"Hey, Shinsou-san. Don't ever give up. Quirkless, so-called "villainous" quirk, who cares about that? Let's be heroes together, okay?"_

The words he had spoken six years ago echoed through his mind, and Shinsou tightened his grip gently, "You're awesome, okay? Don't short-change yourself, Izuku. You deserve better than this."

Midoriya bit his lip, tears threatening to escape from his eyes, but he held them in. He didn't know how this would turn out, he's never done something like this before, but he trusted Shinsou.

And if he... if they... were actually going to do this...

"I don't want... to lie... to you..." Midoriya mumbled, his voice barely audible. He pulled his hand away, bringing them up to fiddle with the buckle on his collar. Shinsou just stared at him in confusion, "Izuku, what are you-"

His throat tightened as Midoriya peeled his collar off, revealing an ugly, crooked, discolored scar, looping around his neck.

Midoriya clenched his eyes shut, trying to force the words out, "I've tried... to kill myself before... many times..."

Shinsou took a sharp intake of breath, and he felt like he had just been punched in the gut. Sure, the class had suspected it before, but seeing the evidence right in front of him, and Midoriya outrightly admitting it... that was something else altogether.

"Izuku... This world was too cruel to you." Shinsou murmured, "I'm sorry that you thought you had to... resort to _this_... you don't deserve this."

Midoriya never had his neck exposed for so long before, and he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt his tears trickling down his cheeks, and he shut his eyes, trying to stop himself before he started crying again.

"It's alright."

He felt something gentle, warm, and reassuring, and he opened his eyes slowly, noticing that Shinsou was gently rubbing his tears away with his thumb.

"It's okay to cry. You don't have to hide it." Shinsou muttered, and Midoriya felt more tears escaping from the corners of his eyes. He pressed his face against Shinsou's chest and wrapped his arms around the taller boy, feeling the lavender haired boy hugged him back.

"I've got you, Izuku. I won't let anyone hurt you like that ever again."


	135. Chapter 135 - I can see

A knock on the door rang out, and Midoriya immediately tensed up. He reached out, hastily grabbing his collar off the floor, and tried his best to put it on as fast as possible in order to hide his scar, as Shinsou called out, "Who's there?"

_"Just me!" _Yaoyorozu's voice called out. Shinsou glanced at Midoriya, who had just finished pulling the strap through the buckle, and Shinsou stood up, making his way towards the door and opening it.

Yaoyorozu asked, "Do you know where Midoriya is? He left the common room while the others were playing, and I can't seem to find him."

"He's with me." Shinsou replied, the girl nodded, before asking, "Kaminari's setting up the television. Will you two be joining us?"

Shinsou's mind flickered back to the time when Kaminari had found that cutesy visual novel and played it with the rest of the class; with his current set of knowledge about Midoriya's past, no wonder that damned game had affected Midoriya so badly.

"I'm not trusting Kaminari when it comes to games anymore." Shinsou growled, his eyes narrowing slightly, as Yaoyorozu laughed sheepishly, "It's not a game this time. It's a movie. One of the Disney ones, I think, since Todoroki mentioned before that he hasn't watched them before."

Shinsou raised his eyebrow, "That's... okay, I guess. We'll think about it. I'll see how Izuku feels first."

"That's alright! Take your time." Yaoyorozu smiled softly, "They're going to start in about half an hour, but if you want popcorn, you should message him around five minutes before it starts."

Shinsou nodded, and Yaoyorozu skipped off, most likely to ask their other classmates if they would be watching movies, and the lavender haired boy gently closed his door, before turning back to Midoriya. The smaller boy was in the same position that Shinsou had left him, his hand still hovering over the buckle of the collar.

The lavender haired boy crouched down slowly, gently placing his hand on Midoriya's back, "You okay?"

Midoriya slowly nodded, and lifted his head slowly, "That was... Yaoyorozu... right?"

"Yep." Shinsou responded, and Midoriya asked, "What did... she want?"

"Ah. The others are going to watch a movie down in the common room, and she was asking if we were going to join." Shinsou replied, and he could feel Midoriya tense up and shudder violently. The smaller boy glanced up at Shinsou, "Are you... going to go watch it?"

Shinsou shrugged, "I don't know. Do you want to watch the movie?"

"I don't know... I don't..." Midoriya reached up, absentmindedly scratching his neck, right above his collar, before he admitted, "I'm scared... it's going to be like last time -"

Midoriya's breath suddenly hitched as memories rushed through his mind, and his throat tightened. His thoughts seemed to be swirling around too fast, too chaotic, and he couldn't make heads or tails of anything -

And all of a sudden, everything was calm.

"Deep breaths." Shinsou ordered, and Midoriya found himself following Shinsou's orders before the taller boy gradually released his hold on Midoriya's mind.

"It's not going to be like that time. Not again." Shinsou murmured, wrapped his arm around Midoriya's shoulder gently, "It's a kid-friendly movie. And if it somehow isn't, I'm sure everyone would kick up a huge fuss."

Midoriya's eyes trailed down towards the floor, pondering over his choices -

_He had to make a choice._

As much as Midoriya liked being in control of his own situation, he hated making choices. It was just easier to do something wrong if he just let other people decide on what to do.

Midoriya looked up at Shinsou, and the lavender haired boy could immediately tell what the problem was. Shinsou didn't know why he could suddenly read the smaller boy so well, but he just muttered, "It's okay. Don't overthink it. There is no wrong answer. Take your time."

Midoriya spent another minute pondering over the question, before he muttered, "Can we watch it?"

Shinsou smiled softly at him, "Of course. Do you want to get up?"

Midoriya nodded, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet, before he and Shinsou made their way down into the common room, noticing that most of the students had already settled down.

"You want to sit first? I'm going to grab some water." Shinsou stated, and Midoriya nodded slightly.

The taller boy headed towards the kitchen as Midoriya settled down into the beanbag, curling in on himself slightly. He didn't know if it was just him, but the entire room seemed colder than before, a chilly tingly running down his spine and through his entire body.

The mattresses were out, meaning that 1-B was most likely joining them for the movie, and Kaminari had set up an electric blanket in the corner, where several of the girls were already sitting.

It didn't take too long for Shinsou return; he had only made himself a glass of water, and he just had to rinse it and leave it on the drying rack once it was done, before he returned to the common room as Sato finished with the popcorn, the buttery smell filling the common room.

He settled down next to Midoriya, and almost immediately, the smaller boy pressed himself against his side, just as the remainder of the heroics students filled into the room, quickly trying to find a comfortable place to sit down before Tokage switched off the lights, and Ashido started the movie.

Apparently, the movie was about some princess with ice powers, which was very random, given that the rest of her family didn't have any powers, but Midoriya was literally too tired to process what was going on in the movie.

It was really nice and warm, though. Maybe someone had turned up the temperature and he hadn't noticed it. But either way, the green haired boy just relaxed and closed his eyes, drifting into a comfortable slumber.

* * *

The movie finally ended, and Monoma flicked the lights on, having borrowed Tokage's quirk, earning several groans of protest and one random "My eyes! They burn!" as the sleepy and tired students rubbed their eyes.

Tokage was asleep, lying on the mattress with her back against the couch, and Sero poked her on the cheek gently, "Hey, wake up."

Similarly, Kendo and Kaibara were trying to wake Bondo and Tsuburaba up respectively, since some of the others who had already fallen asleep were already waking up.

Most of them had dozed off at some point in the middle of the movie, but they had already watched it before, and honestly, they didn't miss too much. The only ones who hadn't watched the movie before were Todoroki and Midoriya, but only the former had remained awake to watch the entire movie through.

At some point, Shinsou had also fallen asleep, and Ashido resisted the urge to take her phone out to snap pictures.

Midoriya's head was resting on Shinsou's shoulder, and he was snuggled up against the taller boy's chest, while Shinsou was also wrapping an arm around Midoriya as he rested his cheek against the greenette's forehead.

"We should probably wake them up, right?" Kaminari asked, making sure to keep his distance so he won't repeat his past mistake, and Jiro sighed, "Who's going to do that without startling Midoriya?"

Uraraka slowly squatted down beside Shinsou, and gently poked him in the cheek. The lavender haired boy muttered something incoherent under his breath, before he shifted his head slightly and tightened his grip on Midoriya.

"Yeah, that isn't going to work." Todoroki blinked at the duo, "Maybe just leave them alone?"

The brunette had to do her best to stifle her laughter, and Iida just sighed; at least, this time, no one was taking out their phones.

Out of nowhere, Reiko yawned, and wandered into the common room, with Ryuto waddling right behind her tiredly. The feline looked up, noticing Midoriya, and walked up to the bean bag.

"Can you wake them up?" Iida asked, but the white cat decided to be uncooperative, narrowing her eyes and gave him a death look that screamed _"Why on earth would I do that?"_, before she climbed up onto the bean bag, and settled down on Midoriya's lap.

Ryuto flapped his wings, and fluttered up to perch on the greenette's shoulder, before he fluffed up his feathers, making himself comfortable, before he fell asleep.

Iida looked like he was pouting as Reiko stuck her tongue out at him, before curling up, also deciding it was a good time to nap, and Sero snickered, "RIP Class Rep. I doubt you're going to get them to budge."

"Just let them sleep. The internships are starting back up the day after tomorrow... scratch that, it starts tomorrow." Monoma groaned as he checked the time. He stretched, and started making his way back to the 1-B dorms, lazily waving his hand, "Good night."


	136. Chapter 136 - It's uncontrollable

Shinsou yawned, and opened his eyes, before he blinked, trying to figure out what was going on.

He had apparently fallen asleep in the common room, oddly enough, and even though it was winter, it was actually pretty comfortable in the bean bag.

It was nice and warm, and he didn't feel like getting up. He shifted his head slightly, and looked down, noticing that Midoriya slightly curled up, lying on his chest. He could feel Midoriya's slow, even breaths, and he noticed that Reiko and Ryuto were also sleeping on the boy. Given that the smaller boy was somehow really warm, like a hot water bottle, or a heater, or an electric blanket, it was no wonder, though.

It definitely wasn't a quirk, though, so maybe it was just something that developed because his father had a fire breathing quirk, assuming that the sources that people posted on the forums were accurate.

"Well, you're finally awake." Monoma snickered, exiting the kitchen with a plate of toast.

Shinsou raised an eyebrow, "Don't you have a toaster in your own dorms?"

Monoma shrugged, "Everyone's waiting for toast. And if no one's using it here, why not? Plus, we ran out of butter."

The lavender haired boy rolled his eyes as Monoma settled down on the couch, and rested his legs on the low table in the common room, before he started snacking on his toast.

"Don't leave crumbs. Tenya would have an aneurysm if you did that." Shinsou commented, as Monoma laughed, before he looked around, "Speaking of which... where is everyone else?"

"No idea." Shinsou reached out for his phone, and after a minute or two of blindly searching around with his hand, he found his mobile device. He brought it up to his face, and flicked it on, noting the time, "Er... No idea, really. Most of them would already be up by now."

"Well, speaking of Iida..." Monoma chuckled, as the blue haired boy made his way out the hallway into the common room.

"Yes, did you call me?" Iida immediately whirled around at the mention of his name, but Monoma just waved his hand, "Nah. not really."

"Ah, okay! But if you need any help, feel free to call me!" Iida smiled, before he went to the kitchen for some cereal. After Iida came down for breakfast, it wasn't too long before the rest of the class also exited their rooms and made their way down to the common room.

Despite the loud racket that they were making, chatting about something or another, or switching on the television to keep up with the news, Midoriya remained fast asleep. Even Reiko and Ryuto had woken up at this point, and Uraraka had set out the usual fresh food that Midoriya kept for them as she fed Kinu.

There was another thing Shinsou also realized. With his baggy clothes, a cold, hard, emotionless expression on his face, and always being tense and on guard, the greenette appeared to be intimidating, and rightly so; the boy had suffered already so much shit in his life, from the death of his parents, to a toxic and unsupportive school system.

Midoriya had never really had a chance to let his guard down, and Shinsou never did notice before how small Midoriya actually was, though, but maybe that was because the boy was a good ten centimeters shorter than him and was curled up slightly by using his chest as a pillow.

"I've honestly never seen him sleep that much." Kaminari commented, tapping away at something on his Switch, as Shinsou just shrugged in response.

"It's not like you can focus on anything, with that short attention span." Monoma snorter, "That's why we're so much better than you!"

"Monoma, relax." Kendo rolled her eyes, as Kirishima and Bakugou returned to the dorms after taking Kacchan out for a walk.

"But we're better than them." Monoma huffed childishly, and Bakugou roared, "You are not better than me, fucking Copy Cat!"

"You have some kind of inferiority complex or something?!" Monoma mocked, and Kirishima had to hold him back before the explosive blonde could lunge at the other blonde.

"What, you mean yourself?!" Bakugou growled, "Always mocking us for absolutely no fucking good reason!?"

"See! When you act like a feral maniac, you deserve it!" Monoma spat back, before Kendo smacked him on the back of his head, knocking him into a slight daze, before she apologized, "Sorry about him."

"No worries." Kirishima sweat dropped, as Kendo sighed, "This is getting out of hand."

"Fucking hell." Bakugou grumbled, stomping back to his room with Kacchan at his heels, and Kirishima turned around, asking, "Where's Mina? Isn't she usually down at this time?"

"She's with Bondo right now. They had an argument over acid versus glue or something like that." Tokage replied, having just walked into the common room.

"Wasn't Sero with you?" Kaminari asked, and Tokage shrugged, "Yeah, we were playing with Haku, and then Sero went off to help Mina and Bondo with their fight so they don't get the glue and acid everywhere."

"Ah." Kaminari nodded, and turned his attention back to his game, "Makes sense. Though I have no idea how his tape can help with acid... Mina's acid usually just eats through his tape."

"I don't know either." Tokage laughed, settling down to watch the news, "It's just nice of him to try and help out. Also, try not to go back to the 1-B dorms. Awase stupidly enough challenged Yanagi to some game and she's completely wrecking him with her quirk."

"Wow, and I thought our class was chaotic." Kaminari giggled, and Monoma rolled his eyes, "Excuse me, your class is chaotic."

There was some silence in the dorms, with the only sounds being the faint mumbling of the news reporter on the television, and Kaminari's rapid button presses on his Switch, before Tokage spoke up, "You know... I'm a little curious about some of your quirks."

"Huh?" Monoma asked, and Tokage faced him, replying, "Like, yours and Shinsou's. What's it like, having quirks like yours?"

Shinsou turned towards her, confused, as Monoma narrowed his eyes, "Are you implying something?"

"I'm not implying anything." Tokage stated, barely phased by Monoma, "Frankly speaking, both your quirks are different, being more or less dependent on other people. Like, we can use our quirks all on our own, but you need to copy someone else's quirk, while Shinsou's quirk depends on responses from other people. I'm kind of interested in how it's like, from your point of view, since they're less straightforward in usage, I guess?"

Monoma raised his eyebrow, "I mean... My quirk is kind of straight forwards too, in a way? I just copy a quirk, I get some basic knowledge about it, and I can use it like the original user. Sure, in some cases, I can also suffer some negative side effects, like Shinsou's quirk giving me headaches, or Todoroki's quirk making me burn myself, and I don't even want to think about what happens if my hand is detached while I'm copying your quirk and my internal timer just runs out, but generally... it's not straightforward, but it's not that bad, I guess."

Tokage blinked, "You get headaches?"

"Yeah. It's not too bad... just... kind of annoying. Throws me off a little. But I can still use Brainwashing." Monoma replied, as Reiko hopped up beside the blonde, letting Monoma pat her on the head.

"When I was younger, Brainwashing used to give me mild headaches, but that was only when I used it for too long or tried to control too many people at one go and it wasn't too bad." Shinsou stated, "It's better now, I kind of know my limits so I don't go over unless I know I'm in a safe environment. I don't even know what happened during that other time I got a killer headache from my quirk..."

"I guess mental quirks do have those downsides, huh? Mental quirks are harder to use than general quirks." Tokage commented, "You can't get Recovery Girl to just... heal a headache away. That must suck."

Shinsou nodded, "Yep. All you can do is just try to sleep it off. Or painkillers, but the chances of drug addiction to painkillers is high in hero professions. I'd rather avoid that as far as possible."

"We'd just have to deal with it, I guess. When you have a quirk that's called useless or "villainous" all the time, not implying anything, Shinsou, it either makes or breaks you. You either find some way to use it to survive and succeed... or you'd just prove everyone right." Monoma sighed, "Even now, people are getting ranked according to how viable their quirk is... I'm just glad that hero schools actually let you be creative with how you use your quirk in order to get in, instead of just reading your quirk off the records or your resume and just assuming things."

"Yeah. I used to hate my quirk, you know." Shinsou admitted, "But now, knowing everything I can do with it... I think it proves that quirks can't just be judged so simply."

"Makes sense." Tokage nodded, "I entered through the recommendation examinations, though, so I'm not too sure how it differs from the normal entrance exam."

"As far as I know, the normal entrance exam consists of destroying robots, like those during the Sports Festival, as well as rescuing or saving people." Shinsou explained, "The recommendation examination allows for more creative quirk usage, and focuses more on how you use your quirk instead of just how powerful it is for destroying stuff."

Shinsou tensed up slightly when he felt Midoriya shifting slightly, and he gazed downwards, just as Midoriya yawned and opened his eyes, blinking as he tried to get his bearings.

"Morning, Izuku." Shinsou murmured, gently ruffling Midoriya's hair, eliciting a purr from the boy, before the greenette pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing his eyes blearily, "... Hi?"

Reiko hopped off the couch to nuzzle Midoriya, and Ryuto flew off the table to join Reiko and Midoriya, just as Aizawa and Kan entered the common room, "Ashido, Bondo and Sero are cleaning up, and will be here shortly. Where are Iida and Kendo?"

Iida happened to be cleaning the counters, and he popped his head out of the kitchen, "Aizawa-sensei! Vlad King-sensei!"

"Get the rest of the class here. I have an announcement to make." Aizawa ordered, and Iida immediately set to work, grabbing his phone and rapidly sending out a message to the group chat.

It didn't take too long for the rest of 1-A and 1-B to arrive in the common room, and Kan cleared his throat, "We might be canceling the work studies."

There were a couple of protests and complaints from the surprised students, as Aizawa interjected, "It's not confirmed yet, but lately, there's been an influx of powerful villains that just seemed to appear out of nowhere, attacking hero agencies or the heroes themselves. Some of the heroes you're working with were affected, and we are doing our best to deal with it, so you still have somewhere to go tomorrow."

"We're not sure what's going on, and the Hero Commission is working on figuring out their origins, but they still want you kids to do internships." Kan continued, as the students fell silent, "However, if this escalates and gets too dangerous and risky, especially with the League of Villains at large, we will be ending your work studies prematurely and calling all of you back to UA within a week's notice."

"Your safety is our top priority, and you getting hurt before you even get your proper licenses is just counterintuitive. We are just telling you ahead of time so you can complain and whine now instead of later." Aizawa dryly stated.

The students had stupid, goofy grins on their faces as they sheepishly smiled at each other, and Kan sighed, "Things are heating up now, and we have no idea what might happen in the near future. Keep an eye out and be careful. If you notice anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, even if the heroes you work with brush it off as nothing, tell the teachers."

Aizawa turned around, and walked out of the dorms, "Just enjoy the peace while it lasts."


	137. Chapter 137 - Seed begins to rise

_"I'm sure you've heard about the news from UA." Sakamata sighed, scratching his head, "Frankly speaking, we don't know where these villains are coming from. Be careful. Always be on the lookout." _

_Jiro and Shoji both nodded, and the Killer Whale Hero turned towards the door, "Get changed. Originally, I was going to bring you kids for some infiltration work, but I think we'll play it safe for now, and let the others deal with that. We'll be going on a patrol today."_

When Sakamata meant to patrol, Jiro did _not_ think that it meant that they were going to be jumped by a fire wielding villain. Sakamata was strong, yes, but being a killer whale meant that he was weak to heat and fire in general. Sakamata was doing his best to fend off the villain, but the Killer Whale hero was just barely able to keep up, with the rapidly rising temperatures, and the fires that were threatening to hit civilians.

Jiro let out a large sound wave from her speakers on her shoes, taking out some of the fire; Yamada had taught her how to do that back in UA, while they were practicing their quirks, and she was eternally grateful that the Voice Hero had given her some pointers, given the rather similar nature of their quirks.

Suddenly, a loud gunshot rang out, and Jiro felt like her ears were going to explode. She gritted her teeth in pain, and turned around, noticing that Shoji was grappling with another hero, with a bleeding stump on his arm, though the multi-limbed boy didn't seem too bothered by it. Flicking her gaze towards the ground, Jiro noticed that one of his extra limbs was lying on the ground lifelessly, blood pooling from the point where the limbs were supposed to be attached to Shoji's body.

Shoji's formed an extra arm to try and pin the villain down, but the villain just made a finger fun, aiming it at Shoji's new limb, and another loud gunshot resonated outwards, completely blasting off Shoji's new limb, leaving another bloody stump and mutilated limb in his wake.

"Tentacole!" Jiro yelled, remembering just in time to use his hero name, and she angled her speakers towards the villain that Shoji was dealing with, intending to use her sound waves to blast stun the villain long enough for Shoji to finish him off, when she felt a weird, tingly sensation from the plug in her speakers, up her earlobes. She hastily yanked her earphone jacks out, and looked down to check on her speakers, only to realize that her speakers were sparking, being completely unusable.

"Come on, don't interrupt their fight." A high pitched voice resonated from behind her. Jiro turned around, coming face to face with a female villain. She vaguely processed that Sakatama was using his hypersonic waves to blast away more fire, as the villain smirked, "Your opponent is right here!"

The villain lunged forwards, as Jiro hastily evaded, pulling a knife out of her belt. She was barely decent in the art of using sharp blades, but it wasn't like she had a choice. Her speakers were completely busted, and until she figured out what quirk the villain had, she was going to need every bit of help she could get.

Jiro jumped back as the villain lunged again, slashing her knife at the villain, who just evaded. She should just keep the villain occupied with her knife, and then use her earphone jacks as a surprise attack; since it was a part of her body, she was able to control its movements much more precisely than her knife.

She heard another gunshot, and wet splat rang out from behind her, as Sakamata roared, and fired off another hypersonic wave before body slamming the fire villain he was fighting into the ground, as Jiro sidestepped, and slashed her knife at the villain.

The villain merely caught her hand, smiling widely, "You're not very good with a knife, are you? How long have you been using it, a day?"

Jiro growled, and sent her earphone jacks out towards the villain, intending to stab her in the eye in order for her to release her arm, but the villain merely smirked, using her other hand to grab onto Jiro's elongated earlobes. She placed her thumb on the metal earphone jacks, "Thank you, dearie."

Her hand started sparking with electricity, and Jiro yelped in pain as electricity raced into her earphone jacks, through her earlobes, and her vision turned black.

* * *

"Where did these guys come from!? There weren't so many of them just a minute ago!" Hagakure panted, as she redirected another laser beam from Aoyama into a group of villains, knocking them back, but it wasn't long before they were starting to get back up again.

Aoyama couldn't fire off too many powerful lasers at one time, or he'd get a stomach ache and end up being a sitting duck, so Yoroi Musha had suggested that Aoyama use small, shorter bursts of lasers, and Hagakure could use her refraction abilities to strengthen and redirect them.

It worked, but the only problem was that it was cloudy for some reason, despite the weather forecast saying that it was going to be sunny, so there wasn't much Hagakure could actually do to strengthen the redirected laser blast without an external light source.

"I don't know!" Ashido replied, jumped back onto her arms, before twisting elegantly, as if she were break dancing, using her legs to sweep her opponent off their feet.

Yoroi Musha used the armour on his arms to smack several villains away, as Ashido noticed that Hagakure and Aoyama were struggling, and threw herself into the fray.

"Acid Man!" Ashido yelled, increasing the viscosity of her Quirk, though she ensured that it wasn't too strong that she would end up dissolving someone by accident. She covered herself in a large amount of globulus acid, forming a large, anthropomorphic, acidic coat of armour around herself. Her Super Move was still a work-in-progress, but there was no better time to test it out than in a fight.

She lunged into the group of villains, eliciting some screaming and chaos as the villains realized that she was acidic and were scrambling to get away from the corrosive substance coating Ashido's entire body.

"Thanks!" Hagakure yelled, as Ashido's interference gave her and Aoyama some time to take a breather, before they dashed off to take down some villains that were starting to attack villains.

Ashido heaved a sigh of relief as she tried to figure out how to restrain the downed villains. She really wished that Bondo was here; as different as their quirks were, his Cemedine quirk would be perfect for restraining these villains, while Ashido couldn't really do anything with her acid quirk to stop them from moving.

The pinkette swerved to the side as liquid shot past her face, and she turned around, coming face to face with a man who had some liquid dripping from his hand.

"Well... I guess the rumours were right." The man mused, raising his hand, and shooting out more liquid. There was too much liquid to dodge, but it just hit Ashido's acid coat, sizzling as it turned into harmless water.

"Ha! My acid's too strong for you!" Ashido pridefully grinned, but she still kept an eye on the villain; he seemed to have something up his sleeve, and based on the fact that he mentioned _rumours_, it seemed likely that he was more than prepared for her quirk.

"Cocky, aren't you, young one." The man smirked, raising his hand again. Ashido growled, and shot out some acid at him experimentally, trying to figure out what his game was, but the man just retaliated by shooting out more liquid. Her acid and his liquid made contact, and the mixture started bubbling slightly, before it sloshed onto the ground harmlessly.

Ashido took a step back as realization dawned on her; she may not be good at her studies, and while Chemistry wasn't her strongest subject, she was the class expert on acids and bases.

Burns from strong bases weren't too painful, from her research; she has never tested it before in the science lab, but she didn't even want to think about what might happen if that ever happened. That might just be her own bias from having an acidic quirk speaking, but according to her research, alkali burns were way more destructive to people than acid burns.

"As you can see, I think you are at a disadvantage." The man shook his head, sighing, before he fired off a powerful blast of alkali at Ashido. The pinkette growled, and hastily strengthened her Acid Man, trying to do her best to neutralize all the alkali, but she knew that she was on the losing side of the battle. Her acid was neutralizing his acid, yes, but it was creating water as a byproduct.

And if her memory serves her correctly, the reaction between acids and bases with water is exothermic, meaning that it was also creating heat that was much closer to her in proximity than to the villain.

All she could do was try to hold out and keep his attention until she could figure out a way out of this.

* * *

"Nezu." Aizawa opened the door to Nezu's office, and the animal principal barely glanced at him as he flicked through his phone and tapped on his laptop.

"Midnight's also got involved in something, along with Monoma and Tsunotori, though they're lucky and got out relatively unscathed; Monoma managed to copy Midnight's quirk and used Tsunotori's horns to pin the villains down as they waited for Somnambulist to take effect. They're just waiting for the remnants of her quirk to wear off before they'll be alright, and Recovery Girl's already looking over them. Bondo, from 1-B, was also attacked on his internship, but he's safe now."

"I take it that you've heard the news. How are they?" Nezu muttered, and Aizawa nodded, "Hagakure has a sprained ankle and Aoyama's just having a really bad stomach ache. Shoji's had quite a lot of his extra limbs sliced off, but since he can generate them on his own, Recovery Girl said that it should only take a few days of rest for Shoji to eat enough and stock up on enough nutrients for him to be functioning normally. Ashido has several alkali burns, and she's just complaining that it's itchy, but other than that, she's acting pretty normally, and she just has to rest and stop scratching at her bandages."

"What about Jiro?" Nezu asked, and Aizawa sighed, "She's in the hospital right now, but she's woken up, and according to the doctors, she's perfectly fine, and just needs rest. When the villain electrocuted her through her earphone jacks, she was lucky that the villains didn't pass too high a voltage through her body that would paralyze or kill her, just a mild one that knocked her out for a few hours."

Nezu heaved a sigh of relief, before his expression turned serious, "It's not just UA."

Aizawa frowned, "What?"

"I don't think they're just targeting UA." Nezu replied, "I've gotten reports from Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu. Several of their students were also attacked while on their mandatory work studies, and some of them are in the hospital right now. Whoever these villains are... I think they're targeting the students. On purpose."

"I suppose you can look at it in that way." Aizawa muttered, "According to the reports and surveillance cameras... the villains were specific to the students. Shoji and Jiro are both sensitive to loud sounds, so that villain with the air pistol quirk could distract and stun them both, while the electric villain could deal with Jiro's earphone jacks. There's also the fact that it was somehow cloudy, making Hagakure's quirk less effective, and the alkali villain fighting Jiro... and the villains who ambushed Midnight were wearing gas masks, but I don't think they accounted for Monoma and Tsunotori because Midnight just decided to bring them along with her this one time."

Nezu nodded, "Several schools have already submitted complaints to the Hero Commission about putting the students in unnecessary danger in order for the Commission to save face... but we haven't gotten any replies yet. But if this continues on, we will cancel the Work Studies completely. Do you think you can contact the agencies the kids work at and tell them that they will be pulled out temporarily so they can rest?"

"Yoroi Musha and Sakamata have already contacted us, and they have also voiced their worries about the attacks." Aizawa replied, but before he continued, he was cut off as Yamada popped his head into the office, "We got a call from Burnin! Endeavor's agency was just attacked, but Todoroki, Bakugou, and the other kid from Shiketsu are okay. Just a scratch or two. Though there were a shit ton of water users, for some reason. I don't think they're going to do anything, though, and Todoroki and Bakugou are stubborn!"

"Alright! Thank you, Mic!" Nezu nodded, and the Voice hero popped back out of the office, and Nezu shared a knowing gaze with Aizawa, "This is a problem."

"Definitely." Aizawa growled, "Several of the students have teamed up with each other. Should we tell them to remain in UA for the time being and not intern with the other pros yet?"

"Yes." Nezu turned back to his laptop, "I'll contact Vlad King as well. I think he's working with Komori and Kuroiro today."

"What about the second and third years?" Aizawa asked, and Nezu glanced up at Aizawa, "We will call them back as well. The Hero Commission usually isn't so secretive about their intentions behind the work studies. It could be due to Hawks' odd behavior, though I think that there is more to this. We need to keep our students safe, just in case anything happens. I'll contact their homeroom teachers myself, you deal with your class."

"Alright."


	138. Chapter 138 - The shell comes unraveled

Wash blasted out some soap bubbles, slipping several villains up and knocking them off their feet, as Dark Shadow picked Koda and Fukidashi up, bringing them to a higher vantage point before a villain froze all the water.

"Tsukuyomi!" Fukidashi exclaimed, and Tokoyami shot him a brief look, before surveying the situation, "A couple of Hawks' sidekicks and I happened to be the area. What happened?"

"Thank god my message got out." Koda heaved a sigh of relief, as a couple of flies buzzed over from Tokoyami's shoulder, landing on Koda's finger.

"There's just a bunch of villains with ice and electric powers." Fukidashi replied, before he turned, "KA-BOOM!"

A loud explosion rang out, destroying a huge ice shard that was flung in their direction, and Dark Shadow immediately cowered behind Tokoyami, waiting for the explosion caused by Fukidashi's quirk to die down, before they dived downwards, using their gigantic claws to slice the ice apart.

"Should we get more help?" Koda asked, and Tokoyami shook his head, "I don't think so. From what I can see, putting ice and electric users together isn't a good idea; the ice users can only freeze Wash's soapy bubbles, while the electric users can only utilize their quirks properly if the bubbles and soap aren't frozen, since soapy water conducts electricity better than ice. Those two groups don't work well together, and it's not like they're very creative either."

Fukidashi sighed, "It's kind of annoying that elemental quirks are the most common types of quirks that villains have. No offense to Todoroki or Kaminari or anything..."

Koda just looked down at the ongoing fight. Wash had just sent out a couple of floating bubbles, before he sent out another wave of huge soapy bubbles that were larger than a person. The ice villains had been distracted by the smaller bubbles, and just haphazardly frozen the wave of larger bubbles, leaving literally all the villains, as well as Wash, stuck in the layer of ice, immobilized.

"Dark Shadow." Tokoyami glanced at the shadowy bird-like figure, and Dark Shadow nodded, and they flew downwards, using their claws to crack the ice that trapped Wash, being careful not to free the other villains by accident, as a couple of birds flew over to Koda, perching on his arms.

They made a series of chirping sounds, and Koda nodded, "Great. The other villains have been taken care of, by the heroes from Hawks' agency."

"All good!" Dark Shadow grinned gleefully, flying back up to meet the three students, "We just have to wait for the police now!"

Tokoyami just grunted, as Wash looked up, "Anima! Comicman! You guys okay?"

Fukidashi and Koda nodded, as Wash gestured at Tokoyami, "I'm sorry... I don't think I know your hero name?"

"Tsukuyomi!" Tokoyami replied, and Wash nodded, "Thank you for your help, Tsukuyomi!"

* * *

Yaoyorozu ripped a long metal pole out of her arm, and smacked a villain in the face with it, before she swung it at Tokage, "Lizardy!"

Tokage nodded, and immediately split apart, much to the surprise of the villains that she was dancing around. The metal pole hit the villains right in the gut, and Tokage took that opportunity to hit him in the face with a powerful uppercut, taking him out.

"Nice call!" Tokage grinned, shooting Yaoyorozu a thumbs up, and the Everything Hero just nodded, looking around warily, "Don't you think that... it was a bit too easy?"

"Now that you think about it... yeah." Tokage nodded, and she looked down, nudging the fallen villain with one foot, "They didn't even use their quirks..."

"Exactly. We should be careful until the police arrive." Majestic murmured, surveying the area, "Lately, there has been an influx of villain attacks. We don't know if these villains are from some sort of organization like the League of Villains or the Yakuza... or if a bunch of villains had decided to take advantage of the social unrest, but either way, this isn't good. Keep an eye out."

"Yes sir." Tokage and Yaoyorozu both nodded, and Yaoyorozu pulled some strong ropes out of her hand to tie the villains up.

"Is it just me... or does something smell weird?" Tokage asked, and Yaoyorozu paused slightly, "Actually... yeah..."

Tokage turned around, grabbing some rope from Yaoyorozu and tied up the other fallen villain, when something was sprayed onto her face.

"Eww!" Tokage whined, and took a step back, rubbing the liquid off her face. She stared at her hands, trying to figure out what the liquid was, only to realize that her hands were stained red.

"Blood?" Tokage blinked, before she turned her gaze to the villains she was tying up, noticing that the villain wasn't knocked out, and was staring at her with black, beady eyes.

"Smart girl." The villain cackled, and his muscles bulged, easily snapping the ropes tied around him apart. He stood up, and stretched, as scales started forming on the villain's skin, and his nails transformed into large, sharp claws.

"Creati!" Tokage yelled, splitting herself apart in an attempt to blind the villain and immobilize him temporarily, but her detached arm was merely swatted aside, and her other floating arm had been impaled by the short but sharp horns growing on the back of the villain's head.

Yaoyorozu turned to face the fight, grabbing her metal pole and attempting to hit the villain with it, but the villains just yank it out of her hands, before turning to Majestic, who had also been restraining another villain, "Aren't you supposed to be some pro hero? You're just going to send a bunch of weak girls at me?"

"Weak?!" Tokage yelled in indignation, recalling one of her hands, "We're not weak!"

Yaoyorozu nodded, and pulled some steel rope out of hand, and tossed one end to Tokage. Tokage immediately shot her hand out, simultaneously pulling her other arm back, knocking the villain off balance, and Tokage expertly weaved her arm about, tangling the villain in a mess of steel rope, and Yaoyorozu created a metal bat to smack the villain in the face, knocking him out.

"Prediction and efficiency!" Tokage grinned, and shot Yaoyorozu a thumbs up, though with all the blood on her face, she looked like an unhinged, insane psychopath.

Yaoyorozu offered her a clean cloth, and Tokage used it to wipe the blood off her face with her good arm, her other arm lying on the ground lifelessly.

"Man, I thought horned lizards were cute with the ability to shoot blood from their eyes, but just... eww." Tokage stuck her tongue out, calling her arm back and cradling it gently.

Yaoyorozu and Majestic tied up the villains properly, and the Magic Hero turned to the two girls, "I'm sorry. I didn't expect that to happen..."

Majestic frowned upon seeing Tokage's arm, "Creati, can you give Lizardy some bandages? You'll need to get that checked out in case it's infected."

"Oh... in that case, should I just... you know.. drop my arm and let it regrow? I can do that." Tokage asked, but Majestic shook his head, "Don't. Something is coming, I can feel it. Save your strength for later; we're going to need all our energy and resources."

* * *

"I got them!" Mineta yelled, throwing out several sticky orbs to slow down the villains, and Sero shot out some tape, tangling the villains and tripping the rest, forcing them to fall onto Mineta's sticky orbs.

"Grape Juice! Here!" Shiozaki yelled, creating some vines, and Mineta threw more sticky orbs at them. Shiozaki used the vines to trap and stick more villains down, and she panted, wiping some sweat away, "Are there any more?"

"Yep! One of them has a knife!" Sero stated, using his tape to scale the building to get a vantage point.

"No!" Kaminari blurted out, zapping a villain, and Sero glared at him, "I swear, Chargebolt, if you're spitting out memes at this time -"

"I'm sorry, I panicked!" Kaminari yelped, just narrowly avoiding stepping on one of the sticky orbs that littered the ground, "You know I spit out dumb things like vines when I'm nervous!"

Suddenly, the ground shook, and Shiozaki used her vines to grab hold of the three other boys so that they didn't fall, "When are Mr. Edgeshot, Mr. Kamui Woods, and Ms. Mt Lady coming back?"

"No idea!" Sero yelled, ducking as another villain lunged at him, stepping on the backs of his own fallen comrades to avoid Mineta's sticky orbs, shooting more tape out to immobilize them, "They just said they were going out to check on something before they come back..."

"Crap! I ran out of pointers! Vines!" Kaminari yelled, and Shiozaki hastily put up a wall of vines that completely covered Sero, Mineta and herself, before Kaminari let out a powerful blast of electricity.

"You good, bro?" Sero asked, as Shiozaki removed the vines, and Kaminari nodded, before Mineta threw a sticky orb in the face of another villain that had somehow survived Kaminari's electric onslaught.

"Sorry!" A familiar voice rang out, and some red flashed past their eyes, running through all the villains that were still standing. There was silence, followed by several thuds as the unconscious bodies hit the ground, and Mineta slumped to the ground, yelling, "I thought we were all going to die!"

"Are you okay?" Kamihara asked, turning his arm back to normal from when he used his quirk to knock the villains out, as Nishiya rounded up all the unconscious bodies, and Shiozaki shook her head, "I don't... think so?"

"That's great." Kamihara looked around, surveyed the mess of sticky purple orbs, torn vines, and pointers littering the area, and Sero scratched his head sheepishly, "Whoops... guess we made a mess..."

"At least, this can be easily cleared up." Kamihara replied, his eyes flickering over the four interns, "As long as you aren't hurt, it's alright."

"Mr. Edgeshot, where is Ms. Mt Lady?" Shiozaki asked, and Kamihara merely said, "Don't worry about her. We were dealing with the villains, but we came back earlier while she volunteered to deal with the police and the villains' at the other site we were checking on."

Out of the corner of his eye, Kamihara noticed some movement on a rooftop, and he narrowed his eyes, "Go back inside the agency for now. Kamui Woods and I will deal with this."

"There's a lot of villains..." Kaminari blinked, "I'm sure we can find some way to help."

"There's no need for that. Get inside, clean up, and change into some clothes that aren't broken." Kamihara ordered, gesturing to the slightly torn and ragged hero costumes of the four students, "Just stay inside for now."

* * *

Aizawa landed on the rooftop and surveyed the area. He was currently located in Hosu, and he was trying to hunt down a very troublesome villain. Based on the information he had from the police, this particular user had dubbed himself as Mind Break. He had a quirk that was rather similar to Shinsou's Brainwashing, but rather than requiring a response, it just required him to "form a connection" with his target by mere physical contact before he could control them.

His hold on his victims was also much stronger than Shinsou's at the moment, and a lot of his targets were forced to take hit after hit after they were trapped under his hold, and were nearly dead after Mind Break released them from his quirk.

He was a rather troublesome villain, having taken several heroes by surprise since he usually dresses up as a civilian and attacks out of nowhere, and given the nature of his Erasure, the Hero Commission had assigned him to take him down directly.

Plus, Tensei and Mizushima were operating in Hosu, with Shinsou and Iida interning under them respectively, along with Midoriya, who was going to be working with them for a few more days before he went back to Sasaki, Aizawa wasn't going to risk a villain like Mind Break running around unattended. It didn't help that the nature of his quirk was similar to Shinsou's, and it would just worsen the stigma that had been placed on quirks like those.

Aizawa looked around, deeming the area safe, before he hopped over to the next building. He wasn't too sure where or when Mind Break was going to show up, but he generally appeared in crowded places so that he could use regular civilians as meat shields, and that was exactly what made him difficult to deal with. If he took control of multiple people at one go, it was going to be much harder for Aizawa to take him down, especially since he would have to deal with the rampaging quirks of the helpless mind controlled victims.

He heard the sounds of a fight just past a few buildings, and his heart clenched. He knew that Mizushima and Tensei would take care of their interns, but still. With so many work study students getting attacked, Aizawa wasn't going to risk anything. At the very least, he should just go check it out, and make sure everything was fine.

The students were seemingly still being attacked. He had heard from Fukukado that she, Shindo, and Nakagame were ambushed by several villains, though they had managed to come out relatively unscathed. Koda, Fukidashi, Tokoyami had happened to be together during one of the larger villain attacks, and those from the Ryukyu Agency had been attacked while on their patrol two days ago, but none of them were injured.

The four students working for the Lurkers, and the three working for the Fat Gum agency had also been involved in another ambush just the previous day, but they only suffered some minor injuries and torn costumes. He had also just heard that Majestic's interns had been attacked, but luckily, the worst of the injuries was just a large cut on Tokage's arm.

He needed to make sure the others were okay, especially in a city with a villain like Mind Break around. If the kids weren't there, he would continue his search for Mind Break. And if the kids were there... he'd just see if they needed his help before jumping in.


	139. Chapter 139 - Let it die

"I'm pretty sure you guys know what to do... but still..." Tensei looked around as Shinsou and Midoriya followed behind him. The rest of Tensei's sidekicks were also roaming around Hosu, trying to find out the cause of several suicides that had occurred in the area.

Sure, Tensei hated to admit it, but suicides had always been common in large cities, but lately, the numbers had increased exponentially to the point that there were several incidents in a day. They had no idea what was going on, but they needed to stop this before it spiraled out of control.

There was also the fact that there was a villain called Mind Break running around, but from the reports he's seen, he's talkative and usually touched people to activate his quirk, so Shinsou would be a perfect counter to him. Not just that, but Mind Break was clearly not a physical fighter, while Midoriya was also great at fighting several opponents at one time and taking them out with little to no injuries, so if they needed to fight, Midoriya would also be able to handle it.

Midoriya raised his head slightly, and started observing his surroundings warily, and it seemed like Tensei had also sensed whatever had set Midoriya off, because he also paused.

"Get ready." Tensei ominously muttered, and Shinsou promptly slipped his voice changer on. Midoriya had already slipped a knife out of his sleeve, before a loud explosion rang out, just down the road, by the crossroads intersection.

"Come on!" Tensei yelled, and started running in the direction of the explosion, and Shinsou and Midoriya both raced after him, dodging past screaming pedestrians and panicking civilians.

It took them a minute to reach the scene, and Shinsou blinked, processing a bus that was lying on its side, smoke billowing out of the metallic vehicle. There were several people trying to get out through the emergency exit and shattered windows, and there was also a car that had been completely totaled, one side of it crumpled like paper with fire licking at the metal frame.

"I've just called the fire service, but we need to get them out of the vehicles, now." Tensei ordered, racing towards the bus, "Go check the car for drivers and any other passengers. I'll deal with the bus. Onemu Shinya and Enigma are in the area, and will be here in a few minutes. If you see them, direct them towards me."

"Got it." Shinsou nodded, and both he and Midoriya headed towards the car. He knew that Midoriya didn't like fire too much, but he also knew that the younger boy would always help others to the best of his abilities without any regard for his own safety or well-being. They had to get everyone else out of the situation first, then he could help Midoriya if the younger boy needed any help.

Midoriya stuck his hand through the broken window, being careful of the sharp glass shards still lining the rim of the frame, and he groped around blindly, before he finally managed to find the locking mechanism. He unlocked the door and tugged on it, holding it open so that it didn't swing shut while Shinsou climbed into the passenger seat.

There didn't seem to be anyone else in the car aside from the driver, and Shinsou hastily sliced through the seat belt with his own knife, freeing the driver from the chair, before he tried pulling him out of the car. They would have tried the driver's door, but that side of the car was so badly damaged that there was no way they could open the door without it being a hazard.

Shinsou carefully crawled out of the car, gently pulling the driver along with him. The man seemed to be barely conscious, with blood pooling out of a wound on his forehead, and the lavender haired boy gingerly stepped out of the car in order to remove the man from the wreckage of the car when suddenly, the man's eyes snapped open.

Stunned, Shinsou took a step back as the man ripped out a large shard of glass that had been embedded in his arm, and swung it at the boy, but Midoriya reacted quickly and smacked the glass out of his hand, giving Shinsou enough time to regard his bearings and knock the man out with a good hit to the head.

It probably wasn't the best course of action, and Shinsou glanced at Midoriya, not sure what to make of the situation, but the shorter boy merely shrugged, equally confused.

They still decided to drag the body out and hope that they didn't kill the man by accident. Then again, they had been defending themselves from assault, but neither of the students knew how well that would turn out.

It didn't take too long for Enigma and Onemu Shinya to arrive on the scene, and they helped Tensei to deal with the bus that was on fire before the fire department, ambulance, and the police arrived to finish everything up, and send all the injured people to the hospital.

"Man." Enigma sighed, as the five heroes and interns regrouped, "I did not expect the bus driver to attack me. I guess he panicked or something?"

Midoriya and Shinsou both froze up, and shared a knowing glance, before the lavender haired boy spoke up, "Ingenium... when we tried to save the car driver... he also tried to attack us before we knocked him out..."

Tensei frowned, "That... that can't be a coincidence..."

Realization dawned on him, and Tensei glanced around.

The ambulances, the fire trucks, and most of the police cars had left the scene. Traffic had been disrupted, but traffic cones and tape had already been placed around the damaged vehicles and the remainder of police officers were either attempting to divert the rest of the cars, or trying to get witness statements from passersby.

"Look out." Tensei growled, and Onemu Shinya and Enigma both tensed up, looking around, "This might be the work of Mind Break."

"Correct indeed." A voice seemingly rang out of nowhere, and Midoriya turned to the source of the voice, noticing a man with a black hoodie, right across the street.

Cars continued to pass as Shinsou and the other heroes turned, and Mind Break chuckled, talking over the traffic, "Kind of slow, aren't you? Bet you didn't know my quirk has delayed activation either, did you?"

Drivers just seemed to notice the ongoing conversation, stopped, curious. Some of the smarter ones must have sensed the oncoming chaos, and promptly drove away.

"You mean -" Onemu Shinya was cut off as Mind Break let out a maniacal grin, "Of course. One guy I randomly brushed past at a grocery store, and I took the bus and paid my bus fare. All I had to do was... you know... make them meet."

Tensei glowered at the villain, but he couldn't act rashly; Mind Break never acted out in the open like this, so that meant that Mind Break either had a shit ton of back-up, or he had somehow broken his own mind.

The Turbo hero was pretty confident that it was _not_ the latter.

Mind Break focused on the lavender haired teen, a smirk glinting beneath his hood, "We are quite similar... are we not? And you ended up in the Hero Course."

Shinsou narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, as Tensei whispered, "Keep a cool head. He's just trying to provoke you."

"Well... I guess I'm done talking." Mind Break muttered, and he lifted his head, his bright yellow eyes glinting in the light. He raised his hand, and all of a sudden, several villains started jumping down from the top of several buildings, and the heroes immediately directed their attention upwards.

Tensei promptly propelled himself into the air with his quirk, using his quirk to propel himself forward. He carefully angled his course, and slammed into a villain, knocking her off balance and into the ground. Enigma started ushering civilians away, and slowly started increasing in size to block off more villains who had dropped to the ground.

"Mind Break?!" A police officer stammered, and he took a step back, allowing a villain to creep up on him.

"Police! Get out of here. And try to divert the traffic away from this road for a block!" Onemu Shinya hastily ordered, as she rushed forward, drop kicking the villain in the face before he could attack a police officer, "We don't know if there are more subordinates, of if Mind Break has already touched someone and is waiting for an opportunity to trigger his quirk, but either way, the more crowded it is, the more likely it is for someone to get hurt!"

The police officers immediately started paging their superiors, and Tensei glanced at Enigma and Onemu Shinya. They hadn't been expecting to encounter Mind Break on their patrol today, and since all of their fighting styles were close quarters combat, it would be really dangerous if Mind Break touched one of them and tried to control them, especially Enigma, with her ability to increase her size.

Midoriya glanced at Shinsou, sidestepping a villain and kicking her in the stomach, knocking her out, and Shinsou used his capture weapon to lash two villains together, making them bash their heads together.

"You'll be okay?" Shinsou called out. They had already run through the plan back at the agency, in the event that they encountered Mind Break; Shinsou would be tasked with taking Mind Break out, since the villain was talkative, and the others would back him up. As long as Mind Break didn't get anywhere near Shinsou, he should be okay.

Midoriya nodded, and shifted his position, taking over Shinsou's spot and kicking two more villains down, giving Shinsou a breather before he tried to take Mind Break on. Shinsou's quirk was generally well-known, being a mind control quirk, but the activation of his quirk was still relatively unknown to those that Shinsou hasn't met before, or supposedly, the League of Villains, and Shinsou wasn't too eager to expose the inner workings of his quirk, so he usually held a conversation with the villains so that people wouldn't guess that responding was the trigger.

He also wasn't too keen on getting close to Mind Break; he had a mental quirk, and while he has never met another person who could mind control their victims, if there was one thing that Shinsou knew for sure, it was that mental quirks never meshed well together.

"So... what's your problem?" Shinsou asked, glancing backwards to check on Midoriya, but the boy was doing perfectly fine, kicking a villain in the crotch. The lavender haired boy reached up, seemingly to scratch his neck, but he activated a small voice recorder located on the bottom of his mask; he might be able to wrangle some important information out of Mind Break.

"I don't have a problem. The problem is with the rest of society." Mind Break chuckled, "You think you're the first person with that kind of quirk to try and get into a hero school?"

Shinsou raised an eyebrow, "I mean... I guess not? You tried before?"

Mind Break scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Of course. I tried for Shiketsu, actually, when I was younger. But nope, I got my rejection letter the very next day, stating that my quirk was unsuitable for hero work due to the "current political climate" surrounding several types of quirks... or the lack thereof."

"You are feeding into that so-called "political climate", you know? Hypocritical much?" Shinsou asked, slightly mockingly, trying to piss the villain off, but Mind Break just glared at him, "Silence. It's not just mind control quirk users that suffer, you know? Those with weaker quirks were shunned. Some people didn't have any quirks at all, and were practically banned from getting Master's Degrees or PhDs in university."

Shinsou just listened on in silence, as Mind Break continued, "Sure, people like you and me might be able to get into Hero Courses now. Those with weaker quirks might be able to find a way past those weaknesses. The quirkless might be able to get jobs. But the stigma still remains, and with it, the remnants of our broken past. Things have improved, maybe, but that doesn't mean things have gotten better. People deserve the right to use their quirks whenever they want; after all, quirks are extensions of one's self. We don't need more limitations on how to express ourselves."

"So... what's your goal with... all of this carnage?" Shinsou asked. He did understand what Mind Break was talking about, and he had always had that fear that the circumstances regarding his quirk would change at the drop of the hat, and no matter how hard he worked, he could never be a hero just due to a quirk that he had absolutely no say in having.

"People nowadays are so reliant on quirks. Those powerful quirks cannot help you if you are dead... or if your mind isn't your own." Mind Break shook his head patronizingly, grinning toothily at Shinsou, "I don't really care about hurting kids too much, let alone killing them, especially those who understand our plight. All your friends who were attacked... I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt them that badly, and that girl who was electrocuted, she's perfectly fine now anyways, with no lasting damage. You and your little friend can just step aside and not interfere with our work, and I promise we'll leave you alone."

Shinsou narrowed his eyes, "Wait... you know about the other attacks?"

"Of course." Mind Break snorted, "We planned meticulously for this, you know? But then again, with how much those heroes liked to bring you kids out for patrols, it really wasn't too hard to see your schedules and act accordingly. It was harder for some of you, given you kids really like to jump around a lot... but still, wasn't too bad."

"So you targeted us?"

"In a way, for some of you, I guess. I'm not too sure -"

Shinsou growled, and activated his quirk on the talkative villain, but much to his surprise, instead of being able to control Mind Break, he felt his own control over his own body being yanked away from him.

The lavender haired boy heard Mind Break's laughter echoing inside his head, and he nearly had a heart attack when he heard Mind Break "speak".

_"Poor child. My quirk doesn't just require physical contact. You are aware that a__ "connection" can mean a mental connection, too, right? Your quirk is rather powerful... much easier for me to form a connection."_

Mind Break's voice was so close, almost like the man was right next to him, reverberating around inside his head like a loud noise in a small room, but Shinsou could clearly see the villain a couple of feet away from him, a toothy smirk plastered on his face.

_"I _apologize _for this, but I'll try to make sure you don't end up as mangled as my other victims."_

Shinsou hastily tried to break off his quirk, but Mind Break's hold on his mind was strong, and it was just a mental struggle for Shinsou to figure out what thoughts were his own, and what were mere projections of the villain's will onto him.

He vaguely noticed a familiar black figure dropping down to smash a villain into the ground, and Shinsou pushed back against the villain's hold, doing his best to prevent Mind Break from turning his attention to the other civilians or heroes. He could sense Aizawa's presence, and he was sure that Midoriya had noticed it too. He just had to hold out long enough for Aizawa to notice the villain and use Erasure on him and this would all be over and -

Shinsou heard a sigh inside his head, as Mind Break spoke up again, _"Well... this is getting a bit bothersome. Go attack that green haired boy behind you."_

The lavender haired boy could feel his muscles tensing up, and his arms were twitching, so eager to just follow Mind Break's instructions, but the boy was trying his best to resist the command. Midoriya was his best friend. He was the first one that found him, the first one to offer him help, the first one who ever held a full on conversation with him.

Midoriya might not be the exact same person as he was in the past, but that was no fault of his, and Shinsou could never even think of hurting him.

Shinsou forcefully yanked back control over his own mind, and pain flared through his entire body, tingling down his spine and through his veins, and everything turned black.

* * *

Midoriya heard a loud thump behind him, and he turned around, punching a mind controlled woman in the face as he did so. He noticed that Aizawa had joined the fray at some point. The man must have been sent here to deal with Mind Break, or he was tasked to figure out who was the user of the quirk behind all those suicides; it only made sense, suicide rates didn't spike like that for no reason.

He didn't see Shinsou, and he looked down, noticing the lavender haired boy lying on the ground, unconscious.

Midoriya's heart clenched, and he immediately kicked the woman in the chest and into a lamp post, before he scrambled to Shinsou's side. There was blood dripping out of a wound on his head where he had hit the ground, and there was also some blood dribbling out of his mouth.

"Hito?" Midoriya shook the taller boy gently, but to no avail. The greenette growled, and immediately turned his attention to Mind Break, glaring daggers at the taller villain.

"What did you do to him!?" Midoriya hissed, feeling the fire in his chest grow larger and larger with each passing second. That was his friend, Shinsou was right behind him, he got hurt, and Midoriya didn't even notice it.

He got no reply, and he gently placed Shinsou back on the ground, and demanded, "What. Did. You. Do. To. Him!?"

"Idiot tried to break out of my mind control!" Mind Break growled, stunned, as he took a step back, reeling from the backlash of his quirk being broken out of. He knew what Midoriya was capable of, but he needed some time to regain his bearings, and if the boy tried to rush in and fight him head on after that, he had a good chance of taking control of him. He just needed to wait it out, and maybe piss Midoriya off to buy himself some time.

"Mental quirks don't mesh well. Anyone with a mental quirk knows that. Human minds are too delicate, and our minds can be broken in mere seconds." Mind Break spat, "That idiot should have known better than to -"

He was cut off by an inhumane, monstrous screech, and the next thing he knew, there was a knife in his face.

* * *

"Eraserhead." Tensei greeted, as he and Aizawa stood back to back, with Aizawa using his capture weapon to reel villains in for Tensei to knock out with powerful, Engine-boosted punches. They tried to be more gentle with the mind controlled civilians, but luckily, there didn't seem to be as many civilians as there were villains.

"Is Mind Break here?" Aizawa asked, and Tensei nodded. The Turbo hero was about to redirect Aizawa's attention to the exact villain he was talking about, when they heard a loud screech, full of anger and pain, and a powerful aura slammed into them, leaving them stunned for a couple of seconds.

"Midoriya?" Aizawa turned around, and noticed that smaller boy lunging at said villain, with Shinsou lying on the ground lifelessly.

"Hakryuen! Don't get close! His quirk works through contact!" Tensei yelled, but the boy didn't heed his warning, rage and fury burning within his emerald orbs.

The boy swung his blade at Mind Break's face, but the villain managed to sidestep in time, and reached out for Midoriya's face. The angered boy merely aimed his knife at Mind Break's hand, startling him, before Midoriya landed on the ground, slashing away at the villain who was just barely able to evade Midoriya's attacks.

Until Midoriya kicked it up a notch, and lunged forward, fainting an attack, before sidestepping, and kicking the villain right in the groin before kneeing the man in the face, completely breaking his nose.

The greenette bared his teeth at the downed villain, who now had blood dripping out of his nose, before the boy turned his death glare to the other villains in the near vicinity, the atmosphere around him so thick that it was almost hard to breathe. Midoriya was about to throw himself at the group of villains, as Aizawa rushed in to check on his kid, earning a sharp turn of Midoriya's head.

Midoriya snarled at Aizawa, before he blinked registering who was in his space, before deeming Aizawa safe enough and turned his attention back to the villains and started plowing through them like a hot knife through butter, rendering the entire group of villains on the ground and twitching in pain in minutes, clutching their arm, stomach, or wherever Midoriya had hit them in pain, giving Aizawa the opportunity to look Shinsou over, gently taking the boy's mask off.

Shinsou was bleeding from the head and had some blood dripping from his mouth, but his heart rate was stable. His voice changing mask was also padded, so there weren't any lacerations or injuries caused from that, and Aizawa could not identify any other injuries. The Erasure Hero placed the unconscious boy's head on his lap, gently, cradling him so that he could protect him from any potential harm.

"Hakryuen?" Enigma blinked in confusion, before the boy sped off again, roaring in anger as he twisted over another villain, hooking his legs around the guy's neck and flipping the man into the ground. Midoriya was not letting a single person within a two meter radius of Shinsou, and growled at anyone who even tried.

Aizawa flinched as he heard the crack beneath the villain; he wasn't too sure if it was the road cracking, or Midoriya had broken the villain's spine, but one thing was for sure, and that was the green haired boy was pissed off. Tensei had already called for ambulances and police officers, and Enigma was trying to get closer to help, now that the villains were either petrified of the small green haired boy, unconscious, or on the ground, writhing and twitching in pain pathetically like cockroaches who had come into contact with insect killer spray.

It was really easy for Onemu Shinya and Tensei to take out the remainder of the villains. There was a villain who lunged at Midoriya and grabbed onto his arm, but the boy merely ripped her of him and slammed her into the ground so hard that Tensei swore he could have broken her neck if he angled the hit slightly differently.

The police and ambulances were starting to arrive, and Midoriya turned his attention towards the loud, noisy vehicles with blaring lights, and growled, but he must have deemed them as non-threatening as he stumbled over to Shinsou's side. He crouched down, right next to Shinsou's body, and he let out a stuttery, choked rumble from the back of his throat.

He glanced up at Aizawa, and the Erasure Hero looked back at him, then turned back to Shinsou, muttering, "It's alright. You tried your best."

Midoriya kept his eyes glued on Shinsou, seemingly stunned into muted silence, hardly processing what was going on, even when the ambulance started to unload the stretchers and take care of the injured villains and civilians, before Tensei directed the paramedics in Aizawa's direction.

The green haired boy barely reacted as Shinsou was loaded up onto a stretcher, and out of the corner of his eyes, Aizawa seemed to be talking to the paramedics, Shinsou's mask in hand, gesturing at Midoriya, but the paramedics all shook their heads. Aizawa glanced at Midoriya sadly, before he followed the paramedics into the ambulance, and the paramedics closed the doors.

Midoriya blinked, finally seeming to figure out what was going on, and he stood up, gazing at the ambulance, and Tensei rushed forward, wrapping his arms around Midoriya before he could move.

"Hitoshi!" Midoriya screeched, struggling in Tensei's grasp as he reached out towards the ambulance that was rapidly speeding away, and the Turbo Hero did his best to restrain the boy without hurting him.

He was pretty sure that if Midoriya wanted to escape, he would find _some _way to do it; he could say that with confidence from personal experience with the boy after the Kamino incident that the boy could wiggle out of anything if he wanted to. But the boy was worried, and was most likely not thinking straight, and it was actually pretty easy for Tensei to restrain Midoriya given that the greenette wasn't too bulky, nor was he too strong. He relied mostly on speed, and without the built up momentum, he really didn't have the physical strength to overpower Tensei.

"It's okay. Eraser's with him. Hitoshi will be safe, alright?" Tensei tried to calm the panicking boy, and it took some time until Midoriya's energy left him, and the boy slumped down in his arms tiredly, his eyes dull and lifeless.

"Hitoshi..." Midoriya faintly murmured under his breath, and Tensei closed his eyes. He could only hope that Shinsou would be alright.


	140. Chapter 140 - And you left me

"Call all the hero students back to their agencies and back to UA. NOW." Nezu ordered as he stormed into the teacher's lounge, making half the teachers jump in surprise, "Midnight, cover for Aizawa for now, and help Vlad King with the first years. I will contact the other teachers, and the respective agencies."

"What's happened?" Ishiyama asked, confused, as Yamada burst into the teacher's lounge, his phone still in his hand. He had gone out for a minute to answer his phone before Nezu had entered the teacher's lounge, and the Voice Hero zeroed in on the principal, "I just got a call from Shouta and -"

"Mic, I know!" Nezu snapped, temporarily losing his cool, before he took a deep breath and sighed, "Call all the students back, as soon as possible, regardless of whether they are in the hero course or not. Anyone who's gone out for coffee, shopping for groceries, whatever, just get them all back now!"

"Nezu, what is going on?" Snipe calmly asked, trying to figure out the problem, and Nezu turned his head towards the sniper, "We are calling off all the work studies."

"Is that an order from the Hero Commission?" Kayama asked, and Nezu growled, "I don't care about the Hero Commission at this point in time. It's only been a week since the work studies started, and we've already had so many students injured and in the hospital. I should have canceled all this earlier."

Understanding the severity of the situation, all the teachers promptly placed their work down and headed out. It wasn't the time for them to be sitting down and asking questions. If they had any queries, they could ask Nezu later, when everything had calmed down and all the students were within the safe confines of the school.

Yamada stared at the principal, and Nezu glanced at him, "Mic, go to the hospital and find Aizawa. Alert him of the news. And if you see students on the way, tell them to come back as soon as possible. I will be telling Power Loader to increase school security, and then I'll talk to the Hero Commission if they decide to do shit."

"Will UA be alright, pulling all the students back without permission?" Yamada asked, "If we go against the Hero Commission, they might retaliate against UA, and we won't be able to protect the kids."

"We can't protect the students if the students are all dead!" Nezu countered, "You already know Shinsou's circumstances; compared to everything else, this is huge. If the Hero Commission isn't going to take action on their own, then something is severely wrong with their heads and how they function!"

Nezu stormed back towards his office, tapping on his phone, before pressing it to his ear, "Power Loader?... Yes, upgrade security... just do it somehow. Get the students to work on it too. We can't risk... I know..."

Nezu walked back into his office, and Yamada quickly ran out of the teacher's lounge.

* * *

Yamada rushed to the hospital that Aizawa had informed him they were at. It wasn't one of the conventional Hero hospitals, but it was one that specializes in treatment for those with mental quirks.

"Shouta!" Yamada yelled, waving his arm as he noticed the black haired man standing outside the hospital, staring at his phone, an extra capture weapon looped around his neck, and Shinsou's mask in his hand.

Aizawa looked up as Yamada ran over to him.

"He's safe. Hitoshi's alright. He's just unconscious. He'll wake up." Aizawa muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Yamada to hear, "The doctors said so. No major injuries, and his quirk factor is still fine. But they don't know when he'll wake up due to the more complex nature of mental quirks."

"What happened?" Yamada quietly asked, not wanting to spook Aizawa, and the man raised his eyes slowly, his hand that was holding the mask shaking,

"Mind Break... I knew there was something off when the description of his quirk was labeled as "connection" instead of "contact"... since those were the words that Mind Break himself used to describe his quirk... based on the recording... Hitoshi must have tried to brainwash Mind Break... but the villain used Hitoshi's mental connection as a gateway for his own quirk..." Aizawa stated, and Yamada nodded, putting the pieces together, "You think Hitoshi might have tried to cut the connection himself."

Aizawa nodded, "That was what the doctors were speculating too, when they asked for the cause to decide on the best way of treatment. Hitoshi can cut the connection on his own, but with someone else with a powerful mind control quirk... obviously that put a lot of pressure on him and Hitoshi's attempt to regain control hurt him."

"But the doctors said he's fine, right?" Yamada tried his best to console the Erasure Hero, and Aizawa just exhaled, "Yeah, but... mental quirk. There might be problems that the doctors can't identify as of now... we'll only be sure when Hitoshi wakes up."

"Don't worry so much, Shouta." Yamada pulled Aizawa in for a hug, "We know he'll be fine. He's a strong kid. He'll make it."

"I know..." Aizawa sighed, "I was right there... and I couldn't stop it from happening..."

"Shouta... we're heroes... stuff like that happens all the time..." Yamada murmured, and Aizawa glanced at him, "I was supposed to be hunting Mind Break down... it just feels like nothing is going right..."

"Stop being a pessimist." Yamada halfheartedly berated, "Things will look up soon. All the students are called back to UA, so they're definitely safe, and now, all those villains are behind bars! And according to the doctors, Hitoshi's fine! Things are definitely getting better!"

"Idiot. You're just as upset as I am. Don't try to hide it." Aizawa let out a dry chuckle at Yamada's antics, "You... want to see Hitoshi?"

"Yes, please, kind sir." Yamada jested, and Aizawa glared at the blonde, before he made his way into the hospital.

* * *

"Hey!" Ashido waved, as Ojiro and Sato entered the dorms, "You guys are back early!"

"Yeah." Ojiro nodded, "Apparently, Shishido got a call, and told us to come back as soon as possible. I have no idea what's going on, though."

"It probably has to do with the sheer number of villain attacks once the internships started back up." Sato sighed, before he looked up, "How are your injuries, Mina?"

"Great!" Ashido grinned, throwing her hands into the air, "Kind of itchy, though!"

"Say... where's Jiro? Wasn't she in the dorms too?" Kaminari asked, looking up from his phone; he, Mineta, Sero, and Shiozaki had just gotten back a few minutes ago after the Lurkers had gotten a message from UA.

"Oh, with Recovery Girl." Ashido replied, "She went to get a checkup."

"Alright." Kaminari nodded, as Sero spoke up, "So... assuming that everyone else was called back to UA... who else are we missing?"

"Not sure." Hagakure replied, "Uh... Aoyama is in his room, Mina and I are here, the Lurkers team and the Shishido team are back, Yaomomo is also out, but Tokage is in the 1-B dorms... Kiri is not here. Shoji is resting and Jiro is with Recovery Girl..."

"Iida, Midoriya, and Shinsou are still out. As well as Uraraka and Asui. And Bakugou and Todoroki; I'm pretty sure I saw them on the news with Endeavor like... two hours ago. Koda and Tokoyami also remained in the dorms today." Ashido finished off.

Right as she finished speaking, the door opened, and Uraraka and Asui entered the dorms, "Hey guys!"

"Uraraka! Tsu!" Hagakure cheered, "Welcome back! Did anything happen?"

"Ryukyu suddenly got a call, kero." Asui replied, "Then she turned to us and Hado-senpai, and told us we had to come back to UA immediately. We don't know why, though."

Uraraka nodded, "It was weird!"

"Same here." Ojiro spoke up, before some yelling from outside the dorms rang out.

"Fucking shit, Icyhot!... No, I have no fucking idea why we're being sent back after ONLY one fucking week!... Shut up!"

"Bakugou and Todoroki, I assume?" Sero smirked, right as the hot headed blonde and the dual hair colored boy walked into the dorms, and started taking off their shoes.

"Hi." Todoroki looked up, and Bakugou rolled his eyes, "Fucking hell. It takes forever to get from here to Endeavor's agency!"

"It's not that bad." Todoroki dryly replied, and the explosive blonde snapped at him, "Not that bad your ass! Fucking waste of travel time."

There was a small bark, and Kinu and Kacchan raced down the stairs and out into the common room, running up to their respective humans. Kacchan yipped and rubbed himself against Bakugou's leg, while Kinu just pawed at Uraraka's shoes, looking up excitedly.

"Kinu!" Uraraka placed her case with her hero costume in it down, and promptly scooped the chinchilla up, "Were you with Yuwai and Koji today?"

Kinu chirped, as Reiko looked up from her position on Midoriya's bean bag, where she was cuddling with Ryuto.

Similarly, Bakugou placed his bags on the ground and reached down, patting Kacchan on the head and scratching him behind the ears, as Koda emerged from the hallway, Yuwai huddled by his foot.

"Seeing as the Ryukyu Agency, the Lurkers, and the Shishido agency work studies students are back here... I'm going to assume that all the UA students were sent back?" Todoroki asked, and Ojiro nodded, "I think we're just waiting for Kirishima, Iida, Shinsou, and Midoriya to come back."

* * *

Midoriya trudged back into the 1-A dorms, carrying his backpack and his hero costume case. He slowly pushed the door open, and peered around, and took a step back when he noticed that nearly the entire class was gathered in the common room, and Kan turned around, noticing the new arrival.

"Midoriya!" Ashido yelled, "You're finally here!"

The greenette just stared blankly at her, and closed the door behind him. He slipped his shoes off, placing them neatly on the shoe rack, before he resumed trudging back up to his room.

"Wait, Midoriya! Vlad King-sensei has an announcement about the..." Yaoyorozu's voice trailed off as she noticed that Midoriya wasn't even listening to her, and didn't even respond. He just walked out of the room silently, and Kan sighed, "Well... I guess I should start."

"But Izuku..." Uraraka pointed in the direction that Midoriya disappeared to, and Jiro blinked, "Wait... doesn't Shinsou intern in the same agency that Midoriya does? At least... for the time being..."

"Yes, with my brother." Iida nodded, confused, as Kan cleared his throat, watching out of the corner of his eye as Reiko and Ryuto hopped out of the bean bag to follow Midoriya, "I will speak to Midoriya later. I think he is equally aware of the circumstances at hand..."

Kan looked up gravely, "Due to the sheer number of villain attacks that either targeted students, or resulted in the students getting injured on their work studies... from this day forward, the work studies are canceled. Permanently."

"Is it just for UA, or are the other schools also going to be canceling these mandatory work studies?" Todoroki asked, and Kan scratched his head, "As far as I know, some of the other schools like Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu have been pulling students back, but we still aren't sure if the Hero Commission is going to take any action regarding this matter."

"Well... something serious must have happened for all this to happen so... suddenly, right?" Kaminari spoke up, "Like... I know Jiro got knocked out and Shoji got injured... and that thing with Tokage... did something happen today?"

"Shinsou isn't here... does this have to do with him?" Kirishima asked, and Kan fell silent. He internally debated whether he should tell that to the students, when the door to the dorms was flung open again, and a quiet Aizawa walked into the room.

"Sensei!" Sero yelped, and Aizawa raised his eyebrow at the students, before turning to Kan, "Mic's with him right now. Did you tell them?"

"That the work studies are canceled, yes..." Kan trailed off, as Iida asked, "Did something happen to Hitoshi?"

Aizawa froze up subtly, and lowered his gaze, "Shinsou's fine, but he's in the hospital right now. He happened to encounter someone who countered his quirk perfectly... it didn't turn out too good. Vlad King, you can go take care of 1-B now. I can handle 1-A."

Kan was stunned by the sudden change in topic, before he blinked and cleared his throat, "Ah... okay."

The Blood Hero slowly made his way out of the dorms, unsure of how the situation at hand might make Aizawa act, and the Erasure hero turned his attention back to the students, "You guys have one free day before we start lessons up again. You're all dismissed."

He surveyed the students, "Midoriya isn't here. Where is he?"

"In his room." Iida promptly replied, "If we're dismissed... I'm going to tell him the news."

"I'll deal with that." Aizawa gruffly replied, "Now go do your own stuff. I don't care what, just don't break anything."

* * *

Reiko and Ryuto shot into the room as Midoriya entered, closing the door gently behind him, and flopped down on his bean bag.

The white feline curled up next to Midoriya, using pawing at Midoriya's cheek, as Ryuto huddled down by Midoriya's neck comfortingly.

"He was right behind me... I should have..." Midoriya gritted his teeth in frustration, "I'm useless... it's my fault. If I had just... been faster..."

Reiko blinked at him in confusion, not really sure what was going on, but judging from the fact that Shinsou had yet to come back, despite working at the same agency as Midoriya, it was clear that something had happened to him. She pressed her paw down on Midoriya's nose, gaining Midoriya's attention, and the greenette trailed his gaze over to the feline.

She purred, tilting her head in confusion as a clear sign that they had no context, and Midoriya limply lay down on his bed, weakly muttering, "I don't know... he was there, talking to the villain... and just... I don't know..."

He curled in on himself, whimpering, "I don't know, I don't know -"

A knock on the door rang out, and Midoriya hastily covered his mouth with his palm instinctively; was he being too loud? Was he disturbing his classmates or teachers? He waited, his heart pounding, hoping that he was quiet enough that the person outside his door would just go away.

There was another knock.

"Midoriya? Can I come in?"

He could hear the familiar sound of the homeroom teacher's voice, and Midoriya sank even deeper into the bean bag. Aizawa wasn't just 1-A's teacher, but he was also Shinsou's adoptive parent. He didn't deserve the right to just ignore him like that.

Pushing himself up, Midoriya shuffled to the door, and opened it, looking up to meet Aizawa's tired, black orbs.

Aizawa observed Midoroya's blank, dull expression, and looked at him in the eye, trying to keep his voice even, "Hitoshi's okay. He's just unconscious. We just have to wait for him to wake up, but we don't know when; mental quirks are a lot more complex in nature. It is hypothesized that Mind Break used Hitoshi's quirk as a connection to use his own quirk, and that put a lot more pressure on Hitoshi."

Midoriya just blinked blankly, and lowered his gaze towards the ground, "... I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault." Aizawa muttered, "No one knew that Mind Break would use his quirk like that."

There was more silence between them, and Midoriya felt that he didn't really deserve the right to ask, but he wanted to see Shinsou, "Can... I see him?"

"I'm not sure." Aizawa replied, "That hospital specifically caters to patients with mental quirks, and it's notorious for not letting anyone other than family members visit due to the sensitive nature of their medical equipment. I can ask... but the chances are low."

Midoriya nodded bleakly, and didn't even bother closing the door behind him before he flopped onto his bean bag lifelessly, and Aizawa sighed, not knowing what else to do, "Lessons start in two days."

The Erasure Hero gently closed Midoriya's door, and turned away, heading back towards the teacher's lounge.


	141. Chapter 141 - More dead

Uraraka yawned, swinging her feet over the side of the bed, putting on her slippers, and blearily walked down the stairs, and headed to the kitchen. She didn't know what time it was, but she was thirsty and she wanted some water.

Noticing that the lights in the common room were still brightly lit, she paused, and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She had been one of the last ones to leave the common room and retire to her room, and she had been relatively sure that Tokoyami had switched the lights off after he was done watching some conspiracy theory documentary with Todoroki.

She quietly crept into the room, and noticed a familiar mop of green hair by the table. She walked over, and Midoriya looked up, some books in his hand that had some graphs that she didn't understand, and there was a cup of coffee sitting on the table as he sat in the bean bag. Reiko and Ryuto were curled up on his lap, already fast asleep, and it seemed like Shirou was using his shoulder as a pillow as the lavender haired boy's cat slept.

Uraraka was actually surprised to see that Midoriya was up. The boy had holed himself up in his room for the entire day, and didn't even leave when they called him from dinner.

"Can't sleep?" She asked, as Midoriya muttered, "Just... staying up. I want to be here when he comes back."

Uraraka's face fell, and she squatted down, "Izuku... I don't think he'll be back so soon. It's like... three in the morning. Earliest he would come back is later today."

"Still... maybe he'll come back soon." Midoriya murmured, lowering his head, almost guiltily, and a small, sad smile crept onto the brunette's face.

Uraraka wasn't about to leave her friend alone, and she stood up, "I'm going to grab some water."

Midoriya nodded, and turned his attention back to his book, and Uraraka stood up, making her way towards the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water.

She grabbed her cup, and settled down on the couch, relatively close enough to Midoriya, before she flicked the television on and lowered the volume so that she didn't disturb anyone else, especially not Midoriya.

There was some animated cartoon playing on television, and she had no idea what was going on since animated shows didn't exactly put detail onto the way mouths moved while talking, and there were no subtitles, but she wasn't about to be fiddling with the settings and maybe messing something up.

She leaned back, taking a sip of water, and watched as two teenagers seemed to be fighting some monsters, and Midoriya raised his head slowly.

"... Not... sleeping...?"

"Nah. Can't sleep anyways." Uraraka replied, "I'll just stay here for a while."

Midoriya mutely nodded, and went back to his book, and Uraraka drifted her gaze to Midoriya, then back to the television.

* * *

"Can he have visitors?" Aizawa asked the receptionist, as he stood in the hospital's main lobby. He had to go back to UA to prepare for his nightly shift of Hero work, but Yamada wanted to stay overnight in Shinsou's hospital room to look over their kid.

They did want to figure out if they could bring guests, though.

The receptionist shook his head, "Sir, we do not allow guests for a reason. Many of them have quirks that could negatively affect our delicate equipment, and the various types of quirks make it very hard to differentiate between safe quirks and quirks that might mess something up. To keep patients safe, and the risks as low as possible, we do not allow guests, only family. And even then, we do checks on the parents to ensure their quirks are safe."

Yamada frowned, "So... if we bring a guest that has a safe quirk... then it's okay?"

"No." The receptionist protested, "People with "safe" quirks might also have other side effects that could adversely impact our equipment. Too risky."

"Then someone quirkless is fine -" Aizawa got cut off by the receptionist throwing his hands up in a rage, "Quirkless? Those are the worst! Demons, even! We do not allow quirkless here!"

Aizawa and Yamada blinked, dumbfounded, as the receptionist ranted, "Quirkless people are practically cursed! They're little demons that run around, blending in, appearing to be normal children, but no! They're different, and they just cause chaos everywhere they go! A colleague of mine, he has a son, and in elementary school, when he was seven, he had a quirkless classmate that went crazy for some reason and nearly bit off another child's finger! They're crazy, I tell you!"

Aizawa narrowed his eyes as the receptionist continued, "And they're not enough quirkless people nowadays for testing, but I'm sure it's all contagious! The madness would keep spreading! Schools with quirkless kids? Reports of suicide! UA suddenly gets a quirkless student? They suddenly get involved in two mass villain attacks! They're cursed, a sign of misfortune! And..."

"I think he's gotten causation and correlation mixed up..." Yamada gritted his teeth in frustration. It was clear that the two heroes were pissed at the receptionist for spouting such nonsense, but they didn't want to make a scene. At least it wasn't the doctors who were spilling all this bullshit.

Plus, there really wasn't enough real information about the quirkless population going around; all of it was just rumours, and they were all not pleasant.

But something about a seven-year-old nearly biting off a finger? Aizawa wasn't too sure, but it was pretty coincidental that Midoriya had also been suspended at the age of seven.

The receptionist kept rambling, and Aizawa sighed, "Okay, okay. No guests."

Aizawa really hated hospitals.

* * *

Iida got up from his position in one of the chairs in the common room, and trudged into the kitchen, yawning, before he proceeded to make himself some toast.

He heard the flipping of pages, and internally sighed. It seemed like Midoriya still hadn't slept yet.

The previous day, he had found Uraraka sleeping on the couch with the television switched on, for some reason, and he had been pretty sure that she had gone back to her room because she usually didn't just fall asleep in the common room.

Midoriya had been reading a book about coding, or Iida assumed that was what he was reading because the title of the book had the word "python" on it and Iida was relatively sure that the long strings of multicolored words on the pages were not referring to actual reptilian snakes.

After he had woken Uraraka up, she had explained the entire situation in hushed tones while he was making his toast, when Koda and Todoroki entered the kitchen for cereal.

The other students, however, were also starting to wake up, causing Midoriya to retreat back to his room. 1-A had mostly spent the previous day messing around, though, and Midoriya had spent the entire day holed up alone, most likely still reading.

The only times that they had seen him were when they tried to bring him dinner and lunch, placing the plates on his desk, but given that the two plates remained untouched when Midoriya brought the plates out to wash the dishes and settle down in the quieter common room, it was obvious that the greenette was greatly upset and it was adversely affecting his appetite.

All of them were, given that one of their classmates was hospitalized for more than a day and had to stay for a couple of days in a specialized hospital, but Shinsou's absence from the dorms was hitting Midoriya the hardest.

Iida, Koda, Todoroki, and Uraraka had tried to stay up to keep the quiet boy company, though most of them, had ended up falling asleep to the news as Midoriya kept on reading and sipping his coffee.

Iida grabbed his toast, and put some jam on it, before he placed it on a plate and walked over to the couch. Normally, he would be eating at the table, just in case there were crumbs so he could sweep them up easily, but the bespectacled boy wanted to keep an eye on the others.

Much to his surprise, the greenette was gone, and Shirou was the only one lying in the bean bag. Iida blinked, concerned for the disappearance of the boy, but figured that Midoriya most likely went back to his room.

Iida settled down on the couch, and munched happily on his toast, when he heard some heavy footsteps. Turning, Iida blinked as he watched Midoriya trudge down the stairs, his school bag in one hand. His uniform was disheveled and buttoned up haphazardly, his tie was just looped loosely around his neck, and his hair looked like a literal bird's nest as he slumped back down into the bean bag, facing the wall.

Reiko and Ryuto followed behind him and Iida blinked, not really sure what to do, "Good morning, Izuku! Do you... want some breakfast?"

Midoriya glanced at him emptily, subtly shaking his head, before he proceeded to continue sulking into the bean bag.

He noticed a black line on Midoriya's arm, peeking out from under his crumpled uniform sleeve, but he didn't think too much of it, deeming it as a shadow caused by a trick of the light, or some scar.

Ashido had her bandages taken off just the day before, and showing off the chemical burns on her skin. While Iida didn't think that such nasty scars should be something she should be proud of, since she had gotten hurt pretty badly, but she didn't seem too upset over it, and he felt that as long as she was happy, who was he to judge?

It didn't take too long for several other classmates to get down into the common room, and for Uraraka, Todoroki and Koda to wake up and go back to their rooms to change. Much to his delight, most of the students were also down in the common room for breakfast at around seven forty-five, though he did notice that Jiro seemed a bit more wary around Kaminari than usual.

They had finally come to an agreement that if someone wasn't down in the common room by eight in the morning, Iida could go and wake them up after Uraraka, Shoji, Asui, and Tokoyami had to explain to him that most other people did not require two whole hours to get ready for lessons, and did not appreciate being woken up at the ungodly hour of six thirty when the commute to the main school building from the dorms takes less than ten minutes, _especially_ taking into the consideration that their class was very prone to accidental delays.

"Alright!" Iida stood up, trying to be upbeat, and washed his dishes, "Come on! First day of school after such a long time! We should be early!"

He was met with exasperated groans.

* * *

There was a knock on Nezu's door, and the animal principal looked up in confusion. He knew that several of the students did have schedules with Inui for therapy and counselling, but the kids wouldn't be messing up the doors, especially since they had gone to talk to Inui before after that horrible attack on UA, and the Kamino incident. He was certain there weren't any meetings today, so he had no idea why someone would be knocking on his door.

"Come in?"

The door creaked open, and Midoriya walked in, gently closing the door behind him, before he sat down in the bean bag silently, not even saying a word. Nezu gazed at the boy, eyeing his messy, disheveled uniform, and placed his papers down, "Izuku? Are you alright?"

Midoriya nodded, and Nezu narrowed his eyes, before he grabbed some of his work and hopped off his chair. He shuffled down to where Midoriya was sitting, and settled down beside him, making himself comfortable, "Want to talk about it?"

There was some silence, with the only sounds in the office being the noise of Nezu's papers and the faint footsteps and voices from the heroes in the teacher's lounge, before Midoriya shook his head, and sank deeper into the bean bag.

"Alright." Nezu stated, and he went back to finishing up his paperwork. The Hero Commission didn't seem to care that the students were getting injured on the work studies, despite the protests from various academic institutions and schools across Japan, but they were pissed when UA started recalling their students without any permission.

They had gotten even more pissed off when the other schools noticed what UA was doing, and for the first time, they also directly disobeyed the Hero Commission by also calling off the mandatory work studies and bringing all the students back to their respective schools.

Luckily, at this point in time, the Hero Commission's hands were tied; they knew that if they made a public statement, the citizens would be on the schools' side for protecting their students, and with the fall of Yagi, Enji's struggle to take on the burden of being the new Number On hero, Hawks' recently weird behavior of appearing and disappearing as and when he liked, and now, with the villain attacks seemingly being targeted at the students, the Hero Commission couldn't take any large, drastic measures without upsetting the delicate balance of society.

But either way, it didn't matter. If the kids needed experience, then they would just train them in school and call on other heroes to talk to the students about their work. Sure, it wouldn't be as effective as actually going out into the streets and dealing with villains, but the students had plenty of opportunities to do that in the future, when things have _hopefully_ settled down.

Nezu was currently trying to read some of the fine print when Midoriya muttered, "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Nezu frowned, and looked up to face the boy, who was just staring at the ground, "Sorry? Izuku, you didn't do anything wrong."

"... If I was better... Hitoshi might not have... and then you had to cancel the work studies... and it's just making more of a mess..." Midoriya rambled under his breath, "It's my fault... I'm sorry... I'm not good enough... this wouldn't have happened..."

"No. This isn't your fault." Nezu reached up and gently grabbed Midoriya's arm, "In times like this, the Hero Commission should not have forced you kids into doing something so dangerous without any regard to your safety. The schools are at fault for blindly listening and giving in to the Hero Commission's wishes despite our own misgivings. Whatever it is, it is not the students' fault, nor is it your own fault, Izuku. You were just following the instructions given to you to the best of your ability. We can't predict the future, and how things turned out would never be your fault. Those villains are the ones at fault for targeting children who are just doing what the adults are telling them to do."

Midoriya just gazed at Nezu forlornly, and Nezu could tell that this wasn't the only thing bothering Midoriya, but he wasn't going to be pushy. He did notice that there seemed to be something written on Midoriya's arm, but he didn't think too much about it; he'd let Midoriya talk at his own pace.

The room remained silent one more, until Midoriya curled up and rested his head on the bean bag, muttering, "...I want him back."

Nezu just reached out, gently ruffling Midoriya's hair, "He'll be fine, okay Izuku? Don't worry too much."


	142. Chapter 142 - Than you'll ever know

Midoriya clenched his fist as he sat down by his desk; he had left Reiko and Ryuto outside, since they seemed comfortable in the electric blanket, and he didn't want to bother them. He had skipped lunch and dinner again, and he had gone back to his room to shower before he went back to the common room to wait out the agonizingly long night.

His entire body was trembling, as he pulled on a clean hoodie and a fresh pair of sweatpants; he felt a familiar urge run through his body, trickling through his veins. He was very familiar with that urge, feeling its presence everyday ever since he turned ten. Sometimes, he gave into it, knowing that there was no other escape, but he knew that it's power over him had been weakening ever since he had come under Nezu and UA's care.

Midoriya's hand trickled over to the knife in his pocket, and he gingerly fished it out, watching the glint of the light as he turned it around slowly, the familiar feeling of the handle of the knife fitting into the palm of his hand perfectly.

He knew that he shouldn't feed into the urge again. He had been trying so hard to avoid acting on it, he knew that he shouldn't do it, that it was bad, and he had promised Shinsou and Shuzenji that he wouldn't do it again.

But if they didn't know... it was okay... right?

Midoriya rolled up his sleeve, staring at the old scars that lingered on his arm, those rough, slightly elevator splotches of discolored skin that stood out prominently against his pale skin. His grip on the knife was firm, and he brought the knife downwards, right between his ulna and radius. He exhaled shakily, and took a sharp breath of air, before he took the blade out.

_Just one more. It wouldn't hurt anyone._

Midoriya brought the blade down one more time, letting the knife slice through more flesh, before he closed his eyes, and dragged the blade out slowly. He looked at the bloodied knife, before he shifted his gaze to the bloodied mess he made on his table. The greenette just reached into his drawer, and pulled out a sewing kit, some duct tape, and a spare roll of toilet paper.

He hastily pressed some toilet paper to his arm, and proceeded to clean up the bloody mess before he flushed the toilet paper down the toilet, before he carefully threaded the string through the eye of the needle. He used another piece of toilet paper to wipe away excess blood, before he stabbed the needle into his arm, slowly, painstakingly stitching the sliced skin of his arm back together.

He bit onto the thread, keeping it tense as he tied a knot, before he used his teeth to tear the thread, and turned his arm around to stitch up the other side. Deeming his handiwork good enough, he washed his arm and needle in the sink, before he kept the needle, along with the rest of the sewing kit, back in the drawer.

Midoriya picked up the duct tape, and pulled some of it out. He used his teeth to rip it off, before he plastered it on his arm, over the stitches; there was still some blood coming out, and he didn't want to dirty his clothes, since that would tip his classmates off.

He ripped more tape off, and plastered it over the other side of his arm, before he washed his arm again, and pulled down his sleeve.

That's it. He's already fed the craving. He could go about his day and ignore it now.

Midoriya grabbed another thick book and yanked his door open. Their teachers had given them some homework, and even though it was due in two days, Midoriya wanted to finish it as soon as possible and get it out of the way. There was no reason to let his work pile up when he could use the remainder of his time to study or do research for Sasaki; according to the teachers, the students weren't allowed to go out for their work studies, but research was perfectly fine since the students could remain in the safety of the UA dorms.

* * *

Shinsou groaned, and he slowly opened his eyes, before he immediately felt like he was being blinded, and closed his eyes again. His head was pounding like a jackhammer, and the boy wanted nothing more than to just go back to the never ending abyss of nothingness called sleep.

He shifted his head slightly, and blinked several times, trying to get used to the light, and make out his surroundings.

He could tell that he was in a room that wasn't his own, lying on a bed... and a familiar blonde who had his hair up in a bun, tapping sleepily on some device. There was also this other guy in all black, but he seemed to be nodding off.

His mind felt like it was filled with cotton candy, and he felt like he could hear his own thoughts echoing around inside his head. He just closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the headache that was building up in his head.

A strange beeping sound filled the air, startling the two men awake. The blonde quickly rushed to what seemed like a door, and the black haired man just leaned over him, gripping at the sides of the bed.

"... Hitoshi?"

Shinsou just blinked at him in confusion. His mind was fuzzy, and it felt like his brain was just being jump started, but that headache really wasn't helping his case.

"The doctor's here." He heard the blonde man's footsteps as he ran back into the room, before his mind seemed functional enough to register just what was going on.

"... Dad?" Shinsou muttered, trying to focus his vision while his brain pounded, "What's..."

"Hitoshi..." Aizawa slowly reached out, patting Shinsou's head gently, "It's alright."

* * *

"Midoriya... you really should eat something..." Sato sighed, carefully scooping out some udon into a small bowl, "With all the training we're having now... you need energy..."

Sato noticed that there was a black, curved line showing from underneath Midoriya's hoodie sleeve, but he just brushed it off and placed the bowl of udon in front of him. Several classmates like Ashido and Kaminari had a habit of doodling on themselves while they were bored. The pinkette claimed that she wanted to get a tattoo in the future to match her "Alien Queen" theme, so she was just trying out designs that might work with her pink skin, and her acid could destroy the marker ink easily.

Kaminari, on the other hand, just scribbled random lines idly on his arm since he had too much energy and was just really fidgety. Maybe Midoriya was just scribbling on himself to take his mind off things.

The greenette just glanced up at him, and shook his head. It had taken some time and a lot of convincing from his friends, but Iida finally managed to convince Midoriya to join them for dinner instead of holing himself up in his room all day.

But getting him to actually eat was a whole new problem.

"Just eat a little..." Ashido pouted, "Please? I honestly don't know how you've been functioning for the past four days with no food and only coffee."

"You can actually survive three weeks without food-" Yaoyorozu was cut off by Hagakure, "Yaomomo, don't give him any ideas!"

Midoriya just glanced at the bowl of noodles, then back at his classmates, before he sighed. He knew that he needed food for energy and nutrients, but he really knew that he couldn't stomach anything at the moment. He's drank enough coffee in the past for his body to get used to it, but he was feeling a little too nauseous to eat anything.

But then again... his classmates were really insistent, and he didn't want them to waste his time worrying about him.

Midoriya lifted his head, and slowly reached out for his chopsticks, before slowly nibbling on the udon. His stomach was rumbling before he even finished the noodles, and stood up, bringing his bowl to the kitchen, washing it alongside his chopsticks, before he headed back to his room, locking the door behind him.

He made a beeline to the bathroom, and promptly threw up.

Midoriya slumped to the floor, resting his arms on the toilet seat. He could feel the acidic bile on his throat, before he heaved, and puked again. His body trembled, and Midoriya spat out more saliva and bile, before he tried to rinse the disgusting taste out of his mouth.

* * *

It took a bit of time for Shinsou to fully regain his bearings for him to speak and function normally, and for the doctor to perform a checkup on him, but they discovered no underlying problems.

"How you're doing, kiddo?" Yamada asked, and Shinsou pushed himself up into a sitting position, waiting for his headache to fade into a dull throb at the back of his head, before he coughed and groaned, "...Thirsty."

Aizawa opened a bottle of water that he had gotten from the vending machine, and passed it over to him. Shinsou eagerly took it and drank some water, before he placed the bottle down.

"How long... was I out?" Shinsou shakily asked. He did remember what happened, kind of; he had been fighting Mind Break, and he was ordered to attack Midoriya, before he tried to sever the connection and passed out.

Aizawa did a mental count, "Around... four days?"

Shinsou blanched, and took another sip of water, "That... long?"

"It's not that long." Yamada tried to lighten the mood, "I mean, you're fine, everyone else is fine... Want to talk about what happened?"

"Well..." Shinsou frowned, "I tried to brainwash Mind Break? And he was in my head, and said he was using my quirk as a connection... or something along those lines. He ordered me to attack Izuku, and I tried to break off the connection before he could use me as a puppet, and then I passed out."

Aizawa turned to Yamada, and nodded, "Yep. So the assumption we made was correct."

"What happened... after I passed out? The villains..." Shinsou asked, and Aizawa frowned, "Nothing much, really. Midoriya went on a rampage after you were knocked out and took out most of the villains."

"Oh." Shinsou was quiet for a minute, before he asked again, "How... is he?"

"Well... he's stopped eating again... and he's occasionally falling asleep in lessons. According to Tenya, he's been staying up all night, waiting for you to get back." Aizawa admitted, "His studies are still okay, for the moment, though. He misses you."

Shinsou's heart melted, "How long more do I have to stay here?"

"One or two more days. Since your quirk was directly attacked, the doctors just want to make sure that there isn't any lasting damage." Yamada said.

"Oh..." Shinsou blinked, before he looked up again, "Can my friends visit?"

Aizawa and Yamada glanced at each other, and Shinsou felt that they were having some sort of silent conversation from the way they stared at each other, "Did... something happen?"

"No, nothing happened. Don't worry." Yamada narrowed his eyes at Aizawa, almost like he was daring him to say something, but Aizawa just glared back, gritting his teeth, "The receptionist said that visitors are not allowed due to the sensitive nature of their medical equipment."

"Oh... okay." Shinsou sulked, "Sounds boring."

"I can tell." Aizawa drawled, and Yamada perked up, "I can bring coloring books!"

"Pops, I'm fifteen." Shinsou sighed, but Yamada just huffed, "You can't be too old for coloring books."

Shinsou just rolled his eyes in exasperation, but that action just made his headache act up again.

* * *

Midoriya curled up in his bean bag, doing his best to focus on the news, instead of that lingering urge that ran through his body that just seemed to get stronger and stronger. He thought he had already satisfied the urge to do so, but apparently, stabbing his arm after showering for three days in a row wasn't enough.

Uraraka and Kinu were fast asleep on the couch, Koda and Iida had fallen asleep in two separate chairs, with Yuwai cuddled up against her owner, and Todoroki was asleep while lying in two bean bags, a newspaper covering his face. Reiko and Ryuto were currently using Midoriya's shoulder as a bed, while Shirou was curled up by his back, sleeping peacefully.

Midoriya bit his lip, before he picked up the game cartridge that Kaminari had given to him. It was red, and looked rather old, with the words of "Pokemon Red" on one side. Kaminari told him that he should try and play some games in order to relax, and had even lent him a port that would allow him to play the game on his computer instead of a "game boy", or whatever console or device that it was supposed to be played on. Maybe it would distract him until the urge faded away.

Midoriya just plugged the game into his laptop, and opened the game folder. He skimmed through the various contents, quickly looking through a bunch of pixelated monster creature things, before he found a couple of files with coding in it.

His eyes trailed through the lines of code. Apparently, there were several cities and towns, and he was supposed to start with a particular creature . There were also some lines of code that used the user's inputs as a seed value in order to generate what kind of outputs he could get, such as creature encounters. He knew it was supposed to make the game seem random, but it was, in reality, the same concept as his passwords for his devices; his password used the date and time as a seed value, and ran it through a formula in order to generate a seemingly random password.

Midoriya just flicked through the lines of code, sipping his coffee as he continued reading. Kaminari had warned him about some glitches, mainly about something called a MissingNo. that could be found by suffering on some shore? Who surfed on shores anyway? There wasn't enough water to even swim, let alone surf. Even if it was a computer game, that was just dumb, and a surefire way to get hurt.

But it did catch Midoriya's interest, since there must be something in the coding to cause a glitch like that, right? Maybe he should try to figure that out, and he should look into it.

After scanning through more coding, Midoriya realized that creature encounters were loaded up from storage into the data buffer when entering a new location. However, by using something called a "fly" to change locations, some data can be stored in the data buffer, due to the limited storage space of the game cartridge. The "shore" that Kaminari mentioned, apparently had no creature encounters, so it just grabbed incorrect information that just happened to be stored in the data buffer, and the game would try to generate something with the incorrect information.

Midoriya also found a whole lot of other problems with the game, or inaccurate item descriptions. Apparently, the "X Accuracy" was supposed to increase the accuracy of something called "moves", but it ended up making those moves hit a hundred percent of the time. On the other hand, this other "move" called "Focus Energy" was supposed to multiply the "critical hit" ratio by four, but instead, it divided the ratio by four. The game was, very frankly, in simple terms, pretty broken.

It was still a bit fun, though. He should thank Kaminari for letting him play with this very broken, but still rather interesting game.


	143. Chapter 143 - Evading shadows

Midoriya walked up to the counter in the cafeteria, and Lunch Rush turned to him, politely waiting for him to order something. The boy usually just sat quietly in the cafeteria, listening to the conversations of his friends as he sipped some iced coffee from a curly straw that Lunch Rush felt like putting in his cup.

It was cold, and Lunch Rush had no idea why Midoriya drank iced coffee so much despite the cold temperature. It wasn't even like he was wearing a scarf or jacket around, just his school uniform. But from various conversations by the teachers and students, he did understand that Midoriya wasn't eating properly, and that was definitely not good for his health.

Midoriya made some weird gestures, signing that he wanted iced coffee, and Lunch Rush nodded. He made Midoriya's coffee, before he had a good idea, and walked over to the stove and scooped out a small bowl of soup. He quickly placed the bowl and glass on a tray, and passed the tray to Midoriya. He knew that Midoriya was generally alright with liquids, and today's soup was rather light; Midoriya should have no problem with the soup.

The greenette just looked at the bowl, confused, before he looked up at Lunch Rush. The Cook Hero just placed a clean spoon next to the bowl, before giving Midoriya an energetic thumbs-up. Midoriya really didn't know what Lunch Rush was up to, but he just nodded, giving Lunch Rush a silent thank you, before he walked back to his seat.

"You got soup?" Uraraka asked, and Midoriya shrugged in confusion, but he gently picked up the spoon, and started drinking his soup slowly. He had no idea why Lunch Rush decided to give him soup when he didn't order it, but the Cook Hero's food was good, and it would be a waste to not drink it. It tasted like chicken soup, with some small bits of carrots and radish, along with a bit of salt and pepper. There was still some flavor, but it wasn't too heavy to the point where he felt like throwing up.

Midoriya seemed content enough with his soup, and Iida stood up, raising his head and turning towards the counter, where Lunch Rush was serving other students. The hero seemed to notice Iida looking at him, and shot the boy a thumbs up. Iida swore he could see Lunch Rush beaming proudly under his chef hat and mask, and the bespectacled boy just smiled back, waved, and sat back down.

* * *

Midoriya clenched his eyes shut as he curled up on his bean bag, trying to keep himself under control. The urge to just mutilate himself just grew stronger and stronger, and it was making him feel sick.

Midoriya had no idea why he was feeling like that. He thought he had gotten over it, ages ago, and the urges he had gotten over the last few days were just his way of trying to focus and deal with the problems at hand, but he felt like something was amiss. As the urge got stronger, he just felt like it was coming from an outside source that was pushing its own agendas, instead of himself. But it didn't make too much sense; maybe he was overthinking things again.

He noticed a number on his wrist, a black, bold line, staring back at him. He wasn't too sure where he got that line from, but he didn't think too much about it. Maybe he had just drawn on himself and he had forgotten about it, or Ashido or someone else just drew on his arm; his memory was never good when he was sick.

The greenette just stared at the mark, before he turned his attention back to the knife that was sitting in his palm. He glared at it for a good minute, before he tightened his grip, and slotted it back into its holder.

_Bad __Deku. Those thoughts aren't yours. _

Midoriya just pushed himself up, ignoring the pulsating feeling that throbbed through his body now that he had actively ignored the urge, and he shoved the holder into his drawer. He picked out every other knife and blade he had on him, and also threw them into the drawer, before he slammed it shut.

Midoriya yanked his door open, grabbing his laptop and the game cartridge, before made his way downstairs. Now, to examine more of that messed up game code while waiting for Shinsou to come back. And maybe some coffee, and some soup; apparently, Lunch Rush claimed that there was some leftover soup from dinner, which was the same kind of soup as the one he had for lunch, and he was distributing it to all the student dorms in case they wanted a midnight snack.

Sato had reheated the soup in the kitchen, and left it there so anyone could have some if they wanted. Midoriya hoped there was some left.

* * *

Ectoplasm walked throughout the classroom, watching as the students made scribbles on their test papers. He knew that the students were all good and wouldn't cheat, but he just felt fidgety and uneasy, and was far too restless to sit down. Due to the work studies, the amount of homework and worksheets he had to mark had also decreased, since both 1-A and 1-B hadn't had time to do any homework while fighting villains, so he had even fewer things to do after he was done marking the work from other classes.

He watched, amused as Kaminari scribbled something in pencil, before hastily rubbing it off and turning to his calculator and punching in some numbers.

Ectoplasm turned to the back of the classroom, noticing that Midoriya was lying down at his desk, his test paper wedged between his cheek and the table as the boy slept. It was clear that the boy was exhausted, and all the teachers knew that Midoriya wasn't sleeping at night, staying up in hopes that Shinsou would get back to the dorms, and the greenette had somehow come to the conclusion that Shinsou wouldn't be coming back in the middle of the school day.

It was a fair assumption, given that Yamada taught English in several classes, and Aizawa had to deal with all his paperwork and the training sessions during school hours, and naturally, wouldn't be able to pick Shinsou up, but that had led to Midoriya occasionally napping through mathematics or English lessons. It wasn't like the teachers could complain, though; Midoriya was practically getting full marks in his tests and homework, they had no right to say anything.

Ectoplasm walked towards Midoriya's table, and looked down at him. Midoriya usually finished his tests in less than half the allocated time, and was most likely finished with the paper at this point. Plus, mathematics was the last lesson of the day, so Midoriya wouldn't be missing anything if he let the boy go back to the dorms for a more comfortable nap, right?

Hopefully, it wouldn't count as favoritism, but Snipe, Yamada, and Kayama released students early all the time during tests if they were obviously excelling in those subjects and had clearly finished the test paper.

Ectoplasm reached out, and gently shook the boy awake. Midoriya blearily opened his eyes, his dull, green orbs gazing up at Ectoplasm as he pushed himself upright.

"Are you done with your paper?" Ectoplasm asked, and Midoriya tiredly nodded. Ectoplasm gently picked the boy's paper up from the desk, and flipped through it, scanning through Midoriya's answers. They looked correct, and Ectoplasm just looked back down at Midoriya, who just seemed lost, confused, and exhausted.

"Go back to the dorms." Ectoplasm ordered, "Go and take a nap. I'll get your friends to take your bag back to the dorms when they're done with their tests."

Midoriya just blinked in confusion, but he wasn't one to disobey a teacher's instructions in fear of getting punished, so the greenette promptly stood up, and shambled towards the exit of the classroom.

Ectoplasm just shoved Midoriya's stationery back into his pencil case, before he settled down on his desk, getting his red pen out to start marking Midoriya's test paper. He should probably tell Nezu that he had sent the pup back to the dorms early, but Nezu was currently in a meeting. That message could wait.

* * *

"Hello, Tsukauchi." Nezu murmured, as the detective walked into the meeting room.

"I'm sorry. I was caught up in something." Tsukauchi admitted, settling down into a chair. From the other side of the table, Iida, Aizawa, Enigma, and Onemu Shinya were seated, occupying themselves with the recent news on the mobile devices.

Turning his attention to Aizawa, Tsukauchi asked, "How is Shinsou, Eraser? I heard he got injured?"

"He's fine." Aizawa grunted, "He woke up like... three days ago, and the doctors haven't noticed any outstanding problems with him, just a mild headache. But that's to be expected; Hitoshi used to get headaches when he was younger from his quirk, and it would make sense that he would get headaches now since his quirk factor was directly attacked. They just wanted to keep him in the hospital for another day or two due to the delicate nature of mental quirks. He should be going back to UA tonight."

"That's great." Tsukauchi nodded, before his tone turned grave, and he faced Nezu, "I wasn't there at the scene... and I know that civilian reports and security cameras might not be able to give me a full explanation of what really was going on... but you might want to tell Midoriya to... _restrain_ himself..."

"What happened?" Tensei frowned, as Tsukauchi replied, "Well... as a starter, a couple of the villains he fought suffered joint dislocations. Two of the villains he fought nearly had their spines broken. If Midoriya used any more force, or applied pressure at the wrong angle, he could very well have blood on his hands. Granted... it's not his fault... but given that we've never had any quirkless heroes, or heroes-in-training, for that matter... I don't know what the Hero Commission would do if he actually killed someone by accident."

"Noted." Nezu scribbled down on his notebook, and while he felt that the lives of two villains weren't worth the mental and emotional turmoil that Midoriya was suffering from, but still... the law was the law.

Aizawa just crossed his arms, "They deserved it, though. But that's just being irrational. Continue."

Tsukauchi cleared his throat, and turned the page in his notebook, "Well... Mind Break is behind bars... surprisingly, a lot of villains that have been terrorizing Hosu were participating in Mind Break's attack, so they have also been taken down. There's quite a lot of them, and it's giving you a boost in rankings."

"How are the suicide rates looking?" Iida asked, more concerned from the sharp increases of suicide in his city rather than the stupid hero rankings, and Tsukauchi frowned, "About that..."

"You got something?" Onemu Shinya asked, and Tsukauchi narrowed his eyes, "The rate of suicide hasn't decreased... but we've had a rather... _interesting_ report regarding it. There was this girl who nearly committed suicide just this afternoon, but she was stopped by her friend, who was looking out for her. She has no records of being anywhere near suicidal, and the fact that she was also stopped gave us some insight."

Tensei leaned forwards, interested, as Tsukauchi continued, "Basically... according to what she told her friend, around a week ago, she was walking down the street when she was touched on the shoulder by the lady with pink hair. She didn't notice anything amiss, but two days later, she noticed that there was a number imprinted on her wrist, almost like a tattoo."

Nezu frowned at that, and Tsukauchi glanced around the room, "Basically, she kept an eye on it, and at roughly the time that the woman bumped into her, the number would tick down, like a timer of some sort. She didn't know what would happen when it hit zero, but she was also getting weird urges, so she told her family and her friend, who was able to stop her from stabbing herself with a kitchen knife."

"A couple of the villains there had pink hair... right?" Enigma asked, and Tsukauchi nodded, sliding out a couple of pictures, "Yeah, these are the villains that were captured that had pink hair-"

Aizawa's eyes narrowed on one of them, "Wasn't that one of the last few villains that tried to attack Midoriya after he got pissed and took down the others?"

"Come to think of it... yeah. She does look similar..." Onemu Shinya mused, and Nezu blanched as he put the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Can we continue this talk later?" Nezu stood up, "Aizawa, we need to go back to UA, right now."

"Uh... okay?" Aizawa blinked, confused, but he didn't waste a second and followed after Nezu.

Tsukauchi, Tensei, Enigma, and Onemu Shinya just looked at them in confusion, not really sure what to do.

"Uh... What do we do now?" Tensei asked, and Tsukauchi just stared at the door, "Should... I continue? Or reschedule?"


	144. Chapter 144 - Embracing its starlit fate

Midoriya trudged into the common room, and flopped down on the bean bag, sighing in exhaustion. Reiko and Ryuto looked up, confused to see Midoriya back so soon, and the feline just padded over to Midoriya's side, and curled up next to him.

Midoriya shuddered, and curled up into himself. He could feel a weird chill down his spine, and he stretched, turning himself over and rolling onto his back. His sleeve hiked down slightly, and Midoriya peered at his wrist in confusion. That black mark that had somehow appeared on his wrist was still there, but he swore that it had been a line the last time he checked on it.

Now, it was an oval, for some reason.

Midoriya just stared at it for a good minute, before he ignored his wrist and pressed his face into the bean bag. Ryuto waddled over, and perched on Midoriya's shoulder, biting onto his ear gently, as Midoriya groaned.

Reiko gently nuzzled her human, and Midoriya just wrapped himself around Reiko protectively.

That strange urge to just drive a knife through his chest, or jump off the building, had just suddenly intensified, and Midoriya really wasn't too sure what to do about it. Give in to the urge? Ignore it?

"Reiko, I want to die." Midoriya muttered, and the feline just raised her paw and smacked his cheek lightly, purring.

"Yeah... I should do that... They'd be sad... right?" The greenette muttered, and just closed his eyes. He was going to take a nap first, and think about it later; he was too tired to think about killing himself at the moment.

* * *

Nezu tapped his feet nervously as Aizawa wove through the traffic, and stepped on the accelerator. Even with low traffic, it was still taking them quite some time to get back to UA.

"Once we get back to UA, you check the classroom, I'll head straight to the dorms. Ectoplasm always releases the kids once the tests finish." Nezu stated, and Aizawa nodded, slamming his foot down on the brakes, narrowly avoiding an accident as a car cut in front of him without using the warning lights prior.

"Fucking piece of shit." Aizawa cursed under his breath, slamming down on the horn in frustration, before he took the first opportunity to zoom forwards, and jam breaking when the traffic light turned red, "Fuck."

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Aizawa drove up into the UA driveway. He wasn't even bothered to park the car properly, before he ripped the door open and dashed out, making a beeline towards the UA main building. Meanwhile, Nezu also hopped out of the car, heading right in the direction of the UA dorms, trying to go as fast as he could on his stubby little legs.

Aizawa raced towards the stairs, and ran up, two steps at a time. He nearly tripped on the last step, and barreled down the hallway, the only sounds being his footsteps. He turned a corner, and ran towards the 1-A classroom, only to find that the students were starting to leave the classroom. Some of them heard Aizawa's footsteps and turned, facing the Erasure Hero in confusion, as Aizawa quickened his pace.

"Is Midoriya here?" Aizawa skidded to a stop, hastily scanning over the students, and Ectoplasm looked up from where he was packing up the test papers, "He fell asleep during the test and I sent him back to the dorms early since it was the last lesson of the day."

Uraraka held up Midoriya's bag to make a point, "Yep! Just bringing his things back for him! Did you need him for something?"

"Shit." Aizawa cursed, before he raced towards the dorms. He knew that Midoriya was tired, and had the tendency to sleep during lessons, but now was a _really_ bad time for Ectoplasm to be nice and send Midoriya back to the dorms without any supervision before he did something stupid.

He turned on his heel and immediately raced towards the dorms, startling the students, who just followed after him in a hurry.

"Sensei! Did something happen?" Iida called out, but Aizawa was far too occupied with finding Midoriya to bother answering the question.

* * *

"Aizawa?" Nezu asked. He had just arrived at the 1-A dorms, when he noticed the Erasure Hero running, with several students behind him.

"Principal!" Iida exclaimed in surprise, as Aizawa sighed, "Ectoplasm released Midoriya early."

Nezu nodded, and promptly threw the doors to the dorm open, storming inside, looking around, with Iida, Uraraka, Todoroki, Koda, and Aizawa right on his heels.

"Midoriya?" Aizawa called out, and there was silence, before the sound of something rustling rang out. Everyone turned their attention towards the noise, and moved towards the couch to take a closer look, only to realize that Midoriya was sitting in his bean bag, still wearing his school uniform, rubbing his eyes and blinking blearily as he gazed around in confusion, not really sure what was going on.

"Izuku! Are you okay?" Nezu rushed over to the groggy boy, and Reiko and Ryuto both perked up at the noise, neither of them knowing what all the fuss was about.

"I'm... fine?" Midoriya squinted, before he seemed to notice Aizawa, and his friends standing behind the Erasure Hero, equally confused but with concerned expressions in their faces.

"Did you notice any weird black marks on your body?" Nezu asked. He knew that he had noticed something before, but he wasn't sure if it was a number, or if it had been a shadow, and he wasn't just going to grab Midoriya's arms to check.

"Weird... black marks?" Midoriya frowned tiredly, before he pulled his uniform sleeve up, "Like this? I think it was a line just now... but now it's an oval... I'm not sure when it changed, but it's kind of weird, I guess?"

Aizawa and Nezu both glanced at the mark in confusion; Midoriya had fought Mind Break and the other villains around a week ago, just an hour prior, so it made sense that the number would already tick down if it was the mark caused by the quirk that Tsukauchi was talking about, but Midoriya didn't seem too affected by it at all. He had been left on his own for almost forty minutes and he had literally just woken up from a nap.

"Do you feel weird? Like... you feel like you want to hurt yourself or something like that?" Aizawa asked, and Iida nearly protested in indignation at how straightforward the hero was being when Midoriya cocked his head in confusion.

_"I wanted to kill myself, but that was kind of normal and not really too out of the ordinary. All my knives are in my room and the kitchen is too far away. And Ectoplasm-sensei told me to come back and take a nap, and I didn't want to disobey his instructions. So I decided to take a nap first."_ Midoriya admitted in sign language, far too tired to bother filtering his words.

Koda, Nezu, and Aizawa just stared at the tired boy's nonchalance, and Aizawa and Nezu just turned towards each other, not really sure how to deal with the situation at hand. It didn't take too long for the rest of 1-A to arrive at the dorms, and they were all confused to see the principal standing in the middle of their common room, along with a very sleepy Midoriya.

"Come to my office first." Nezu decided, "We'll deal with things from there."

* * *

Tsukauchi quickly walked towards Nezu's office. He had gotten more information about that supposed quirk that made people commit suicide, and he had called Nezu to try and figure out what had gotten him in such a rush, but Nezu had promptly called him to ask about the quirk, before he decided to just pop over to UA and talk face to face.

"Hello?" Tsukauchi pushed the door open, and blinked in confusion. Midoriya was napping in the bean bag in Nezu's office, while Nezu, Yamada, Inui, and Shuzenji were discussing something animatedly.

"Ah, Tsukauchi." Nezu nodded, "You said you had some information regarding the quirk?"

Tsukauchi stated, "That one we talked about an hour ago... right? In the meeting. We have several pictures of the mark... and where's Aizawa?"

"Aizawa is addressing the students on what's going on, since they were worried that something happened. And about that quirk... woof..." Inui narrowed his eyes, as Nezu proceeded to wake Midoriya up. The boy just looked up blearily, before he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a black oval on his wrist. Tsukauchi just stared at the mark, "That's the one... how... can I ask some questions?"

Midoriya just shrugged, and Tsukauchi asked, "When did you get the mark?"

"Don't know... only saw it yesterday." Midoriya replied, and Tsukauchi continued, "Did you feel any urges of any kind?"

The freckled boy just stared at Tsukauchi in confusion at the weird question that Nezu just asked half an hour prior, "I wanted to kill myself, but it wasn't too out of the ordinary... so I ignore it."

Registering the statement as the truth, Tsukauchi turned to Nezu for context, and Nezu spoke up, "He was on his own in the common room when the timer most likely ticked down."

Tsukauchi blinked, and scribbled down in his notebook, muttering under his breath, "... most of them... alone... other people... physically restrained..."

Midoriya just looked really confused at the entire situation, before Tsukauchi looked up, "Well... one of the other police officers apparently had a cousin who was in the same scenario. The mark wears off a few hours after the timer ticks down to zero, and apparently, once the mark disappears, the suicide effects of the quirk wear off as well. Just keep an eye on him for a few hours..."

"I have to admit... most of the other people who were left alone most likely gave into the urges to... you know..." Tsukauchi turned back to Midoriya, not really sure if he should talk about it, but Midoriya blinked sleepily, "I wanted to... but then all the knives were too far away and Ectoplasm-sensei told me to sleep. And my friends and Nezu would be sad... right?"

Shuzenji narrowed her eyes at Midoriya's words as Aizawa, Yamada, Inui, and Tsukauchi tried to process the entire statement in bewilderment. Midoriya just looked back at them, not sure if he said something wrong, and his head drooped, almost guiltily.

Nezu reached a paw out and patted Midoriya's head comfortingly, and the greenette pressed his head against Nezu's paw.

Shuzenji muttered, "Midoriya, can you come with me to the infirmary? I just want to make sure that everything's fine and there's nothing else going on."

* * *

"So.. Midoriya... do you want to say something?" Shuzenji settled down on her chair, and Midoriya sat on the bed, turning away and lowering his head, before he shakily reached his arm out.

"I'm not mad. I know it's hard... okay? Especially with a quirk like that in play." Shuzenji sighed, rolling up Midoriya sleeve and revealing the duct tape that was stuck onto Midoriya's arm, "And please don't use duct tape on your skin. The adhesives aren't good for your skin, or for an open wound, for that matter."

She gently started peeling the duct tape off Midoriya's arm, using a bit of rubbing alcohol to dissolve the adhesive. It took some time, but she was finally able to peel the tape off without causing too many problems, before she stared at the stitching on Midoriya's arm.

"Don't do that again. The stitches used in hospitals are not regular thread used for sewing clothes." Shuzenji stated, gently cutting the thread and pulling it out with minimal discomfort from Midoriya. The boy was used to it, and Shuzenji had to admit that it was very well done, considering Midoriya most likely did it by himself with only one hand, but still, Midoriya shouldn't be used to stitching himself up.

Shuzenji disinfected the wound properly and wrapped his arm up, and Midoriya pulled his uniform sleeve down gently, still averting his gaze from Shuzenji. She could still see the zero on his other arm, and she locked her gaze on it, before she sighed, and opened the mini refrigerator in her office where she stored candy and other snacks for the students.

She pulled out a strawberry-flavored jelly packet, and passed it over to Midoriya, before she pointed towards the bed, "You can take a nap. Aizawa is most likely trying to explain the situation to your classmates, and Mic has to keep an eye on the students who get detention today. Then they have to talk with Tsukauchi for a few hours, so they won't be leaving UA anytime soon. Once they leave, you can go back to the dorms; the number and the quirk should have worn off well before then."

Midoriya just nodded, and popped the cap off the jelly packet, before he tucked into the small little snack carton.

* * *

"Hey, Hitoshi." Aizawa pushed the door open, noticing that Shinsou was just idly flipping through television channels. Shinsou immediately switched off the television, and turned his attention to Aizawa and Yamada, who were standing in the doorway. Shinsou had gotten curious over the reason why visitors weren't allowed, and had asked the doctors once after Aizawa and Yamada had left.

Apparently, some quirks could affect their equipment, even if it was by accident, so even for parents, they had to do checks on their quirks to ensure that they were safe. They also discouraged letting patients use mobile devices, so Shinsou was literally stuck watching an old television that only had ten channels.

Shinsou had also asked about quirkless guests, but the doctor admitted that several of her colleges had kids that had a quirkless student, and there had been an occasion where the quirkless student had attacked the kids for no reason. While some of the doctors were understanding and felt like the student had probably gotten sick of being bullied and tried to protect himself, some of the others were convinced that something was severely wrong with the quirkless population, and they just ended up banning visitors so they didn't argue about it every day.

Yeah, Shinsou could guess why Aizawa and Yamada refused to answer his question.

Yamada quickly tossed Shinsou a small bag, and the boy caught it, opening it in confusion, only to find a clean set of clothes inside.

"Get already signed all the papers and whatnot. You're discharged already." Aizawa grunted, holding some paperwork in his hands, and a grin spread across Shinsou's face. The boy made a dash towards the bathroom, quickly changing into the new set of clothes, before he followed his parents out of the hospital and to the car.

"I think Lunch Rush left an extra portion of dinner for you." Yamada stated, "The bento should be in your room."

"Great. Hospital food sucks." Shinsou stuck his tongue out, and Aizawa nodded, "Agreed."

There was silence as Yamada drove the car back to UA, with the only sounds being the honking of cars on the road and the squealing of car tires on the ground. Yamada reached out and switched on the radio, blaring some music through the speakers, and Aizawa groaned as Yamada started humming; there was no doubt that one of Yamada's favorite songs was about to start playing and he would start belting out the lyrics to the song.

Meanwhile, Shinsou just stared out of the window, relieved to finally be out of the suffocating room. He gazed at the trees, all the cars they passed, and the colourful assortment of billboards and signs. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Yamada pulled up inside UA, right by the 1-A dorms.

Shinsou threw the car door open and stretched, hearing his joints pop slightly, before he scratched his neck and followed Aizawa and Yamada towards the door.

"OH YEAH!" Yamada yelled, throwing open the door and gaining everyone's attention, "Look who's back!?"

Aizawa saw Midoriya turn his head immediately from his position in his usual bean bag, before the boy's eyes lit up almost immediately.

"Hitoshi!" Midoriya promptly stood up, and rushed forward, nearly tripping over the bean bag, before he threw himself onto Shinsou, wrapping his arms around Shinsou's neck and locking his legs around his waist.

Shinsou blinked in surprise as Midoriya rested his chin on his shoulder, before he awkwardly wrapped an arm around Midoriya so he didn't fall by accident.

"Hey, Zuku." Shinsou let out a soft smile, as Midoriya emitted a soft rumble from the back of his throat. Reiko just looked up, amused by her human, as Shirou shot forward, slinking between Shinsou's legs and settling down on his shoe.

"Shinsou! Welcome back!" Ashido yelled, and Sato groaned, "Sensei, you should have told me he was coming back today! I would have baked a cake!"

"Be more careful next time, okay!? We were all so worried?!" Iida berated, chopping his arms around, as Todoroki turned to Iida, confused, "Can we even choose what villains we fight?"

Koda flashed Shinsou a grin, and Uraraka jumped up, cheering, "Alright! Hitoshi's back!"

"So what if Shinsou is back?" Bakugou rolled his eyes, "Big fuss over nothing."

"Oh my god!" Shinsou sarcastically fake-gasped, "You used my real name?! Are you sick, Bakugou?"

"Fuck off, Eyebags! Piece of shit!" Bakugou snapped back, before he pointed at Kirishima and Sero, "If I didn't say anything, these fucking dipshits would probably complain and whine all night and I'd rather not be annoyed by these fucking idiots!"

"Bakubro! You care so much!" Kirishima yelled, and Shinsou let out a chuckle at his classmates' antics as Bakugou roared at Kirishima and tried to "kill" him with his pomeranian biting on Kirishima's pants leg in an attempt to "stop" him from running.

Midoriya couldn't really explain that warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest that made him feel like melting with pure relief, but he felt like he could cling onto Shinsou forever and never want to let go. Shinsou reached up and gently patted his fluffy hair, and the boy nuzzled him, letting out a content purr.

He was back, and that was all that mattered.


	145. Chapter 145 - Fall beneath the earth

Midoriya was really happy when Shinsou came back, but he knew that he had to let go because the taller boy needed to take a shower.

The greenette rested his cheek against the kitchen table, having taken a pack of instant noodles out of the cupboard. Ryuto was playing with Midoriya's hair as Reiko nibbled on his finger affectionately, as Asui hopped into the kitchen to grab some water.

"Ah, hello, Midoriya." She croaked, and filled her water bottle up with water, "Are you okay, kero?"

Midoriya subtly nodded, and Asui settled down on the chair next to Midoriya, "Thinking of Shinsou, kero?"

The greenette flicked his gaze over to her, and Asui just turned to face him, "Everything just feels right when he's around, right? That's how you feel, kero? You feel like you can do anything with him, but now he's not here, you're just tired, aren't you, kero?"

Midoriya let out a small, disgruntled grunt. He had no idea how Asui could read him so well, but he didn't really care too much either way, he felt like he was sapped of all his energy, and he didn't want to do anything.

"You're usually really hard to read. But you're really easy to read right now. You care about him a lot." Asui stated, taking a sip out of her bottle, "Shinsou likes you, and you clearly like him back, even if you don't understand your own feelings right now. I don't know your history with him, and I can't offer you much help or advice, but I think it's something you should try to figure out and talk to Shinsou about it."

Midoriya glanced at Asui, before he bit his lip, and stood up. He wasn't sure how long Shinsou was taking in the shower, but he did know that, with Aizawa's permission, he had helped Shinsou with the clothes in his laundry basket while he was in the hospital. He should return those as soon as possible.

"Good luck, Midoriya!" Asui smiled at him kindly, "I'm sure whatever you choose to do, it will work out, kero."

* * *

Shinsou rubbed the towel through his hair, trying to get all the water droplets out as he walked out of his bathroom wearing a pair of boxers. Sure, the hospital had a bathroom and clean clothes and towels and stuff, but it was just nice to be back in his own room with his own stuff. His headache was acting up again, but it wasn't too bad, just mildly annoying.

Hanging the towel around his neck, Shinsou collapsed onto his bed happily. He felt fresh and clean, and it was just awesome being back in his own room and surrounded by his friends instead of being stuck in that nauseating hospital room filled with the smell of antiseptic. He definitely understood why Midoriya seemed to hate hospitals so much.

Shinsou sat up and reached into his closet, fishing out a pair of sweat pants and slipping them on. He dug around a bit more, before he realized that he didn't have anything warm to wear, and that most of his stuff was in the laundry basket since he had been admitted to the hospital the day before he had planned to do his laundry. Shinsou groaned, before went to grab his phone; Iida was larger than him, maybe he would have a spare shirt that he could lend him.

There was a knock on his door, and Shinsou looked up, surprised. He walked over and opened the door, noticing Midoriya standing at the door, holding a stack of his clothes, with Reiko and Ryuto at his feet.

"Uh..." Midoriya blinked, noticing that Shinsou wasn't wearing a shirt, before he glanced at the ground, "Aizawa-sensei... came in this afternoon... to grab clothes... and I noticed that you had clothes in the laundry basket so I kinda... uh... took them to the laundry..."

"Thank you so much." Shinsou smiled, "I couldn't find anything to wear."

"It's... fine..." Midoriya muttered, as Shinsou took the stack of neatly folded clothes and placed them on his bed, before he pulled out a hoodie and put it on. Midoriya was patiently standing outside the door, his eyes glued on the ground, before Shinsou tucked his clean clothes back into the closet.

Shinsou caught sight of the neatly packaged bento with rice, fried shrimp, and vegetables, and he picked it up, grabbing his phone off the table, before he headed downstairs to get some chopsticks and eat in the kitchen, noticing that Midoriya had already disappeared.

He noticed that some of his classmates were playing Mario Kart in the common room, and upon reaching the kitchen, he noticed Midoriya standing by the kettle, waiting for the water to boil, an open cup of uncooked instant noodles in his hand. Reiko and Ryuto were settled in Midoriya's hood, and the hawk gave a small squawk in greeting when he saw the lavender haired boy, and Shirou padded over to his owner from where he was resting at Midoriya's feet.

"Didn't you guys have dinner already?" Shinsou asked, reaching down to pat Shirou, and Midoriya turned to him, his head drooping slightly, "I... didn't feel like eating just now..."

"Hey, it's alright." Shinsou placed his bento on the table, and gently patted Midoriya's shoulder, before he went to grab some chopsticks. The kettle whistled, and Midoriya carefully poured the hot water into his cup noodles, and settled down in the seat right next to Shinsou. Reiko and Ryuto hopped onto Midoriya's shoulder and onto the table, and Midoriya used his chopsticks to give Ryuto a few of his instant noodles.

Ashido bounded into the kitchen, "Hey guys! We're celebrating you coming back to the dorms, and it's a weekend tomorrow and it's starting soon!"

Shinsou blinked, "What movie?"

"I don't know, you choose?" Ashido shrugged, unconsciously picking at her scars, "I mean, you were stuck in a hospital for a week and that seriously sucks. Must have been really boring being able to do nothing."

"Meh." Shinsou shrugged, taking a bite out of the tempura, "I have no opinions on movies or anything. Maybe play another Disney movie?"

"Okay! Don't touch my candy!" Ashido ran out of the kitchen, and Shinsou sighed and yawned. He didn't mind watching a movie, but he was tired, and he was pretty sure he was going to end up falling asleep at some point during the movie.

Midoriya just watched as Ashido disappeared, before he turned his attention back to his noodles. Shinsou eyed Midoriya's darkened eye bags, before he tried to break the silence, "So... uh... did I miss anything?"

The greenette gazed up at him, "We had some training... and a maths test. And we had some homework... I can help you with it..."

"You okay there, Zuku?" Shinsou asked worriedly, and Midoriya slumped downwards.

"I... missed you. A lot." Midoriya admitted, and Reiko reached up, patting Midoriya's cheek softly. The smaller boy looked at him with a hopeful expression, "You're alright now... right?"

"Yep. All good." Shinsou gently wrapped an arm around Midoriya, "It's all okay now, right?"

It didn't take too long for Shinsou and Midoriya to finish their dinner, and Shinsou washed his chopsticks and the bento box, leaving them to dry on the drying rack, and made a mental note to return the bento box to Lunch Rush the next day while Midoriya disposed of his empty cup noodle packaging. He knew snacks weren't really all that healthy, but he just felt like eating something salty and crispy, so he opened the cupboard door, glancing at the bags of snacks inside.

Shinsou reached out into the cupboard, grabbing a packet of barbecue flavored potato chips, when he heard a voice speak up behind him, "Hitoshi?"

"Yeah?" Shinsou asked, bringing the chips down and closing the cupboard door, turning around to face the smaller boy, and Midoriya looked towards the ground, having just finished washing his chopsticks, fidgeting slightly. He looked down, and Reiko pawed at his leg, pushing him towards Shinsou, while Ryuto let out a small, encouraging chirp.

Midoriya murmured, "You... remember that question... that you asked?"

"Yeah?" Shinsou tilted his head, not really sure where the conversation was heading, and Midoriya slowly raised his eyes to meet Shinsou's gaze, "I... have an answer."

"Oh?" Shinsou blinked, before Midoriya shot forwards, burying his face in Shinsou's chest, "Yes. My answer is a "yes"."

"You're so cute, you know that?" Shinsou let out a small smile, wrapping an arm around Midoriya's smaller frame. Midoriya nuzzled the taller boy, and Shinous gently ran his fingers through his hair, eliciting a purr from the smaller boy.

"Come on, movie's starting soon."

Midoriya nodded, and Shinsou nodded at the refrigerator, "Want to grab something to drink?"

The greenette thought about it for a second, "Tenya said no coffee at night..."

He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of lemon-lime Gatorade, before he turned to Shinsou. They made their way to the common room and Shirou looked up, standing up from where he was curled up in the bean bag and letting Midoriya and Shinsou sit down. Shirou nestled down by Shinsou's arm, and Reiko and Ryuto settled down on Midoriya's stomach as the other students started filing into the common room, arguing and fighting over the electric blankets and heaters as usual.

"I missed all of this." Shinsou let out a small laugh, and Bakugou rolled his eyes, "Fucking sentimental fuck."

Iida caught sight of Midoriya's Gatorade, and he immediately lit up, pride shining on his face, "You're not drinking coffee!"

"Well... Hitoshi's back... so I'm not staying up?" Midoriya tried to reply, looking away, before Shinsou frowned, "Wait... you stayed up waiting for me?"

"Mhm!" Ashido piped up, "It was adorable! I mean, I know it's bad for your health and that... but it was cute how much he wanted you to come back."

"I understand that he's worried, but not sleeping is bad for your health!" Iida tried his best to restrain himself from chopping too much, "I'm just happy you've decided to change your beverage!"

"Cut the chitter chatter and just start the damned movie." Bakugou growled, effectively breaking up the conversation and diverting all the attention away from Midoriya. Midoriya relaxed, and Shinsou looked up, nodding at Bakugou in thanks.

The blonde just rolled his eyes as Dark Shadow turned off the lights, and Midoriya just curled up, his head on Shinsou's chest. The lavender haired boy just reached down, gently running his fingers through Midoriya's fluffy green curls.

"Hey, Izuku?" Midoriya peered up at Shinsou, and the lavender haired boy pressed his cheek against Midoriya's forehead, "I love you."

The greenette just bumped his head up against Shinsou gently, softly nuzzling the taller boy, Shinsou wrapped his arms tightly around Midoriya, holding him close.

* * *

Midoriya grabbed the game cartridge from his room, and walked over to Kaminari, who was settled down on the couch with a controller in his hand, and passed the cartridge over to him.

"Oh, you're done with it already!" Kaminari grinned, "Did you like it?"

"It was... nice... I guess..." Midoriya muttered, as Shinsou sat down on the bean bag, flicking through the news on his phone.

"Hmm... I wonder what team you used..." Kaminari muttered, inserting the cartridge into the port and booting it up on the television screen. Shinsou looked up upon seeing the television flicker to life, and blinked at the empty save data on the game.

"You don't have any save data?" Kaminari asked, confused, as Midoriya muttered, "I... went through the code... it was fun..."

"What?" Kaminari tilted his head, as Shinsou turned towards Midoriya, "When Kaminari says play the game, he means like, not going through the code."

"Oh." Midoriya blinked, and it was clear to everyone in the common room that his definition of "playing" was clearly different from their definition of playing.

"Well... want to try?" Kaminari passed the wireless controller over to Midoriya, "I'm sure reading the code is fun... but playing it is a different kind of fun."

With some coaxing from Shinsou, Midoriya hesitantly took the controller from Kaminari, and the electric boy just sank into the couch, grabbing a pack of Doritos off the table and started munching on it.

Midoriya ambled over to the bean bag, Shinsou shifted, giving Midoriya some space to settle down between his legs, before he leaned against the taller boy's chest. Shinsou wrapped his arms around Midoriya, and Midoriya made himself comfortable before he started the game up.

Kaminari wasn't too surprised when Midoriya picked a Squirtle for his starter, but right after he picked up the PokeDex, Midoriya headed to the next town, bought a Pokeball, before he turned left, saved and reset the entire game, before he started walking back and forth for some reason before the grass patch.

"What are you doing?" Kaminari asked, before Midoriya walked into the first patch of grass, walked back and forth a bit more before he encountered a Level 4 Nidoran Male, and somehow caught it before the menu screen and item selection menu barely loaded up. He then headed through the forest, battling the one trainer at the end of the forest and getting no encounters at all, before exiting.

"Wait... how?!" Kaminari whined, "I keep having to fight all those bugs!"

Squirtle knew Bubble, so it wasn't too hard for Midoriya to beat the first gym, and he swapped Nidoran into the first slot, before continuing on his way, before he caught a Pidgey, and headed into the cave. He saved and reset the entire game again, before he started walking throughout the entirety of the cave, occasionally pressing the A button to pause his character for a few frames as he continued on his way and picking up literally all the items in the cave.

Midoriya easily finished the mandatory battles in the cave, grabbed a fossil, and somehow got out of the cave with only one encounter, which was a Paras that he caught. He healed his Pokemon, evolved his Nidoran into a Nidorino, and then into a Nidoking with the Moon Stone, before he practically destroyed everyone in the area with Thrash.

"Wait... you can do that!? I didn't know you could Dig in buildings!" Sero raised his eyebrow, as Midoriya taught Cut and Dig to Paras, defeated the third gym, got the bike voucher, before using Dig to teleport back to the previous city. It didn't take him too long to pick up Fly, and he also bought some items at that huge town with a departmental store, including Horn Drill.

"Uh... I know moves that knock others out in one hit look appealing, but they have really poor accuracy." Hagakure commented, as Midoriya continued to streamline through the game. Uraraka and Koda had also come down to watch at some point, and Shinsou was really amused to see Midoriya practically picking the entire game to shreds using the information he's gotten from the code of the game.

"I didn't know you could do that! Man, that hideout was annoying!" Kaminari screeched, as Midoriya threw a PokeDoll at the Ghost, skipping the encounter entirely, before continuing on with the game, using all sorts of random tricks like using Dig to teleport around, or using a Rare Candy to revive Nidoking when it fainted.

"HOW!?" Ashido shrieked, as Midoriya used an X Accuracy on Nidoking before any battle started, obliterating every single fight with a Horn Drill that always hit, knocking out each opposing Pokemon instantaneously. Midoriya had also added a fairly accurate Blizzard to his move set, as well as Thunderbolt and Earthquake, so he was practically destroying every single trainer in the game, and even the Elite Four and Champion were easily taken down by Midoriya.

He finished the game with an in-game time of a little over two hours, and Kaminari, Sero, Ashido, and Hagakure just stared at Midoriya's time, gawking.

"I don't even... how?!" Sero's jaw dropped, "I know the first generation of games were broken... but there were that many exploits...?"

"What I want to know is how do you like, never get any wild encounters!?" Ashido groaned, "Like, you just didn't encounter ANYTHING except that Nidoran, that Paras... and then that Pidgey... that's it. You got perfect luck!"

"It's... not luck..." Midoriya muttered, and Shinsou raised an eyebrow, "RNG manipulation, I'm guessing?"

"I've heard of tricks like that on older games due to the more simple software... but it's amazing that you can just read the code and figure it all out." Sero stated, "Awesome! And I guess no one is ever beating Midoriya when it comes to finding and using gimmicks!"

* * *

"Alright, everyone is back." Aizawa gruffly sighed, "Today, just do what you like. Fight against someone you usually don't fight against. Just because the work studies are canceled doesn't mean you can just slack off in your training. Obviously, the Hero Commission thinks something bad might happen if they tried to force you all into mandatory internships, so you need to be ready for anything."

"Awesome! Jiro, want to spar?" Kaminari turned to Jiro, who was standing right next to him, but she flinched slightly and shook her head, "Sorry, Kami... not today. I want to train on my own."

"Ah... that's alright. Have fun!" Kaminari smiled, before he turned to Shinsou and waved, "Hey, Shinsou, spar with me!"

Shinsou glanced at Midoriya, who merely shrugged, before he looked back, "No problem!"

"Let's go!" Kaminari grinned, before he turned to Midoriya, "Can you watch and help me correct my posture? I'm trying to learn to be less reliant on my quirk, but Ojiro has a butt arm and Sero isn't helpful at all."

"For the last time, Kaminari, stop calling my tail a "butt arm"!" Ojiro yelled from across the room, clearly exasperated.

"But you literally sucker punched me with it! It's an arm that comes out of your butt, for what that's worth!" Kaminari yelled back, and Jiro just shouted, "Tailbone, Kami! Not butt! We learned this in Biology, remember?"

"Whatever! It's the same!" Kaminari yelled back, and Midoriya muttered, "I can try to help..."

"Awesome! Thanks, Mido!" Kaminari smiled. He and Shinsou took their positions on the battle grounds, before they leapt at each other.

Kaminari aimed his sharpshooting gear at Shinsou, but the lavender haired boy dove to the side, avoiding the pointer, before he rolled back on his feet. He shot forwards, throwing his capture weapon at Kaminari; but the blonde just dove to the floor gracelessly, skidding across the ground.

"Not bad, Shinsou. You're not too bad." Kaminari goaded, and Shinsou smirked, "What, thought I was rusty after being in the hospital?"

Kaminari smirked, and Shinsou tried to use that physical response to activate his quirk. It didn't work, and his headache flared up slightly, but Shinsou just ignored it; he needed to work on using his quirk for non-verbal responses. Shinsou lunged at Kaminari, but was forced to dive behind a rock as Kaminari released his electricity, frying anything in a two meter radius.

The electric boy stopped his attack, and started looking around for Shinsou as the boy moved behind him cautiously, out of his line of view. Shinsou quietly and carefully crept up behind Kaminari, and placed a hand on his shoulder, whispering, "Boo."

"Who's there -" Kaminari whirled around, stunned, and Shinsou narrowed his eyes, grinning. Kaminari responded, he's already won.

"Shinsou?" Kaminari's voice rang out, and Shinsou blinked; it didn't work? His quirk didn't activate? What happened -

He barely had time to register it before his headache flared to life, stronger than ever, and Shinsou stumbled back, wincing as he pressed his hand against his temple.

"Shinsou, you okay?" Kaminari reached worriedly, before he yelled, "Aizawa-sensei! Help!"

"Too loud." Shinsou hissed, clutching his head, as Midoriya shot forwards, trying to figure out the problem even though he had no idea what was going on.

"What's going on?" Aizawa asked, quickly making his way towards the group, and several other students had stopped their sparring upon noticing the commotion.

Shinsou looked up, feeling slightly better as the throbbing of his head went down slightly, but he still felt nauseous and he felt like his brain would explode.

But he knew that there was a problem.

"Sensei, my quirk isn't working."


	146. Chapter 146 - When all I know is you

Aizawa activated his quirk, his eyes flaring red, and Shinsou felt his headache fade away with his quirk. He sighed in relief, and Aizawa frowned, "I can feel your quirk, it's still there... but it's not working? Go see Recovery Girl. Midoriya, go with him."

Aizawa turned to Kaminari, "What happened just now?"

"I don't know? We were sparring, Midoriya was watching, and then he crept up behind me and I think he tried to use his quirk so..." Kaminari's voice gradually grew softer as Midoriya led Shinsou to the infirmary, walking through the halls of UA quietly, the only sound being Shinsou's footsteps echoing through the hallways.

Midoriya looked up at Shinsou worriedly. He had a rough idea of what was going on, but he didn't have enough information to make a firm conclusion, and Shinsou was upset enough as it was; he didn't want to ask questions and make Shinsou even more upset.

"It doesn't make sense... my quirk is still there... I can feel it... it's just not working..." Shinsou sighed, as they finally arrived at the infirmary.

They entered the infirmary, and Shuzenji glanced up at them, "Aizawa already told me what happened. Sit down."

She let Shinsou sit down on the bed, and Midoriya just awkwardly remained standing, not sure if he should move aside or sit somewhere else, but Shuzenji just glanced at him, "Sit down with him. I don't mind."

She pulled up Shinsou's medical records, and turned her attention back to Shinsou, "So... quirk issue? According to the information I have... there is nothing wrong with your quirk. No brain injuries or anything of the sort; it should be functioning normally."

"My quirk's there..." Shinsou nodded, "I don't know, it just feels like it doesn't want to work with me? It's being really uncooperative? I tried to use it but it just didn't work and gave me a headache."

Shuzenji frowned slightly, and hummed, before she gave Shinsou some energy gummies, "I'll have to look into it. But from your description... it seems unlikely that the quirk is damaged... but I've never heard of non-sentient quirks refusing to work... Go back to the dorms first. Get your dad, and see if it's just a one-off thing with Kaminari, or it just doesn't work with everyone else."

"Alright." Shinsou nodded, and stood up, and Midoriya just glanced at him, before he nodded at Shuzenji, following Shinsou out of the infirmary.

* * *

"Urg." Shinsou groaned, as he flopped onto Midoriya's bean bag, belly first. Midoriya tilted his head, and crawled onto his bed, leaning against Shinsou, as Shirou crawled up onto Shinsou's back to lie down.

Iida, Todoroki, Koda, and Uraraka had offered to let Shinsou try his quirk on them despite his protests, but even after they managed to convince him it was okay, it still didn't work, and it only gave Shinsou a terrible migraine that made him feel like throwing up. Several of the others, like Kirishima, and even Jiro, after her therapy session with Inui, were willing to let him try his quirk out, to no avail.

Shinsou wasn't eager to use his quirk on anyone for no reason due to all the insults he's had growing up, but he just wanted some confirmation that it was working properly; even if he wasn't reliant on it to fight, he had grown up with it, and it was just terrifying thinking that a certain part of him wasn't functioning well.

"It's still not working." Shinsou muttered dejectedly, his headache being a dull pounding at the back of his head. Reiko and Ryuto curled up on his lap, and Midoriya reached out, gently running his fingers through Shinsou's hair. Midoriya knew he liked head pats, but he wasn't too sure if Shinsou liked it as well, but he knew that if Shinsou didn't like it, he would tell him outright.

Shinsou sighed in content as Midoriya's fingers scraped against his scalp, forming a calming, soothing distraction from the faint pounding in his head, before he heard Midoriya speak up, breaking the silence, "I think you're scared."

"Scared?" Shinsou looked up in confusion, watching as Midoriya kept his eyes glued on the ground, deep in thought.

"According to Aizawa-sensei and Recovery Girl... there is nothing wrong with you quirk... and you said it feels like your quirk... won't cooperate with you... " Midoriya continued, "I think you're scared of getting hurt again, through your quirk."

"But Kaminari's quirk isn't a mental one. And I tried using my quirk on Ochako, Tenya, Shouto, and Koji... even Jiro, Kirishima, Sero, and Hagakure offered to let me brainwash them. It still doesn't work... and none of them have mental quirks either." Shinsou sighed.

"Mind Break hurt you badly. Nezu already told me what happened; he used your quirk as a connection port, and turned your quirk against you. Regardless of what quirk your opponent has... since your quirk is a mental one, your own inhibitions are causing Brainwashing to not work since you're scared that they can hurt you through your quirk too." Midoriya stated, and Shinsou pressed his cheek against the bean bag.

"That... actually makes a lot of sense..." Shinsou muttered, and Midoriya turned to face the other boy, "Use your quirk... on me?"

"What?" Shinsou lifted his head slightly, and frowned, "You like being precise, and in control of all your own movements and senses. I can't just... take that away from you."

"It's fine." Midoriya murmured, "Want to spar instead?"

"If Dad is still downstairs... sure."

Shinsou reached behind his back blindly, trying to get Shirou off him so he can get up, and Midoriya gently scooped the ragdoll cat off him, placing Shirou on the bean bag, before Shinsou pushed himself up. They walked down to the common room, noticing Aizawa texting on his phone as Shoji talked to him.

"Sensei?" Shinsou asked, and Aizawa looked up, "Hold on a second."

Aizawa tapped a bit more on his phone, before he slipped it in his pocket, "Alright, Shoji. It's scheduled, next week, Tuesday, after lessons. If you see Kaminari, Tokoyami, or Yaoyorozu, can you redirect them to me?"

Shoji nodded, thanking the teacher, before he headed back up to his room.

"What's going on?" Shinsou asked, and Aizawa sighed, "We're trying to schedule therapy sessions for all the kids who were involved in villain attacks."

"Jiro had therapy today. Is that also related? I know she usually practices with Kaminari because they're both trying to get better at close ranged combat, but she seemed a little hesitant to spar with him today." Shinsou stated, "I think that villain she fought... according to the news, she was electrocuted her through her earphone jacks? And her earphone jacks are one of her main ways of fighting in close quarters."

Aizawa nodded, "Yeah. As much as you guys think you're invincible in terms of mental fortitude, the reality of the situation is that you are not. And I hate to say this, but sadly, as a hero trauma is considered a weakness, this is going to affect you in terms of your ability to fight and handle situations in the future. You can't hide or run away from it, and you need to get over it somehow, or villains could take advantage of that and do more harm than good."

Shinsou nodded, and Aizawa sighed, "So, what do you want? I also have to schedule you two for therapy sessions."

"Can we spar? Nothing too dangerous, like maybe just outside?" Shinsou asked, pointing out the door, and Aizawa shrugged, collecting his papers off the table, "Sure. I'll still need to keep an eye on you in case your quirk acts out for no reason, but I'll just be marking some stuff. Yell if you need me."

Shinsou, Midoriya and Aizawa made their way out of the dorms, and Aizawa settled down on the ground, under a tree with some shade, and started flipping through various worksheets.

Midoriya and Shinsou started sparring, and Aizawa looked up, frowning slightly. It was clear that Midoriya wasn't going all out and was staying at a pace that allowed Shinsou to keep up. It did make sense for Midoriya to hold back; Shinsou was physically stronger, but Midoriya was faster and more nimble, and that boy nearly broke several grown villain's backs and bones before.

But Aizawa felt like Midoriya wasn't holding back just for that reason; Midoriya spent a lot of time just standing there and waiting for Shinsou to make a move.

This wasn't Midoriya's usual fighting style, especially when fighting against Shinsou. While Shinsou usually never used his quirk against Midoriya, since the boy didn't usually talk, Midoriya was always on the move; even if Shinsou did manage to use his quirk, Midoriya wouldn't be trapped under Brainwashing since his movements would always cause a strong enough physical jolt to knock him out of Shinsou's hold.

He watched as Midoriya narrowly twisted under Shinsou's foot, before he jumped back, and completely stopped moving. He looked up, gazing at a slightly panting Shinsou, who just muttered, "You're stopping already?"

Aizawa blinked in confusion; Shinsou usually didn't speak when fighting against Midoriya, since he wasn't going to use his quirk on him anyways.

"Not really -" Midoriya was cut off mid-sentence, and Shinsou just blinked as he activated his quirk instinctually, locking Midoriya in place.

"It... works? My quirk is working?" Shinsou muttered, confused, and Aizawa promptly stood up, figuring everything out; Midoriya was fighting like that, for the sole purpose of forcing Shinsou to use his quirk as a last resort.

"Any headache?" Aizawa asked, and Shinsou shook his head, "Nope. It works normally."

Suddenly, Shinsou felt a slight jolt, and a fresh wave of relief washed through him. He turned to Midoriya and released his quirk, and the greenette blinked as he regained control over his own body.

Midoriya looked up and ran over to Shinsou, his eyes gleaming, "Quirk works?"

Aizawa swore that was the most expressive he's seen of Midoriya, and Shinsou flashed Midoriya a small smile, "You planned this, didn't you? When I told you I wasn't going to use my quirk on you?"

Midoriya nodded, and Aizawa asked, "How did that conversation even come up?"

Shinsou glanced at Midoriya, who nodded, and Shinsou spoke up, "Izuku thinks that my encounter with Mind Break... might have made me unwilling to use Brainwashing on other people with quirks, and my quirk is just refusing to work because of that."

"And you know Midoriya doesn't have a quirk, so you weren't afraid to use Brainwashing on him." Aizawa nodded, all the pieces falling neatly into place, "That does make sense... then it's not a problem with your quirk, but more of unconscious, lingering fear. I need to schedule you for therapy anyways... maybe that might help you get over it."

"I guess..." Shinsou scratched his chin, and Aizawa muttered, "At least, we have an idea of what the problem is. Better it be a mental inhibition rather than something wrong with your quirk factor itself."

* * *

Midoriya rubbed his hair down with his towel, and sank down into his bean bag, lost in thought as he gently ran his fingers through Ryuto's fluffy yet stiff feathers. He didn't know what he was expecting when Shinsou activated his quirk on him, but it was like he was stuck in his own body, trapped in a daze. He could hear Aizawa and Shinsou conversing, he could see several of his classmates jumping around through the window of the common room, but he couldn't move a single muscle.

But Shinsou's quirk was working; that was the most important thing.

It was actually quite nice. It felt safe, comforting, and he knew that Shinsou wouldn't do anything to hurt him, and if anything, Midoriya was a bigger threat to himself, given his past history.

And he relaxed mentally, opening his mind up to Shinsou's quirk, and he felt a rush of excitement, adrenaline, and relief washing over him. He wasn't sure where it came from, but it had felt good.

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard the door open, and he bolted upright as Shinsou peeked into the room, "Hey, Zuku."

Midoriya looked at him curiously, as Shinsou asked, "Everyone's playing Beat Saber downstairs. It's like, you chop these blocks that are coming towards you. Want to join?"

The greenette thought about it for a second, before he shrugged, and stood up, following Shinsou down to the common room. Jiro had the black, brick-like device on her face, waving the controllers around, and on the television screen, there was a series of blocks with arrows on them. The bean bags had been cleared to the side, so while some of the students were lounging in the chairs and couch, others were standing up as they watched, munching on some snacks.

She pulled the headset off her head, and Ashido caught sight of Midoriya, "Mido! You have a turn!"

Midoriya shook his head vehemently; he didn't think that brick visor looked comfortable at all, it just took a bit of coaxing to convince Midoriya to just play one round, just to try it out. Midoriya carefully pulled the visor over his head, and he immediately felt lost; he could see buttons floating right in front of him, and he waved his arms, trying to figure out how to press the buttons. He knew his arm was there, and it was just really disorientating not being able to see even a tiny bit of his arm.

"Here." Jiro used an earphone jack to place the controller in Midoriya's hands, and he could suddenly see two ghostly, translucent hands in front of him, where his hands were supposed to be.

Ashido ran him through the basic instructions on how to play the game, and she selected a song that was relatively fast. She felt that Midoriya could handle it; the boy was always leaping around and fighting with knives, surely he would be able to hit a couple of floating cubes that are only coming from one direction.

She proved herself wrong in about half a minute. Midoriya had started off well, awkwardly holding the controllers as he hit the blocks with the correct arm, but once the blocks started coming at an increased speed, everything went wrong.

Midoriya wasn't focused on what was in front of him, and was constantly looking in other directions, as if he were expecting blocks to come flying at him from other directions. He was whacking the blocks in the correct direction, but he was using the wrong controller, or he was just dodging the blocks outright.

Meanwhile, Midoriya was starting to panic. He was hitting the blocks, but nothing was happening, and while he could see the blocks zooming towards him, he couldn't feel anything at all, not even a change in air current, almost like they had just materialized out of thin air.

"I don't think this is good." Shinsou stated, moving forward to try and stop Midoriya before he hurt himself by accident, "Izuku!"

"Hito?!" Midoriya whirled around, and he turned around, accidentally tripping over the headset wire and crashing into something.

With the game still running, Midoriya pushed himself up and pulled the headset off, shaking his head, trying to get used to the bright lights in the common room in contrast to the mostly dark game, before he realized that he wasn't sitting on the ground, and tensed up.

"You okay?" Shinsou asked, before he noticed an odd pressure on his hip. He blinked, before he realized that Midoriya was sitting on top of him.

On his lap, to be precise.

Midoriya relaxed when he realized who he crashed into, and Shinsou's face turned slightly red as Midoriya sat up properly, unintentionally putting his full weight on Shinsou, "Sorry."

"It's fine." Shinsou managed to force out, as Shoji helped Midoriya untangle his foot from the wire and stand up, before he pulled Shinsou to his feet.

"Huh... I guess VR games aren't for you." Ashido commented, picking up the controller, and Midoriya's head drooped slightly, "Sorry. Did... I break it?"

"Don't worry. It's not broken." Ashido laughed, "Did you know that Kaminari actually broke a controller? We were playing a horror game and there was a jumpscare, so Kaminari just threw the controller directly at the wall? Luckily, the wall was fine, but we had to go get the controller fixed. Relax, Midoriya!"

"Ok..." Midoriya hesitantly replied, before he walked over to Shinsou, who was sitting on the arm of the couch. His face was still red, and Tokage and Sero were poking fun at him for it.

"Sorry for falling on you." Midoriya muttered, and Shinsou smiled softly, "It's fine. Accidents happen."

"Yep!" Sero grinning, "I'm sure Shinsou didn't mind too much!"

"Maybe he even liked it!" Tokage giggled, and they high-fived.

"Shut up." Shinsou half-heartedly snapped, and Midoriya just pressed himself against Shinsou's side, not knowing why Tokage and Sero were laughing.

At least they were having fun.


	147. Chapter 147 - You always do

"Hey, Zuku, there's no lessons today, want to go out?" Shinsou asked.

Midoriya raised his head, and frowned slightly, "Isn't it... dangerous? The work studies were all cancelled... and we were called back to UA..."

"True..." Shinsou sighed, flopping down on the bean bag next to Midoriya. The boy had taken the old mattress off his bed frame, and had chucked it on the ground, by the balcony doors. Reiko and Ryuto were fooling around with a rubber ball that Yaoyorozu had made, while Midoriya used the now empty bed frame as a table for his laptop and scrap metal.

Shinsou's phone vibrated, and Shinsou groggily reached out, grabbkng his phone, before he read the message that was sent to the class group chat.

_"Eri is in the dorms!"_

Shinsou raised his eyebrow, before he turned to Midoriya, "Did you know that Eri's coming over?"

Midoriya tilted his head in confusion, before he shook his head, and proceeded to pack his stuff. The greenette stood up, and walked out of his room, with Shinsou following behind. They made their way to the common room, and found Aizawa standing by the door, the Big Three fooling around with Eri as she excitedly tried to tell them about a drawing she made.

Ashido, Tokage, Awase, and Sero were playing Mario Kart, and Kendo was trying to keep Monoma under control after he insulted Bakugou for the umpteenth time.

"We need to go out for something, so we can't take care of Eri at the moment." Aizawa stated, "She'll be in your care until night time; we should be back in time to pick her up for bed. I don't think lunch and dinner will be too much of a problem, she isn't too picky."

"Alright." Iida nodded, as Eri caught sight of Midoriya and ran at him, smiling brightly, "Izuku! I made a drawing with the crayons Ms. Midnight gave me, and she said it was really nice!"

Midoriya nodded, and gently patted Eri's head, being careful not to touch her horn, as Aizawa turned towards the door, "Don't make too much of a mess. If you need anything, just call Nezu or something."

"Okay! Bye bye, Mr. Aizawa!" Eri waved, and the Erasure hero disappeared out the door.

"Alright! Let's make a pillow fort!" Ashido shouted, and Eri turned to her innocently, "What's a pillow fort?"

Midoriya also looked at Ashido questioningly, confusion written all over his face, and it was obvious that he was as confused as Eri was.

"Pillow forts are, like, the best things ever." Ashido grinned, "Basically, we use all the soft, really fluffy things we can find, and then we just stick them everywhere and make the whole place soft and fluffy!"

Eri's face lit up at the mention of soft and fluffy things, and Hagakure butted in, "We should split into teams! Some of us deal with the snacks, and the rest of us can gather all the blankets and bean bags and pillows and start planning out all the entire fort! And then we can all watch movies in the fort!"

Eri asked, "Will there be apples?"

"We've got apples in the fridge. I can cut them up." Sato offered, and Eri smiled brightly.

"I can help with food!" Hado ran over to the kitchen, and Kodai raised her hand, "I can bring the 1-B couches over..."

"Awesome! Let's go! Let's go!" Ashido cheered, "Invite everyone else from 1-B over too! We are going to make the best pillow fort ever!"

* * *

"Don't drape blankets over the counter! It'll get dirty!" Sato sighed, as Ashido proceeded to pull the blankets over the tables and secured them with Sero's tape. Kodai had brought over the couches and cushions from 1-B's dorm, and had helped with bringing the blankets and pillows from Yaoyorozu's room.

With a bit of coaxing, they also managed to borrow the gigantic bean bag from Midoriya's room, and there was a huge pile of assorted cushions lying all over the common room. The couches were pushed apart and neatly arranged around the television, and Uraraka levitated the blankets, allowing Tokage and Amajiki to easily hold the blankets up so Togata could permeate through the second floor to help attach them to the ceiling and walls with more tape.

Yaoyorozu had almost made some clamps to hold the various blankets from different students together, and they also dragged all the spare mattresses out of the spare room. They also brought out the fairy lights that they had used during Christmas to decorate the Christmas tree, and attached them to the inside of the fort. Eri was doing her best to help out by arranging the cushions with Shoda, Komori, and Kendo, while Shiozaki used her vines to further increase the structural stability of the entire pillow fort.

Kuroiro popped out of a black blanket, "Where do we put all the food?"

"I thought we should put it all on the kitchen counter? And only grab them when we want to eat?" Monoma replied, copying Tokage's quirk and attaching more fairy lights on the inside of the fort, "It'll get the blankets dirty."

"Alright. Also, it's nearly lunchtime, so Sato's making rice balls and sushi. Got any preferred filling?" Kuroiro asked.

"I don't know, what food do we even have? I know we have cucumbers... can we roll up ham and stuff it in?" Awase asked.

"Protein powder!" Tetsutetsu shouted, and Kaibara sighed, "Tetsu, you can't put protein powder in everything, you know?"

"You can put protein powder in everything." Kirishima countered, "But I don't think it'll taste good in sushi. I'll make you one of my signature protein shakes!"

"Just don't make the mixer explode." Jiro sighed, installing the surround sound speakers, "You'll set off the fire alarm."

"I know that." Kirishima huffed, as Eri ran upstairs to find Togata and show him the pillow fort they all made. Bakugou wasn't being helpful at all, just standing around in the kitchen and making himself some mac and cheese.

Midoriya just looked around, not really sure what to make of it all. The blankets were everywhere, all the mattresses were piled up in the center of the common room, the bean bags used to line the edges between the mattresses and the couches. The smaller blankets were thrown on the couches, or on the mattresses, and the low table in the common room had been put aside in favour of Shinsou's kotatsu, which had been brought out of his room and placed directly in the middle of the pillow fort, giving them a source of warmth, and a place to put food.

Iida was rushing around, trying to make sure everything was safe and putting away the excess chairs, while Shinsou just awkwardly stood around, helping the others hold up various things.

* * *

"Izuku!" Eri chirped, running over to Midoriya, who was looking at the fairy lights and the various blankets draped everywhere. Ryuto looked down from his position on Midoriya's head, and Reiko poked her head out of his hood, looking down at the horned girl.

"The pillow fort looks nice, right?" Eri smiled, and Midoriya nodded, not wanting to make her upset. He didn't really get the point of a pillow fort; it just looked like a very messy and unstable tent. They were also going to have to clear everything up later, at the end of the day. It did look much cozier than a regular tent, though, and a lot softer, so he guessed that it was a plus. And there were lights, so no one would be tripping over anything by accident.

"Come on!" Eri lifted one of the blankets, "I'll show you around."

Midoriya just got on his knees and crawled after her, noticing that most of the students were already settled down inside. There was some apple juice and canned soda sitting on the kotatsu, and Midoriya could see that there were a couple of trash bags tapped to the couches, tactfully kept out of view, but also in very accessible places so that they could keep the area neat and clean.

"Ta-da!" Eri grinned, proudly puffing her chest out. Togata and Amajiki crawled into the pillow fort after Midoriya, and it took a few more minutes until Sato, Shinsou, and Bakugou crawled in as well, carrying several plates of onigiri and sushi.

"This is stupid." Bakugou grumbled under his breath, and Eri's face fell slightly, eliciting many glares from the other students towards the blonde.

"What!?" Bakugou snapped, being careful to select more child-friendly swear words, "The lights in the dorms are still on! If you're going to watch a movie, why the heck are the main lights on?!"

"Oh, yeah." Shinsou blinked, "I'll switch them off."

Shinsou placed the food on the kotatsu, before he crawled out of the pillow fort, flicking the lights off, and drawing the curtains, before he crawled back into the pillow fort, the only light coming from the television and the fairy lights lining the top of the pillow fort. He looked around, and found Midoriya sitting in a bean bag in the corner, and swiftly grabbed a can of soda before he crawled up next to him.

"So... what are we watching?" Ojiro asked, and everyone froze; they had been so absorbed with the pillow fort that they didn't think about that at all. Luckily, Hado fished several discs out of her bag, "I've got some movies! You know, they're really kind of old, but I think they're for kids! At least, we asked several teachers, and they all said it's kid friendly! So Eri should be able to watch it!"

"Do you have any idea what she's saying?" Sero whispered to Tokage, and she shook her head, whispering back, "Nope."

"Hado... you're talking too much..." Amajiki muttered, tucking himself into a small corner and curling up into himself.

"But I'm honestly not too sure, you know? I don't think I've watched these before, but if Midnight-sensei said it's okay, then I guess it's okay? Since she's the Modern Hero Art History teacher, and I guess movies are art and history? But it's not modern, so -" Hado was cut off when Togata smiled, and gently removed the discs from her hands, "Alright! Eri, which one do you want to watch?"

"Um..." Eri puffed her cheeks out cutely, as she examined the discs carefully, before she pointed to the disc with a large, grey creature with a beige belly and small ears, "That one!"

"Okay!" Togata cheerfully inserted the disc into the built-in DVD player inside the television, before he settled down next to Amajiki. Eri sat down between Midoriya and Togata, with Hado sitting on the couch right behind her with Uraraka and Asui, gently braiding her hair.

* * *

Aizawa wasn't too sure what to expect when he entered the dorms, but he was pretty sure he didn't expect to come back to the dorms to find the entire common room in a mess. Sure, he had come back later than expected since the villain he was chasing was surprisingly fast without his quirk, but he didn't think it was that long to enable the students to blow up the dorms.

There were various blankets strewn all over, the furniture was all out of place, and the coffee table that was usually found in the center of the common room was missing. In it's place, stood the kotatsu that he and Yamada had gotten for Shinsou after they found him studying at the table at home one winter night without a heater, in fear he would accidentally set the table on fire.

Kodai ambled into the common room, and use her quirk on the kotatsu, before she walked back up the hallway, not even noticing his presence, and several other students were rushing around, collecting stray blankets and pillows and returning them to their respective rooms.

Aizawa crept forwards gingerly, and noticed Eri sleeping on one of the couches, a blanket draped over her small frame that rose and fell in time to her breath.

"What happened here? You didn't break anything, did you?" Aizawa spoke up, and Shinsou, who was wiping the kitchen counter, looked up, "Nah. We just made a pillow fort, and I think we burned through several movies while eating sushi and onigiri. Eri's sleeping, though."

"That's fine." Aizawa internally sighed, "But a pillow fort?"

"Yep!" Hado grinned, "We got a ton of furniture and blankets and pillows and mattresses and bean bags and we piled them all up and -"

Togata butted in, "Ah, we just used some tape and vines and some clamps to secure stuff around. No permanent damage! Power!"

"Alright. Just clear up and you guys are free to do whatever. Don't leave too much of a mess. I'll bring Eri back to her room." Aizawa gently scooped the sleeping girl up, and headed towards the door, with several students continuing to clear up the common room.

* * *

"Just to give you a heads up." Aizawa sighed, "Next week, some students from Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu would be coming over for some joint training sessions. You already met most of the kids who are coming, during the Provisional Licence Exam. But they might bring some other students as well."

"Like that bald wind guy that Todoroki hates?" Kaminari asked, and Todoroki spoke up, "Yoarashi joined Bakugou and I at my father's agency. He talks too much and he's too loud, but he's okay."

"Yeah." Aizawa replied, and Yaoyorozu raised her hand, "Where will they be staying?"

"We already built extra buildings, in the event of interschool training. You don't have to worry about that." Aizawa dryly stated, "Depending on their year level, they will be joining their respective year groups for lessons, but they will be joining us for training."

"Can we beat them up?" Bakugou asked, gritting his teeth, and Aizawa rolled his eyes, "During training sessions, go ahead. I expect nothing less. Just don't kill anyone, and don't pick fights without a teacher's permission out of the allocated training times; the paper work would be annoying to deal with."

"Aizawa-sensei! You shouldn't be allowing that?!" Iida protested, and Aizawa glanced at the bespectacled boy, "Most of them are older than you. If they're getting beaten up easily by a bunch of first years, then they won't be able to survive bloodthirsty villains and murderers."

"That... actually makes sense, given that they should have one or two more years of school training than us." Kaminari replied, and Monoma huffed, "Well, they won't be better than 1-B!"

Kendo just shook her head; at least, Monoma wasn't antagonizing 1-A _too_ much.

"This was rather unexpected...actually..." Awase piped up, "I don't think we got too friendly with any of the students from other schools during our license exam."

Shinsou... wasn't too hot on the idea of interschool training. Midoriya was the only one he could consistently use his quirk on, and Shinsou found himself constantly using his quirk on him, of course, with the younger boy's permission, just to make sure that his quirk was working and wasn't broken. Midoriya didn't seem to mind, though, and actually seemed rather content being held under Shinsou's quirk, and using his quirk on the boy always gave him an overwhelming feeling of relief that felt really reassuring.

With help from Midoriya, he's spent the entire week trying to convince himself that it was alright to use his quirk, and so far, he's only managed to get his quirk to work on Uraraka, Todoroki, Iida, and Koda, but even then, there was only a fifty percent chance that it actually worked as intended. He didn't really want to go up against people he was less familiar with, especially without his quirk.

He felt some pressure on his arm, and he looked down, realizing that Midoriya was grabbing onto his arm. Midoriya tightened his grip gently, and nodded, eliciting a small smile from Shinsou.

He wasn't the only one with issues he had to work through, and Midoriya's suffered worse things in his life that Shinsou can't begin to imagine, things that even Midoriya isn't ready to talk about. But they could get through it together.


	148. Chapter 148 - Things in the hate we make

"When will the other schools get here?" Ectoplasm asked, and Snipe glanced at his watch, "Right about now-"

"Heyy! Eraser!"

Aizawa visibly cringed when he heard his name being called, and turned around, noticing Fukukado and the other teacher from Shiketsu leading the students into the gym. All of them had already changed into their hero costumes, but there weren't any new faces that Aizawa didn't really recognize.

"Marry me!" Fukukado grinned.

"No." Aizawa snapped, and Fukukado burst into laughter.

"Hello, Joke." Yamada drawled. He was well aware that Fukukado often joked about marrying Aizawa, and while he knew that she was just joking around, he didn't really like it.

"What's up, Mic? Besides the sky?" Fukukado smirked, as Yamada countered, "Literally everything except your sense of humor."

"Ha ha ha! Good one!" Fukukado snickered, as Aizawa groaned; those two always started bickering when they were together.

"Who told him to come help with quirk training?" Aizawa grumbled, and Snipe turned around, "Uh... Aizawa, you told him to come over to help Jiro."

"Damn it." Aizawa sighed.

He knew that Fukukado knew about him and Yamada, and she really meant no harm, but that didn't mean that he and Yamada didn't get irritated whenever she started on the topic of getting married.

"Heyy!" A familiar black haired student waved from behind the teachers, and Shinsou and Midoriya promptly tensed up. Shindo grinned cheekily, "Long time no see, eyy?"

Shinsou promptly narrowed his eyes and moved in front of Midoriya protectively, putting himself between the black haired boy and the greenette, and he could feel Midoriya tensing up as he tried to shift behind Shinsou. Yoarashi caught sight of Midoriya's fluffy curls, and shouted, "It's nice to see you again, UA! Plus Ultra! Alright!"

He also noticed Todoroki and Bakugou, and he yelled, "Hello, Todoroki, Bakugou!"

"Hi." Todoroki replied, and Bakugou snapped, "The fuck you want, Baldie?!"

Yoarashi ignored Bakugou's response, and noticed Midoriya standing behind Shinsou, and his face lit up, "Hi Midoriya! Nice to see you again, even though you were kind of stuck doing paperwork while we went patrolling!"

Midoriya quietly nodded, not wanting to draw attention to himself, but Shindo glanced at him and grinned, "Hey!"

"Piss off, why don't you?" Shinsou snarked, and Shindo's face lit up with a cocky grin, "Aww, so rude! What did I do to you?"

"Shut up, you demented Sprite can."

Utsushimi and Yamada burst into laughter, as the rest of Ketsubutsu stared at Shinsou, wondering just what had warranted such a nickname.

"So rude." Shishikura muttered, "I thought UA would be better than resorting to derogatory nicknames."

"Anyways." Fukukado clapped, before she pointed at Kan, "We know 1-A from the license exam. Want to introduce 1-B?"

Kan just huffed, and Monoma shot forwards from where he was sparring with Uraraka as a warm-up, "Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu, huh? Don't think you're better than us, okay? 1-A is better than you all, and since 1-B is better than 1-A, we're also -"

The students and teachers sweatdropped as Kendo smacked Monoma on the back of his head and promptly apologized.

"So! What are we going to be doing?" Fukukado asked, and Aizawa shrugged, "I don't know. Randomized group fights? Just see how well they work with others."

"Awesome." Fukukado grinned. The rules of the fight were that each team consisted of three students, with one team having four students instead due to the odd total number of kids, and in order to allow the students to get maximum experience with all the other students, they would be stopping the fights when one member of a team was incapacitated.

The students were all assigned a number, and the teachers used a random number generator in order to pick out teams. The first set of teams consisted of Midoriya, Iida, and Utsushimi, and the blonde girl pranced over to Midoriya, wrapping an arm around him, "Hey fam! Nice to be working with you again!"

Midoriya was clearly uncomfortable with being touched by the other girl, but he knew that it was just in her personality and she didn't really mean any harm. He didn't really push her away, despite her opening her mouth and starting to talk his ear off once again, eliciting protests from Mineta and Kaminari's.

The other team consisted of Mora, Shishida, and Makabe, and after getting all the other students to move aside so that they wouldn't accidentally get caught up in the fight, the teachers allowed the fight to start.

Originally, the fight was pretty normal; both sides were exchanging blows, coming up with some sort of strategy that allowed each team to use their quirks most effectively, but Aizawa was noticing something odd, and it had to do with Midoriya's fighting style.

Aizawa had originally thought it was weird that Midoriya was barely affected by the villain attack. Sure, Midoriya was a former vigilante and had a lot of experience that the other students didn't have, but he was still a child; there was no way he would get out an event like that unscathed, especially when his closest friend had gotten hurt.

Now, Aizawa realized his mistake in thinking. Midoriya had been affected by what had happened, but it didn't seem to affect his interactions with his classmates. It was, however, affecting how he fought with the students from other schools.

Midoriya was playing far too defensively. He didn't seem to mind Shishida too much, letting Iida handle the 1-B student, but he absolutely refused to let Mora and Makabe even come close to either of his teammates. He was constantly throwing himself between attacks from those two students that were aimed at either Utsushimi or Iida, even though they were well aware of the threat and were ready to deal with whatever the other two boys had to throw at them.

"Don't worry about me, fam! I can, like, handle it!" Utsushimi shouted, as Midoriya tanked a hit from Mora, before lashing out with his knife. Luckily, the fight didn't last too long because Iida narrowly dodged Shishida's charge and tripped him up, allowing Iida to pin the 1-B student to the ground, ending the fight.

* * *

After the rest of the students had a turn to fight, the teachers used the random number generator to create new teams, swapping students out if they deemed it too similar to a past grouping.

The first fight consisted of Nakagame, Kodai and Bondo fighting against Sero, Tokage and Yoarashi, but Yoarashi's quirk was far too powerful for the other team to do anything, and were quickly pinned down by Tokage's dismembered hands wrapping Sero's tape around them.

Midoriya ended up being grouped up with Monoma and Toteki, while the other team had Shishikura, Bakugou and Tetsutetsu.

"Hey... what quirk does that guy have?" Monoma asked, pointing at Shishikura. Midoriya and Toteki glanced at each other, and they both shrugged. Neither of them saw Shishikura's quirk in action during the license exam, so they didn't know what Shishikura was capable of. Monoma knew what Toteki's quirk was, since he saw it in action in the previous round of fights, but Shishikura didn't use his quirk when he fought, so his quirk was still unknown.

The fight started soon after their little discussion, and almost immediately, Bakugou ran at Midoriya, screaming that he was going to "beat him up and prove who's better", and Toteki kept Tetsutetsu occupied by constantly throwing decently sized rocks at him, pelting him all over by using his quirk to change their trajectory in mid-air.

Monoma crept behind some boulder, and peeked out. Shishikura was standing around, keeping an eye on the fight between Bakugou and Midoriya, while simultaneously looking around, almost as if he was looking for someone. Monoma frowned; he must have noticed that he was missing, and was looking out for him. He wasn't sure if Bakugou or Tetsutetsu told him how his quirk functioned, but either way, he was going to have to get close up in order to use his quirk.

"FUCK YOU! STAY STILL!"

A loud explosion rang out, immediately catching Shishikura's attention, and Monoma used that opportunity to jump out behind his hiding spot, and lunged at Shishikura.

Upon noticing a new presence, Shishikura whirled around, but not before Monoma reached out, grabbing onto his exposed arm, and copying his quirk. However, before Monoma could do anything, Shishikura's arms suddenly gave way like wet clay, rolling his flesh around a surprised Monoma, and molding him into a helpless meatball.

Monoma plopped to the ground, wiggling helplessly as he tried to figure out just what had happened.

"Alright, that's -" Ectoplasm was cut off as a loud screech rang out, and Midoriya lunged at Shishikura, anger boiling in his eyes.

"Stop -" Shishikura yelped, narrowly avoiding a knife that flew past his neck, and suddenly, Midoriya was right in his face, growling menacingly, another knife in his hand, like a predator hunting down its prey.

"Fight's over, you fuck!" Bakugou growled, using his AP Shot to create some distance between Midoriya and Shishikura, enabling the Shiketsu student to scramble away as his arm broke into pieces of flesh. Shishikura levitated several of them, before shooting them at Midoriya in an attempt to trap him and get them to stop, but Midoriya expertly weaved between, and slashed his knife at Shishikura, only for Tetsutetsu to step in, grabbing onto Midoriya's knife and breaking it with a steel hand.

"Midoriya! Stand down! The fight's over!" Aizawa ordered, but it seemed like Midoriya didn't hear him as Shishikura tried his best to avoid Midoriya's assault, only surviving for so long because Bakugou and Tetsutetsu were in the way and Midoriya wasn't trying to hurt them.

"Izuku! Calm down!" Shinsou yelled, and tried to activate his quirk when he saw Midoriya glance at him briefly, before continuing to slash his knife at Shishikura.

Shinsou growled as his quirk failed to work on the gesture, and turned towards Shishikura, yelling, "Release your quirk on Monoma!"

Shishikura was far too panicked by Midoriya's assault to do anything, but Aizawa immediately understood what Shinsou was yelling, and leaped on top of several rock structures. He located Shishikura and activated Erasure on him, and Monoma quickly grew back to his regular form.

"Okay, that seriously sucked. Bleh." Monoma stuck his tongue out, waving his arms about, and Midoriya immediately turned his attention away from Shishikura. Midoriya landed on the ground, before he walked over to Monoma, tilting his head in a silent question of asking if Monoma was okay.

"Hey, I'm fine." Monoma grinned at Midoriya, and Aizawa narrowed his eyes; Midoriya was being far too overprotective than usual. He wasn't sure if that might cause problems in the future. He would have to talk to Inui about changing his style of therapy for Midoriya.

* * *

Midoriya narrowed his eyes as the teams for round three were announced.

His team consisted of Kuroiro and Shindo. Just his terrible luck that he was grouped with the one person out of the forty-eight other students that he absolutely detested.

The other team consisted of Yoarashi, Shinsou, Todoroki, and Shiozaki, and the students started moving around to get into the new groups.

Shinsou walked over to Yoarashi and Todoroki, just happening to walk past Shindo, who just smirked, "Looks like I'm on the same team as your little friend."

"Screw off. He's mine." Shinsou growled, and Shindo just laughed, grinning maliciously, "Don't be cocky, first year. From what I've seen... your quirk isn't really viable in these fights, is it?"

"Like that matters. I'd kick you in the balls the first chance I can." Shinsou retorted. They were the fifth battle, and it was going to be some time before they were due to fight. But finally, after what felt like forever, they were finally able to fight.

The fight started off decently. Yoarashi and Todoroki were combining their quirks to control exactly where the fire was going, and Shiozaki was also able to grow vines from her hair and break them off, using them as a wick for the fire to spread.

However, with so much fire, it was casting many shadows on the rocky battle terrain, giving Kuroiro plenty of opportunities to jump out from the shadows and attack, before hastily diving into another shadow before Todoroki could blast fire at him.

"Hey." Shinsou grinned, lashing his capture weapon around Kuroiro and yanking him aside, but a badly positioned shadow allowed Kuroiro to slip away. Shinsou gritted his teeth in frustration; the unpredictable flames kept giving Kuroiro opportunities to slip away whenever either he or Shiozaki got a hold of that slippery student.

Shindo was also using his quirk to generate shockwaves that rippled through the ground, disrupting the flames and also making the area unstable for all the students to stand on.

Midoriya slashed at a vine Shiozaki shot at him, and he tried to charge at her, only for her to create a gigantic shield of vines around herself which was way too thick for him to slice through quickly. He was distracted as Shinsou threw his capture weapon at him, and he was forced to jump away as Yoarashi used the wind to shoot fire at him.

Todoroki created a huge glacier, but Shindo jumped in and used his quirk to break it into smithereens, but Yoarashi blew all the ice shards at then and they were forced to dive behind other rocks as cover.

"Can you make the air vibrate? There's too much fire or ice." Kuroiro popped out from behind the shadow of a boulder, but Shindo shook his head, "I can, but it would be too widespread. Plus, if we get rid of the fire, they'll use ice. We get rid of the ice, they're fire. Then there's also vine girl and that fucking brainwasher that is somehow not using his quirk."

"About that..." Kuroiro muttered; out of all the kids from the other schools, he was rather suspicious of Shindo, and he wasn't really sure he wanted to reveal the reason why Shinsou wasn't using his quirk at all.

"Hey, Sprite Can!" Shinsou mocked, "Having fun now? How'd you like being backed into a corner?"

"Oh, shut up! Like you're of any use to your team!" Shindo snapped, pressing his hands against the ground, and in the heat of the moment, unleashed an unusually power shockwave that rippled through the ground, causing the ground to crack erratically and split apart.

Shindo winced at the recoil from his quirk, as the others struggled to maintain their balance, but before the vibrations could dissipate, cracks started forming on one side of one of the tall, rock formations. A loud cracking sound rang out, and the rock formation collapsed directly on the other team, kicking up a huge cloud of smoke.

Midoriya could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything, and he saw red.

"Stop the fight!" Yamada yelled, and Shindo relaxed slightly before he heard a low growl, and a menacing aura blasted out. He barely turned in time to see Midoriya running at him, his emerald eyes glinting under the shadows cast by his hair. Shindo yelped as Midoriya grabbed onto his hero uniform, and flipped him over, smashing him into the ground.

"Dude, what the fuck!?" Shindo groaned, as he picked himself off the ground, feeling his shoulder pop out its socket, and Kuroiro turned his attention from the collapsed rock formation towards Midoriya.

"Mine. Hurt Mine. My Hito." Midoriya snarled, baring his teeth, growling threateningly, before he ripped out a knife and threw it at him. Shindo barely had time to sidestep it, the knife narrowly missing his neck, before Midoriya reappeared right in front of him and kicked him straight in the ribs, sending him tumbling backwards.

"Midoriya, what are you -" Kuroiro reached out, trying to stop Midoriya, but the boy just shrugged his hand off and lunged at Shindo again. Shindo slammed his hand on the ground, creating a small shockwave to try and knock Midoriya off his feet without affecting the other students stuck under the fallen rock formation, but that did nothing to hinder Midoriya as he closed the distance between the both of them.

Midoriya aimed his knife at Shindo, but the black haired boy managed to knock the knife away, getting a large gash on his hand, before he instinctively raised his other hand, pressing it against Midoriya and setting off a shock wave in self protection.

The greenette crashed to the ground, as Shindo leaned against a couple of boulders, clutching his bleeding hand. He tried to catch his breath as the gravity of what he had done crashed into him; he's never used his quirk on people before, since he wasn't too sure what the direct shockwaves would do to the delicate human body, but he had been warned that he should never do it.

He noticed Midoriya moving, relieved that he didn't kill the boy by accident, but the boy just stood up, spitting some blood from his mouth, his eyes practically glowing in the shadows, before an incoherent roar tore itself from his lips, and the boy lunged at him again.

* * *

Yoarashi used his quirk, and pushed the fallen rock formation aside, the rocks crumbling to smaller pieces.

"Is everyone okay?" Yoarashi looked around, eyeing his teammates. None of them seemed to be injured, since Shiozaki had used her vines just in the nick of time, creating a protective barrier around them, and Todoroki had used his ice to freeze her vines, preventing them from getting crushed.

They heard some yelling, and looked up, only to notice Midoriya chasing after Shindo relentlessly, throwing knives at him or just outright trying to stab him with the blade. Kuroiro was trying to stop them, but to no avail.

"Is Midoriya trying to murder him?" Yoarashi asked, confused, not really sure what to do.

"Midoriya!" Shiozaki sent out several vines, but Midoriya swiftly sliced through them as he attempted to attack Shindo.

"Damn it." Shinsou growled, "We should help him."

Yoarashi sent a blast of wind at Midoriya, but the boy just dived out of the way, and swiftly threw his knife at Shindo, that was caught by one of Shiozaki's vines. Todoroki blasted the ground with ice in an attempt to freeze Midoriya in place, but Midoriya merely leaped up onto the other boulders.

"Izuku!" Shinsou called out, but Midoriya barely reacted to his words. He felt something click in his mind, and Shinsou frowned; he wasn't able to brainwash Midoriya, so what was going on -

_Hurt, hurt, hurt Mine. Hurt Mine. H__urt. Mine. Mine, Mine. __Don't hurt Mine -_

He heard some jumbled, disjointed thoughts in his head, and he tried to process it when he realized that those thoughts were coming from Midoriya.

Everything else clicked into place.

"He probably thinks that he hurt us..." Shinsou growled, turning to his team, "Distract him. Try to prevent him from mauling Shindo too badly."

"You sure you'll be okay?" Kuroiro asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Yeah. Leave it to me."

Shinsou ran into the fray, just as Todoroki sent a wave of fire between Midoriya and Shindo, forcing Midoriya to dodge to the side. Shinsou noticed that Midoriya wasn't bothered by the external attacks, and his focus was wholly aimed at the black haired boy.

Midoriya spat out more blood, and snarled, slicing past Shiozaki's vines as he threw himself onto Shindo, punching him in the face, and before either of them could react, Midoriya swung his leg, kicking Shindo right between the legs, before he supported himself using his arms on the ground and kicked Shindo in the side, sending him to the ground.

The seething greenette just stood over Shindo as the other boy groaned in pain, a knife in his grasp, his entire body twitching as his eyes glinted in anger. He raised his knife, and Shinsou threw out his capture weapon, grabbing onto Midoriya's arm and yanking it aside.

Midoriya bared his teeth and hissed, before taking out another knife and attempted to slice through the capture weapon, as Shinsou threw out the rest of his capture weapon, ensnaring Midoriya within it. Midoriya was tangled up in the capture weapon, struggling to escape, hissing and growling, but the more he struggled, the more stuck he was getting.

Shinsou sighed; Midoriya was originally the one who taught him how to throw the capture weapon in such a way that if the victim tried to escape and constantly struggled, they would only be making the bonds tighter, like a chinese finger trap. Sure, Midoriya also taught him how to get out of it if someone did use that method on him, but Shinsou really didn't think that he'd have to use it on his boyfriend.

The lavender haired boy stalked forward, and crouched down, gently ruffling Midoriya's hair, "Hey, Zuku."

Midoriya's eyes flickered over to him, and he immediately stopped hissing and struggling, falling completely limp in the tangles of the capture weapon.

_"Safe. Hito safe. All safe. Mine okay."_

"Calm down, okay, Zu?" Shinsou let out a soft smile, and Midoriya just blinked, and rested his head on the ground, allowing himself to be left completely vulnerable. Shinsou set about undoing the capture weapon, and he tilted his head at Shindo mockingly, "You doing okay there, Sprite Can Buddy?"

"Fuck off." Shindo writhed helplessly on the ground, "He... kicked me... in the... fucking balls..."

"Congratulations. You deserved it for last time." Shinsou dryly responded, untangling Midoriya from his capture weapon, and the boy coughed out some blood.

"You should see Recovery Girl." Shinsou stated worriedly, but Midoriya just pushed himself up, "Nothing broken. It's fine... You okay?"

"We're all okay. No one's hurt by that falling rock. Still... you should get that checked." Shinsou replied, and Midoriya just wrapped his arms around the taller boy tightly, glaring at Shindo menacingly, hissing, "Mine. Don't hurt mine."

"We should probably go back to the others and fill them in." Todoroki dryly stated, as Shiozaki used her vines to help Shindo up, and Kuroiro sweat dropped upon seeing his bruised and beaten up teammate hobbling along.

"Should I feel sorry for him?" Kuroiro asked, and Todoroki turned to him, "Probably not. Izuku doesn't hurt people that badly for no reason."

"Yeah. Makes sense." Kuroiro nodded, and Yoarashi smiled, "Well, that was fun! Let's get ready for the next fight!"


	149. Chapter 149 - I lost my soul

Luckily, Aizawa had the hindsight to call Shuzenji to the gym before the entire exercise started, and she wasted no time in healing Midoriya and Shindo, before checking the four students to make sure that they weren't injured from the falling rock formation. While the black haired male was fine and had no major injuries, Shuzenji still stated that he had to sit out for a round or two due to how hard Midoriya kicked him in such a sensitive area.

"Hey, kiddo." Fukukado glanced over at the greenette, "Want to explain why you looked like you were trying to murder my student?"

Midoriya glared at Fukukado and gritted his teeth, growling as he narrowed his eyes. The teachers were all taken aback; sure, he might be a little hesitant to listen to instructions sometimes, and usually took things way too seriously, but Midoriya was usually never outright hostile to a teacher.

"It's not like him to be so hostile..." Jiro muttered, as Iida dryly replied, "Let's just say... he had a bad encounter with him."

"You're a UA student! By attempting to kill another student, you're acting in ways that cause its dignity to decline -" Shishikura took a step back as Midoriya glared at him, baring his teeth, but Aizawa just stepped in between them, trying to diffuse the situation, "Midoriya, you're being overly aggressive. Go sit down and cool your head."

Midoriya looked a bit hurt by Aizawa's words, and the boy drooped his head slightly, like a kicked puppy, before he turned around and walked to the bench by the side of the gym.

"Sensei... isn't that a little harsh? I don't think he meant any harm..." Kirishima spoke up, and Aizawa just sighed, "I should have known."

"Known what?" Kaminari asked, and Aizawa turned to the students, "Doesn't matter now. Go back to your fights."

Aizawa turned, and gazed at where the boy was sitting silently, all alone. Midoriya was constantly distracted, most likely stressed due to the addition of students he wasn't too familiar with, and when one of his friends had gotten hurt, Midoriya had just ended up hyper fixating on whoever had hurt his friend. First, it had been with Shishikura with Monoma, then Shindo with Shinsou, Yoarashi, Todoroki, and Shiozaki.

But whatever it was, at the moment, Midoriya was far too dangerous to be left on the field. If one of the other students ended up doing something that would set them off, it might be too late until one of the teachers intervened. Plus, when he ended up being a hero, there wouldn't be anyone there to stop him from going too far, and there was no doubt that the Hero Commission would use it as an excuse to pull Midoriya out of the hero course.

He needed to give Midoriya some time to sort out his thoughts before they could help him solve the problem.

"Mic, make the next set of groupings."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Aizawa growled.

* * *

After several more rounds of battles, the teachers finally called a water break. Shinsou quickly snatched his water bottle up, hearing Utsushimi rambling about her work study with Uwabami to Yaoyorozu and Kendo, while Monoma tried to rile Yoarashi up, with the Shiketsu student not understanding what the blonde wanted and just taking all of his words as compliments.

"Hey, Zuku." Shinsou sat down next to Midoriya, and Midoriya let out a small rumble from the back of his throat in response.

"You know... Aizawa-sensei and the other teachers mean no harm by pulling you out for the time being." Shinsou stated, taking a sip of water as he shuffled closer to the green haired boy. The lavender haired boy took a larger gulp of water, before he turned to Midoriya, "You just want to protect us, don't you?"

Midoriya glanced at Shinsou, letting out a forlorn rumble from the back of his throat, and Shinsou nodded, reaching out and gently grabbing Midoriya's hand, his fingers brushing over the bandages on Midoriya's hands; ever since he had come back from Kamino, he always kept his fingers bandaged to try and prevent more injuries to them like dislocations and breaks.

"I know. You don't want us to get hurt. You've made friends, and you know that we're not going to hurt each other on purpose. You've also done internships with Utsushimi and Yoarashi before, didn't you? You also know they mean no harm. You don't consider them a serious threat." Shinsou murmured, "That's why you're always trying to protect them when they're on your team, and didn't take our quirks into account when you tried to hurt Mr. Demented Sprite Can. You were focused on the only threat, and the others weren't considered threats."

There was a few seconds of silence, before Midoriya nodded again, and Shinsou smiled softly, "You've always got our back. But you can also trust us to protect ourselves too, okay? You protect us, and we'll protect you. We've got your back too."

Midoriya gazed up at Shinsou, nodding again, and the taller boy grinned, "You think you're ready to go another round?"

"Okay..." Midoriya hesitantly responded.

"Sensei." Shinsou called out, pulling himself and Midoriya to their feet, "Put me in the same group as Izuku in the next round."

Aizawa glanced at the duo, "He's okay now?"

Midoriya just averted his eyes, but Shinsou just nodded, "Yeah. He's all good."

"Fine." Aizawa sighed, looking around at the students who were all chatting and starting to make a ruckus.

Midoriya and Shinsou were eventually grouped up with Tsuburaba, and they were set to fight Yaoyorozu, Rin, and Nakagame, though it was really obvious that the Ketsubutsu student was visibly uncomfortable with having to fight the boy that nearly killed her classmates.

Monoma, Todoroki, and Shindo somehow ended up in the same team, fighting against Yoarashi, Honenuki, and Bakugou, but that fight had to be ended prematurely because of all the earthquakes, explosions, and all the raging winds blasting fire and debris all over the place. It didn't help that Monoma also had the ability to copy three of the five powerhouse quirks of the other students, making it even more dangerous and creating more of a mess.

It wasn't long before it was their turn to fight, and Rin immediately started off by firing off some scales. They were stopped by Tsuburaba's quirk, as Yaoyorozu created a large net and threw it at them, but Midoriya just sliced through it easily.

Nakagame threw herself at Tsuburaba, and Midoriya turned around in alarm, but the brown haired boy merely grinned at Midoriya as he sidestepped Nakagame's kick, "I got her, Midoriya! Help Shinsou with Rin and Yaomomo!"

Tsuburaba created a barrier as Nakagame attempted to punch his face, and Midoriya nodded, turning around.

Shinsou was avoiding getting hit with a long metal pole from Yaoyorozu when he heard a growl behind him, and he whirled around, throwing out his capture weapon, "Got it!"

The grey cloth flew in Midoriya's direction, but the boy swiftly slid under the capture weapon, and he skidded to a halt as the capture weapon wrapped itself around Rin, and Shinsou gave the capture weapon a powerful yank, swinging the boy around.

Rin's arm turned green as he activated his quirk, and fired off a couple of hard scales in Shinsou's direction, but his aim was pretty bad due to Shinsou swinging him around and the projectiles largely missed their mark.

The greenette jumped up, kicking Yaoyoruzu away, as Nakagame used her quirk to retract her heads and limbs into herself, avoiding getting hit by Rin or tangled up in the capture weapon.

Tsuburaba instantly encased himself within a cube-shaped Solid Air barrier, and the capture weapon was caught on the edge, immediately changing its trajectory and slamming Rin onto the barrier.

Midoriya danced around Yaoyorozu as the girl created a sword, and Shinsou unraveled his capture weapon, releasing Rin from its bindings, before he glanced briefly at Midoriya, and pointed upwards.

The green haired boy turned to him, nodding slightly, and Shinsou turned around and ran to the side, ducking behind several boulders as Rin stood up shakily and tried to mow him down with another barrage of scales, only for Tsuburaba to intervene with more barriers.

Rin turned his attention to Midoriya, and lunged at him with a scaled arm, attempting to punch him, but Midoriya took a step back, and hooked a leg around Rin's arm, before he flipped Rin over as he used his knife to block Yaoyorozu's sword, allowing Tsuburaba to focus on Nakagame since it was obvious that the Ketsubutsu girl was not ever going to pick a fight with Midoriya.

Shinsou gingerly climbed up onto one of the rock formations, and put his mask on, hearing it click into place as he secured it gently around his jaw, the soft padding on the inside of his mask preventing any lacerations or injuries.

His mind immediately flew to the muzzle that he had been forced to wear as a child when his quirk first manifested, locking his jaw into place and preventing him from even opening his mouth, being shamed and humiliated as having a villains' quirk by his teachers, his peers, and even his own biological parents, before he met Midoriya, and ended up in Aizawa and Yamada's custody with the smaller boy's help.

Shinsou just shook his head.

_It's just a support item, made to enhance his usage of his quirk, not stopping him from using it._

_This was his quirk. T__here was nothing to be afraid of. It wouldn't hurt him. It was just unlucky that he encountered a villain like Mind Break, who's quirk was just perfect to counter his. _

_He could do this. __If anything happened, Midoriya had his back. __He trusted Midoriya. _

_All he had to do now was trust himself._

Shinsou adjusted the metal plates on his voice changer, and he stood up, on the very top of the rock formation. He took a deep breath, and spoke up, "That's enough. Fight's over."

Nakagame, Rin, and Yaoyoruzu paused in their movements, and blinked in confusion when they heard Aizawa's voice telling them to stop fighting, and they promptly whirled around to question Aizawa decision.

"Sensei, but nothing's -" Rin protested, as Nakagame responded, "We haven't even -"

Yaoyorozu noticed Shinsou's fluffy purple hair, and promptly slapped her hand over her mouth, stopping herself from replying to Shinsou mimicking Aizawa, but her teammates weren't so lucky, and the both of them were cut off mid-sentence.

Shinsou felt the familiar feeling of his quirk clicking into place, and he internally heaved a sigh of relief.

The teacher's called the match, and Shinsou released his hold on the two students, before he jumped to the ground, loosening his mask and letting it hang around his neck.

"Okay, that honestly wasn't as bad as I thought." Rin chuckled, "I thought being trapped under your quirk was going to be painful. I just felt like I was trapped in my own body and I could see everything going on around me and not being able to do anything... yeah that is actually pretty scary..."

Yaoyorozu smiled at him, "Your quirk is working again, huh?"

"Yeah." Shinsou smiled, watching as Tsuburaba tried to talk to both Nakagame and Midoriya at the same time, hooking one arm over Midoriya as he tried to convince Nakagame that Midoriya was safe. Tsuburaba finally let go of Midoriya, and the boy shuddered, before he stalked over to Shinsou's side, looking up at him expectantly, "Quirk?"

"It works." Shinsou grinned at Midoriya, and the boy's gaze softened.

* * *

The boy's changing room was rather large, and there was more than enough space for the twenty eight UA males, as well as the six other boys from the other schools to change back into their school uniforms. It was a little crowded, and the teachers did suggest that they change in batches, but as long as none of them were moving too much and kept to their own personal space, they generally didn't think it was too bad.

There were also several stalls for some students to change in private, and it was a known fact in the first grade that while most of the boys didn't really mind changing in front of the others, Midoriya was the only one who ever used the stalls.

Shinsou really wasn't too sure how it started. The only thing he knew was that some of the students were horsing around and started talking over who had the strongest quirk. An explosion was released from Bakugou's palm as he shouted at them to shut up, and Yoarashi, being the ever energetic and excitable one, unleashed a small breeze within the changing room, only to be stopped by Shishikura and Mora, before the former started berating Bakugou for starting unnecessary fights.

"I hate your type. Always so high and mighty." Bakugou snapped, "Your eyes are so small that you can't see the true strength of your opponents?

"My eyes are handsome and long in length!" Shishikura retorted, "I can understand getting agitated due to one of your friends being hurt, but behavior befitting the school one belongs to is what it means to be dignified! You are tarnishing UA's name!"

"Shishikura, stop it. Stand down." Mora tried to intervene, and he was somewhat successful in managing to diffuse the entire situation before he accidentally shocked Kaminari with all the built-up static electricity in his hair, due to the dry and cold winter weather.

Startled, Kaminari accidentally shocked Bakugou, who took offense to the blonde's "attack" and smacked Kaminari on the head, "You want to go, Sparky?!"

"I really wonder how you managed to pass the Licence exam with that kind of attitude." Shindo chuckled, and Bakugou just glared at him, explosions popping from his palm, "The fuck you saying?"

"Bakugou, stop! No fighting outside of designated times!" Iida tried to calm the hot headed blonde down, and Monoma glared at Shindo, "The only ones who can insult 1-A is 1-B, you hear?!"

Tetsutetsu was physically restraining Monoma from stomping away, as Bakugou growled at Shindo, shoving his finger into his chest, "You shut up, you cocky bastard. You may be from a different school, but I'll still beat your ass up all the same!"

"Is that all the vocabulary you have? So many swears. What a shame." Shindo grinned. He pushed Bakugou away, and the boy accidentally bumped into Tokoyami as he stumbled backwards.

Dark Shadow took great offense to that, and they were already on edge due to the presence of new, unknown people, as well as the cancellation of the work studies, and they promptly lashed out, attacking anyone near them. Koda yelped as Dark Shadow nearly hit him, and he accidentally tripped over the benches that were placed in the middle of the changing rooms.

He crashed into Shoji, and the both of them slammed into one of the stall doors, and much to their surprise, they heard a loud crack, and the lock gave way beneath their combined weight, the door swinging open on its hinges. They crashed into the ground, and Koda rolled off Shoji as they both tried to push themselves up, dazed.

Looking up, they noticed Midoriya staring down at them, shock and fear clearly visible on his face.

That was when they realized that Midoriya was half-dressed, still in the process of taking off his shirt. His entire torso and arms were practically mutilated with scars, ranging from mottled, discolored patches of skin to long jagged lines that littered his body. Some were shiny and pale, while others were more reddish or brownish, but it was obvious that none of them had been able to heal properly, all of them overlapping in some way like some kind of sick tapestry.

There was a huge splotch of discolored skin on his right shoulder, and a large, long scar that ran from his left shoulder all the way to his right hip. Smaller scars were littered about on Midoriya's pale skin, and there were also thin, white lines that were visible, glinting under the light.

Stunned, Midoriya's eyes were focused on Koda and Shoji, his eyes flicking about erratically, before he looked up, noticing that several other of his peers were also able to see him through the open door. Koda and Shoji hastily picked themselves up, shocked at seeing just how badly mutilated Midoriya's skin was, but before they could even utter a word, Midoriya growled, and slammed the door shut.

The sound of the door being slammed shut echoed throughout the now quiet changing room, as the students slowly shifted their gaze from the closed door of Midoriya's stall, looking at each other, not knowing what to do; they knew that Midoriya had been involved in some rather horrible things, but they really didn't expect his skin to be covered in so many scars that he was covered in more scars than unblemished skin.

"Everyone who's finished changing, please leave." Iida ordered, and Shoji and Koda hopped out of the way as Shinsou walked up to the stall worriedly, and knocked on the door gently, "Hey, Zuku?"

_"Go away." _

Midoriya's voice was shaky, and Shinsou knocked on the door harder, "Zuku, you okay in there?"

_"Leave me alone... Please..."_


	150. Chapter 150 - Memory of how we were

Midoriya slammed the door shut, and promptly dropped his hoodie on the ground as he clumsily fiddled with the broken lock. He staggered backwards, flinching as the cool, tiled wall made contact with the sensitive, scarred skin on his back.

He sank to the ground weakly, his back rubbing against the tiled wall, aggravating it slightly, until he was seated on the ground. He pulled his legs up, huddled up in the corner of the stall, the familiar, bone-deep exhaustion seeping through his entire body.

The air around him felt like ice, phantom fingers brushing against the discoloured, bumpy skin, like a reminder of all his failures. His scars were an indication that he wasn't good enough, that he would never be good enough.

The large scarred patch on his back, evidence that he hadn't been strong enough against Shigaraki when they raided the school.

The burn scar on his stomach, a failed suicide attempt. The scar above his stomach, and on his arms and shoulders, caused by Chisaki and Midoriya's own failure to properly counteract Chisaki's ridiculously versatile quirk.

The long, large scar that stretched from his shoulder to his hip, and the various smaller scars littered across his body, a reminder that he wasn't strong enough, both when he was kidnapped by the League, and when the League decided to crash their license exams.

Midoriya could probably recount exactly what had happened to warrant each scar, whether it had been inflicted by someone else, or was of his own doing. But all his scars shared one thing in common, and it was that they were evidence of how utterly useless and worthless he was.

Hot tears of shame trickled down his cheeks, and Midoriya tried to use his gloves to wipe them away. He was useless, and the only he could do now was cry. He wasn't careful, and now, everyone had seen his scars, all the proof of how his existence was a mistake, all the reasons why he was a worthless Deku.

He should have used a different stall. He should have known that he would do something wrong.

He should have known that despite how nice and caring his classmates were, that didn't change the fact that he was weak and useless.

* * *

It didn't take too long for the rest of the boys to exit the changing room, leaving only Kirishima, Koda, Iida, Todoroki, and Shinsou.

"Hello? Tenya? You guys okay?" They heard Uraraka call out from behind the door, "Tsu's with me, and you guys took a long time to change so we waited. Everyone seemed really upset!"

"What should we do?" Kirishima asked, as Shinsou knocked on the stall door and called out again, "Izuku?"

"You think you can handle Izuku?" Iida turned to Shinsou, and the lavender haired boy merely nodded, and Todoroki spoke up, "We'll explain what happened to Aizawa-sensei and the other teachers. And Ochako and Tsu. We'll leave Izuku to you."

"Alright." Shinsou faced his friends, "Thank you."

Iida, Kirishima, Koda, and Todoroki exited the changing room, and Shinsou could hear some muffled talking from right outside the door, but he couldn't really make out what was being said.

He turned back to the stall door, and knocked again, "Hey, Zuku... Are you alright?"

Once again, there was no response, and silence filled the room.

"Zuku... please..." Shinsou murmured, "At least... please just answer..."

He heard the sound of something moving, and the door swung open slightly. He gently pushed the door open, noticing that the disfigured plastic lock was now loose, and it had probably fallen down on its own due to gravity.

Gently pushing the door open even wider, he found Midoriya sitting in the corner of the stall, curled up in a ball. His hero costume hoodie was on the ground, crumpled into a heap with the cloth he wrapped around his arms, as the case for his hero costume and his uniform sat neatly on the bench in the stall.

Shinsou carefully picked up Midoriya's clothes and set them aside, before he gently scooted over to Midoriya's side, his sleeve accidentally brushing against the scar of Midoriya's arm, causing him to flinch.

"Shh... easy there..." Shinsou muttered, as Midoriya lowered his head, the shiny tear stains on his cheeks making it clear that he was crying.

Shinsou just sat there in silence, listening to Midoriya's ragged breaths and muted hiccups, as more tears pooled at the corner of his eyes, threatening to trickle down.

"I'm sorry..." Midoriya's muffled voice was heard, and Shinsou raised his head, and turned to face Midoriya. His breaths were coming in fast, and Midoriya sniffled and coughed as he tried to steady his own breathing.

"I'm sorry. I'm useless. I can't do anything right." Midoriya's entire body was trembling as he rambled, "I'm a mess. I'm always causing trouble... I'm always doing something wrong, I'm sorry."

"Zuku..." Shinsou muttered, his heart breaking as he heard Midoriya speak so lowly of himself, and Midoriya just clenched his eyes shut, "I can't -"

His breath hitched, and Shinsou quickly used his quirk on Midoriya, "Shhh... deep breaths, Zuku. Deep breaths. Calm down."

Under Shinsou's quirk, Midoriya's body had no choice but to obey Shinsou's orders, and the lavender haired boy instantly released his hold on Midoriya when he felt that he had calmed down sufficiently.

"It's okay to cry. Let it all out." Shinsou murmured, and the greenette just pressed his forehead against his knees, more tears of shame pooling out of the corners of his eyes.

"I'm sorry... that you had to see... all _this_... see how useless I am... I'm just a burden. A failure."

"You're not useless. You're not a failure." Shinsou gently pulled Midoriya in for a hug, carefully pressing his hand against the scar on Midoriya's shoulder. It was warm, but tough, and it was clear that Midoriya wasn't really caring for his scars properly.

He was pretty sure that it was most likely caused by Chisaki when he rescued Eri from his clutches. He recognized the long gash on his chest as being the one caused by Toga, when Midoriya protected Kaminari during the License Examination. The large patch of discolored, tough skin on his back, the one he had gotten when Midoriya had saved him from Shigaraki when they attacked UA.

Shinsou tried to activate his quirk again as Midoriya coughed, choking on his breath, and he felt the weird click in his head, just like how it felt before when he tried to stop Midoriya from killing Shindo outright.

_"Useless... Ugly... Pathetic... Weak... Worthless... Now they all hate me... __just a weak, stupid, worthless Deku."_

"You're not weak, and you're not worthless. You have nothing to apologize for." Shinsou used the sleeve of his gym uniform to wipe away Midoriya's tears, internally seething at the terrible nickname.

He's seen that name pop up on the class Youtube channel several times, and on some of the online news articles that Midoriya was involved in. Each time he saw the dreaded kanji characters, he always felt such loathing to whoever used that nickname. He really wanted to hunt down and beat up the person who had twisted Midoriya's name into such a disgusting, derogatory insult.

"You're already doing your best. I don't know who started calling you Deku, but that's a massive insult towards you. You've already done so much for everyone. You're not useless simply because you're quirkless, and you've proved that time and time again." Shinsou murmured. Midoriya could feel more tears dripping down his cheeks, as Shinsou let him rest his head against his shoulder. Shinsou rested his chin on Midoriya's head, "You're not ugly, okay? You're beautiful just the way you are."

_"You can cry in front of you father and I, but until you can find someone else out there that loves and cares for you, no matter your quirkless status, you can't cry. You can't show other people how much they are hurting you. People would just hurt you more. Do you understand, Izuku?"_

Midoriya couldn't stop himself, and broke down into ugly sobbing. He cried onto Shinsou's shoulder, and the taller boy just sat there patiently, pulling Midoriya in closer. The greenette could feel the scars on his chest and arms rubbing uncomfortably against Shinsou's shirt, but Midoriya didn't really care, and pressed himself closer to Shinsou; he just wanted more hugs and physical comfort.

He didn't know what was wrong with him, and he didn't know why his first thought that popped up in his brain was that they would all abandon him and leave him all alone. He knew that things were different now, that he had people who actually cared about him. He had friends now, heck, he was even dating Shinsou, even though all they did was just cuddle a lot. Everything was different, and despite everyone's efforts, he was still stuck in a mindset that assumed that everyone was out to get him.

There was something severely wrong with him, and he didn't know how to fix it. Something that had broken into so many pieces that he could never put it back together again, and the very thought just set him off, making him cry even harder.

Shinsou just patiently waited until the tears died down and Midoriya had been reduced to a sniffling mess, before he reached out, grabbing Midoriya's shirt, pulling it over his head, and gently helping Midoriya put his shirt on. He tried his best to not focus on Midoriya's scars, but even with the shirt on, Shinsou just couldn't get that image out of his mind, of Midoriya's body covered in scars, the shock and fear that had been etched into Midoriya's features, the tears of shame that ran down Midoriya's face when he realized that everyone had seen him.

Shinsou gave Midoriya some privacy to change out of his hero costume pants into the gym uniform, before he grabbed Midoriya's gym uniform jacket and draped it over Midoriya's shoulders.

"Come on. Let's go get you something to drink and find somewhere more comfortable, okay?"

Midoriya slowly nodded, trying not to cry again.

* * *

Aizawa and Nezu stood outside the changing room, silently waiting for Midoriya and Shinsou to come out. Iida, Todoroki, and Koda had explained what had happened, and while they did know that it was just an accident from teenagers horsing around and getting a bit too aggressive, they should have figured that something to this extent would happen. And while they wanted to help Midoriya, they knew that he would be sensitive, and it would be easier for Shinsou to handle him with fewer people around.

They heard some footsteps, making Aizawa and Nezu tense up, before the changing room door opened, and Midoriya and Shinsou walked out, the shorter boy clinging on to the latter's arm. Shinsou noticed the two heroes, and muttered, "Dad? Principal?"

Midoriya turned slightly, allowing Aizawa and Nezu to see his tear streaked face and red eyes, and Aizawa softened slightly, "Hey, kiddo."

The greenette promptly turned away from Aizawa, not wanting the hero to see such a pathetic side of him, but Nezu just reached out for Midoriya's hand with his paw, "Are you okay, Izuku?"

The smaller boy was promptly reminded of his previous thoughts, and he swallowed harshly, nearly bursting into tears again right on the spot. Instead, he just sniffed, and shook his head.

"Can you come to my office real quick? Reiko and Ryuto are already there; Koda told them to go there." Nezu asked, and Midoriya paused, before he glanced up at Shinsou hesitantly. The taller boy merely nodded his head in Nezu's direction, before Midoriya slowly let go of Shinsou's arm, and staggered weakly towards Nezu.

Aizawa waited until Nezu and Midoriya had left the hallway, out of earshot, before he turned to Shinsou, "We heard about it all."

Shinsou averted his eyes, and Aizawa lowered his head, "Does it bother you?"

The boy stared at the ground, not saying a word, until he finally replied, "Yes."

"Scars are normal for us heroes." Aizawa stated, and Shinsou's head shot up, a haunted expression on his face, "But... he has so many... and we've only gotten -"

"I'm not saying that it should be normal for you kids to have scars." Aizawa interrupted, "For heroes, scars are usually seen as something to be proud of, proof that we went through something scary and still came out on top. But for Midoriya... he most likely felt judged by all the others staring at him. Scars can also remind him of all the bad, trauma-inducing things that had happened to him over the years, and Midoriya is most likely ashamed of all his scars. This is something that he has to get over himself."

Midoriya had gotten those constellations of disfiguring scars in his attempts to protect them. He had gone through so much pain and trauma, he had his happiness and childhood brutally ripped away from him, but he refused to break apart, continuously doing his best to try and save everyone else.

And yet, he was still haunted by the demons of his past. He had lost his parents, and had grown up without any support, being forced to live and survive in a toxic environment that constantly put him down. He was scared of being neglected and rejected, and yet, he had been so used to being mocked and ridiculed by everyone around him to the point where he was conditioned to think that it was normal.

Midoriya's biggest enemy on the road to recovery was himself, and Shinsou knew that all he could do was give Midoriya the emotional and mental support that he had been deprived of. But even then, there was a limit to what he could do, and Shinsou's head drooped, "So... we can't help him?"

"There's nothing else you can do. All the therapy in the world isn't going to help him if he doesn't want to recover, or he doesn't feel the need to heal." Aizawa corrected, "You just giving him support and being with him is enough; giving him a reason to live, and to heal."

Shinsou just blinked, as he processed Aizawa's words, and Aizawa just ruffled Shinsou's hair, "I know it hurts to see him like this, but he trusts you from the bottom of his heart; I've seen how Midoriya looks at you. Just sticking with him the best thing you can do for him."

The lavender haired boy just nodded, and Aizawa sighed, "You can probably go find Midoriya in Nezu's office, or go back to the dorms first. I need to check on the state of the changing room and make sure nothing's broken. Especially that lock. I don't think it was built to have so much force pressing on it."

* * *

Nezu pushed the door of his office over, and Reiko and Ryuto promptly tackled their human. Reiko already knew that Midoriya was distressed, and wasn't too sure if she should go seek him out, but she already knew that he was already on edge about the students from the other schools coming over, so she just decided to wait it out for the time being.

She had felt a huge spike in distress from Midoriya, and was deciding whether she should go get Nezu, Aizawa or one of the other teachers to find him as the other students returned to the dorms, before Koda told her to go to Nezu's office with Ryuto and wait for Midoriya, which is exactly what she did.

Midoriya just cradled the two animals, and flopped down onto the bean bag, exhausted, and Nezu offered him some chamomile tea. The greenette took a small sip, the water trickling down his parched, dry throat, and Nezu settled down in the bean bag next to him.

"Are you okay, Izuku?" Nezu asked.

Midoriya's eyes started watering again, and he lowered his head, his hands shaking, "...There's... something wrong with me... right?"

Nezu just blinked in confusion, grabbing Midoriya's teacup so he didn't spill the tea on himself by accident, "There's nothing wrong with you."

"There... has to be..." Midoriya croaked out, and Ryuto nuzzled his human comfortingly, as Reiko curled up by his neck, "Everyone's... so nice to me... but I just think... that everyone hates me... I know things are different now... I can't help but just..."

He sniffled, and Nezu passed over the tissue box so Midoriya could wipe the tears at the corners of his eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with you. With how you were treated in the past, it's natural for you to be suspicious and question things when people are nice to you." Nezu calmly stated, making sure that Midoriya understood what he was saying, "Now, you've recognized that the entire situation is much different from how it was in the past. You know that no one wants to hurt you, and you're not at fault for your thoughts instinctively jumping to something negative; it just takes time for you to heal and understand that how you were treated was wrong."

Midoriya gently shifted his position so that he was curling around Nezu, and the animal principal merely patted Midoriya's head, "Don't overthink it too much; it's just part of the healing process."

The boy sniffled, and slowly nodded. There was some silence, the only sounds being Midoriya's quiet sniffles and his occasional sips of tea, before Nezu spoke up again, "Do you know what "depression" is?"

Midoriya looked upwards slowly. He's heard of the word several times, but he didn't really bother to search it up. It was something about being really sad or something? He's heard his classmates claiming to have it before, but they seemed rather proud to be "depressed"... which was odd, since it seemed like it was something bad.

"Depression is a disorder that negatively affects how you feel and the way you think, which consequently, also affects the way you act. There are several causes of depression, such as it being inherited, out of balance neurotransmitters and hormones, or traumatic events. Do you see where I'm getting with this?"

Midoriya frowned slightly, and shook his head.

Nezu spoke up, "It's considered a serious medical condition... but most people think you can just "get over it", which isn't really true; people usually aren't able to just get over a depressive state. Untreated depression can cause lasting issues, and while I'm not going to list all of them, one of the more prominent ones are suicidal thoughts or attempts."

The greenette blinked, and blanched slightly, as Nezu continued, "After what happened two weeks ago... you know... with that quirk that we had to call Tsukauchi in for... Hound Dog and Shuzenji went to talk to some professionals for their input. And according to your current health reports... your hormones levels are seriously unbalanced, most likely caused by stress and the lack of nutrition, not even mentioning everything that's happened..."

Nezu ran his paw through Midoriya's hair, "One of the most common ways to deal with depression is therapy, which is why we make it mandatory here in UA, but medication is also another effective option. We can go see Recovery Girl. She can tell you more details about the dosages and prescriptions... if you want to try it out."

Midoriya raised his head slightly. He wasn't sure how medicine was going to do anything, but Nezu said it could help... he guessed there was no harm in trying.

"Okay."


	151. Chapter 151 - Such a beautiful desire

Nezu hastily called Yamada over to go find Shinsou and tell him that they were in the infirmary, since it was very likely that Aizawa would direct the boy to their office after he was done talking to the brainwasher, and the lavender haired boy is most likely going to come and find his green haired friend.

Nezu and Midoriya left the office, and made their way to the infirmary, and Nezu cleared his throat, "Ah, Recovery Girl. Remember what we talked about with Hound Dog?"

Shuzenji narrowed her eyes, noticing Midoriya standing behind Nezu, Reiko perched on one shoulder as Ryuto preened himself on Midoriya's other shoulder. After getting them to sit down on the bed, Reiko and Ryuto hopped off Midoriya's shoulder, and just settled down on the soft bed sheets.

Shuzenji crossed her arms, "You mean getting antidepressants for Midoriya?"

Nezu nodded, and Midoriya just sat there, unmoving.

The nurse just frowned. Due to the various times the boy had been admitted to the hospital, she had several of his health records. Needless to say... Midoriya wasn't exactly healthy. His hormone levels were completely out of whack, having dangerously low serotonin levels, among other hormones and neurotransmitters, and his body mass index was also very unbalanced.

He also had extremely high levels of cortisol, which wasn't really that surprising, considering how many stressful situations Midoriya had been dumped into, not to mention the constant bullying and going out as a vigilante.

"First, before we even talk about medications, I think we should deal with some other issues first. You need to eat more, Midoriya. You are far too light, and even if we wanted to start with antidepressants, we can't; the risk of overdosing is far too high. Medication should only be used as an absolute last resort, and a potential addiction is one thing we want to avoid at all costs." Shuzenji started, "We'll start by changing Hound Dog's therapy sessions, and make it more suitable for you. If you're still uncomfortable with talking to him, you can also let your friends sit in, or maybe try talking to Nezu with Hound Dog in the room."

Midoriya just blinked in confusion, as Shuzenji continued, "You should also bring Reiko and Ryuto with you, since they make you more comfortable. Speaking of which, I was thinking that we might register Reiko and Ryuto as service animals. That would allow you to bring them in for lessons, internships, and all that kind of stuff. Service animals aren't rare, but they are uncommon amongst heroes since most heroes don't usually bring them to fights and the sort."

"Reiko and Ryuto can be helpful in fights... based on what I've heard from the Raid on the Eight Precepts of Death." Nezu muttered, "I'm just concerned... Ryuto's a tamed hawk who's grown up around humans. He's sweet and gentle, but keep in mind that people think that hawks are deadly predators that wouldn't hesitate to rip their eyeballs out."

Ryuto looked outright disgusted when Nezu mentioned that; yeah, he liked to eat meat, but it wasn't the bloody kind anyways. He wasn't afraid to draw blood, but if he could avoid it, he'd choose that path. He didn't really like blood in the slightest.

Nezu gave a small chuckle as Ryuto frowned, looking like he was pouting, and Reiko merely brought her paw up, patting him on the head.

"We can still apply for them." Shuzenji replied, "It shouldn't be a problem for Reiko, since cats are one of the few generic animals chosen as service and therapy animals, but with you, Hound Dog, and I... You think we can get Ryuto registered without any extensive tests and the sort?"

"We can try, but no guarantees." Nezu huffed, before he turned to Midoriya, "We might have to borrow Reiko and Ryuto for a day or two to get them registered... would you mind?"

Midoriya tilted his head slightly as Reiko pressed herself against his arm, purring, before he turned to Ryuto, letting out a short series of rumbles from the back of his throat. The hawk cocked his head, as if pondering over the question, before he fluttered his wings slightly and let out a warble, rubbing his beak against Midoriya's finger.

"Then it's all settled." Nezu sighed, his tail flicking about, "Then we'll start with all the paperwork first. There might be some screening tests... and that's when we would need to bring them in."

Midoriya nodded slowly, and Nezu stood up on the bed, much to Shuzenji's chagrin; she was going to have to change the bedsheets later due to Nezu's shoe prints on the clean sheets. But she wasn't going to whack Nezu with Midoriya around.

Nezu gently patted Midoriya's shoulder, "Alright. You look tired. Want to head back to your room first?"

The greenette nodded slowly, and Nezu smiled, "If you need anything else, come talk to us, okay?"

Midoriya seemed to hesitate for a moment, and he nodded, before he leaned forwards, wrapping his arms around Nezu tightly. Nezu paused for a second, before he wrapped his paws around Midoriya's neck, waiting patiently until Midoriya was done hugging him.

"... Thank you." Midoriya muttered, scooping Reiko and Ryuto up. Shuzenji dug into her drawer, and grabbed a small plastic tin.

"Before I forget, some cream for your scars. I have no idea what you've been using until now, but this should be better, and it also works on burn scars. The area you apply the cream to might be a bit warm, since the cream heats up on its own. It should be very mild, and would gradually lessen over time, but if it hurts or your skin becomes irritated, come find me and we'll work out an alternative. You should apply it everyday, after you shower and dry yourself off. Use a bit of force and massage it while you do so, but not so much that it hurts."

Midoriya nodded, and gently took the cream, stuffing it in his pocket. He bowed, before he exited the infirmary.

Shuzenji instantly whipped her cane out, and bonked Nezu on the head gently, "How many times have I told you not to step on the bed with your shoes on!? You're not a toddler, you know? I don't care that you're the principal of this school, this is still the infirmary and you need to make sure that the environment is clean and hygienic!"

"Sorry!" Nezu cackled, letting out a shit eating grin, and Shuzenji whacked her cane at him again. Nezu managed to dodge the second hit, and he raced out of the infirmary. Shuzenji just shook her head, before she grabbed a clean set of bedsheets out of the cabinet.

* * *

Midoriya trudged through the halls of UA, slowly making his way back to the dorms.

He heard some footsteps, and he looked up as he turned the corner, noticing Shinsou walking in his direction. Shinsou's face lit him, and he hastened his footsteps, running over to Midoriya, "Hey Zuku."

"...Hito..." Midoriya stepped forwards, gently pressing his shoulder against Shinsou's chest as he nuzzled the taller boy's neck. Shinsou just wrapped an arm around Midoriya gently, "I was just about to find you; Pops said you were in the infirmary. How did things go with the principal?"

"It's... okay... just tired..." Midoriya murmured, exhaustion evident in his voice, as he continued to nuzzle Shinsou. The lavender haired boy smiled, "Come on, let's go back to the dorms."

Midoriya nodded, humming softly in agreement, as the duo walked back to the dorms in silence.

Upon opening the door, they noticed that the dinner table was already set. Shinsou looked out of the window; the sun was still setting, and usually it was a good two hours before they normally started eating dinner.

"Isn't it a bit early for dinner?" Shinsou called out, and Ashido sat up from where she was sprawled on the couch, "Yaomomo and Iida said we should eat early and sleep early, since Aizawa-sensei and All Might-sensei said that training is only going to get more intense!"

"I see." Shinsou nodded, as Ashido noticed Midoriya plastered onto Shinsou's side, "Heya, Mido! We heard there was some commotion over on the boys' changing room. You okay, man?"

"Oh my god, Midoriya! We're so sorry!" Kaminari wailed, "It was an accident, I swear! We were just messing around and it just got too violent and it was too crowded!"

"What even happened anyways?" Ashido asked, but Kaminari just shook his head, "Not saying. Never."

"I'll give you my share of Doritos."

"You can't bribe me! This mouth is shut!" Kaminari pouted.

Midoriya merely nodded silently, squatting down and releasing Reiko and Ryuto from his grasp, before he trudged back to his room.

He could still feel their gazes on him, scanning over every inch of his body, scrutinizing him, silently judging him, and -

Midoriya was jolted out of his stupor as Shinsou placed a hand on his shoulder, his grip firm, yet gentle.

He gazed up into Shinsou's lavender orbs, his expression completely calm, a small smile on his face, "It's okay."

Midoriya wanted to believe that.

* * *

The green haired boy stared at the bathtub. He had eaten dinner really quickly, wanting to get some peace and quiet; his classmates had been constantly shooting him worried gazes through dinner. He didn't hate his classmates, but even if it was an accident, and he had no reason to believe otherwise, he was still uncomfortable with so many people looking at him.

Midoriya had been eyeing the bathtub for some time. He remembered the times when he was younger, where he was just splashing around aimlessly, watching the water in the tub ripple, the small little rubber duck that his mother had bought bobbing around in the water. He remembered his mother gently running her fingers through his hair as she tried to clean his messy green hair with bubbly shampoo. He remembered that his father occasionally took over his mother's job, and that they had always put a ridiculous amount of soap into the tub that resulted in so many bubbles that his mother had to get Hisashi to clean up the bathroom so no one would slip and fall, before taking a shower himself.

Ever since he was six, he had never used the bathtub. He had always been afraid of making a mess, of wasting water, of getting scolded and ridiculed by everyone around him for being childish and stupid.

But now, this was his room. His bathroom. No one would be knocking on his door, asking him why he was taking so long in the shower. No one would just shut off the hot water, forcing him to clean himself up in freezing cold water that left him chilled to the bone and shivering.

Everything was his. It had taken him a long time to believe that it was real, but this room was his. He finally had something to call his own, he finally had a home after so long of being rejected by literally everyone around him.

Even though he hadn't used his bathtub, he always kept it clean. He liked to keep everything neat and tidy, and clean. Midoriya plugged the drain, and turned on the hot and cold water taps, watching the water run from both faucets into the white tub, before he exited his room to grab some towels and clean boxers. He went back to the bathroom, and Reiko and Ryuto both followed him.

Midoriya carefully peeled his gym uniform off, doing his best to prevent them from rubbing against his scarred, sensitive skin, and tossed them in a pile in the corner of the bathroom. He tested the temperature of the water, making sure it was neither too hot, nor too cold, and he turned off the faucets.

The greenette gently stepped inside, and slowly lowered himself into the tub. The warm water felt soothing against his bare skin, and Midoriya relaxed slightly, leaning back and submerging himself further into the tub.

Midoriya gently opened his eyes when he heard a small splash, and he noticed that Ryuto had jumped into the tub, perching on the small handle by the side, and started preening. Reiko was sitting at the side of the rub, unsure if she wanted to enter the water, but eventually, she just jumped in, paddling around in order to keep her head afloat.

Midoriya honestly had no idea how long he was soaked in the water for, but eventually, he knew that he had to get out before his skin got dried out and wrinkly; it was always annoying whenever that happened. Midoriya grabbed his shampoo and soap, before he started to clean himself properly, and Ryuto popped out of the tub when he noticed the soap.

Reiko accidentally got some on her fur when she tried to get out of the tub, and she just jumped up onto the bathroom counter, jumping into the sink to plug in the sink drain. Hopping out, she used her paw to clumsily turn on the faucet in the sink to a gentle trickle, before she went back to the sink to clean the soap out of her fur.

When she was done, she hopped out, and switched off the faucet, before she pressed that handy dandy button behind the faucet that automatically unplugged the sink drain.

By that time, Midoriya was already done cleaning himself up, and he wrapped himself up in a towel, before he stepped out of the tub. He quickly put on his boxers, before he proceeded to dry the rest of his body. He ruffled his towel through his hair, absorbing all the water, and exited the bathroom, making sure to unplug the bathtub, and dumped his clothes in the laundry basket before he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and pulled it on.

His hair was still wet with so much water trapped within it, and he just did his best to soak all the water up. After deeming it dry enough, Midoriya set his towel out to dry, before he reached into his closet. He paused, before he grabbed the purple hoodie that Shinsou had given him, and slipped it on easily. That hoodie was easily a size or two bigger than his other hoodies, making it really loose, and it didn't rub against his scars and irritate them.

_Speaking of scars..._

Midoriya's eyes trailed over to the tin of cream that Shuzenji had given to him, sitting innocently on his table. He had taken it out after he had gotten back to his room, and he figured he should use it... right? He didn't know what was in it, but Shuzenji was the nurse, and she had never done anything to hurt him, always being accommodating towards his various medical needs. She knew more than him, and could be trusted.

The green haired boy grabbed the tin, and flopped onto his bean bag. He pulled up his pants leg, and started applying the scar cream to the scars on his legs. Like Shuzenji said, the area where he applied the cream started heating up on its own. It didn't hurt at all, instead, giving it a comforting and a soothing feeling, and it actually felt really good.

It didn't take too long for Midoriya to move on to his arms, carefully applying the cream to the multitude of scars caused by villains and his own self-harm attempts, and Midoriya just glared at his scarred arms in disdain. What was done was done. He didn't want to add more scars to the sick tapestry that was his body.

Midoriya pulled up the hoodie, and applied the cream to his chest, taking a really long time due to just how badly his torso was mutilated. Eventually, Midoriya was done, and moved onto his back, and he tried to figure out just how to put force on his back. He reached his arms back, patting his back without any cream, and it didn't take too long for him to realize that while he could reach his back, for all his flexibility, he couldn't apply any force on his back without twisting his arms into a painful position that risked dislocation.

He let out a small rumble in annoyance, and he frowned slightly. He was going to need some help with his back.

The greenette didn't really want to show anyone his scars, but he knew that he wouldn't reject him, and would always help him.

Midoriya stood up, washed his hands, and headed for the door, Reiko and Ryuto on his heels.

* * *

Shinsou yawned, and lay down, sprawled on his bed. He was clean and fresh after his shower, and his hair was completely dry with the help of a hairdryer.

He reached down, grabbing his phone off the floor, before he lifted it up, proceeding to read up on the news. Shirou was sleeping by the kotatsu, but Shinsou didn't really mind. It was rather chilly in his room, but he was nice and warm in the Eraserhead hoodie that Midoriya had made him for Christmas. It was soft, and it trapped heat rather well, so he didn't really care that his cat was hogging his blanket.

There was a knock on his door, and Shinsou's head shot up, "Come in?"

His door was pushed open, and Midoriya appeared in his doorway. Reiko and Ryuto slinked past Midoriya's legs, and shot towards the kotatsu, relishing in its heat, as Midoriya closed the door behind him.

"Hey Zuku." Shinsou pushed himself up, as Midoriya reached up, scratching at his neck, "Uh... can you help me... with something?"

"Yeah, sure." The taller boy shrugged, and Midoriya walked over to the bed, and passed over a small tin.

"Scar cream?" Shinsou guessed. He recognized these tins before; Shuzenji was always throwing tins of scar cream at Aizawa because his dad was stubborn and never went to get a refill from her. Yamada was always the one doing it for him, and it always ended with Shuzenji giving him larger tins because Aizawa was stubborn and just vehemently refused to seek her out.

Midoriya turned his body slightly, pulling up his hoodie and exposing his back, revealing the large scar caused by Shigaraki's disintegration, and several smaller patches of scars that were most likely caused by Chisaki's stone spikes. Shinsou did his best to not show his grimace as he got a good look at how badly mutilated Midoriya's skin was.

"Back only?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya awkwardly nodded, "I can't... press down..."

"Lie down. It'll be easier." Shinsou spoke up, and he stood up, giving Midoriya some space to pull his hoodie down and awkwardly wiggle onto his stomach, resting his head on one of Shinsou's pillows. Shinsou popped the cap open, and sat down by Midoriya's legs. He scooped out a bit of cream, before he gently rubbed it over Midoriya's back, making sure to cover all the scars, feeling the cream heat up slightly.

Midoriya couldn't help but relax as Shinsou pressed his hands onto his back. It felt good. Really good. Shinsou's hands were really nice and warm and he used just enough force that it felt divine. It was comfortable and Midoriya felt like he could fall asleep right there and then.

Shinsou blinked, surprised as he heard a soft, relaxed purr from the smaller boy, but he just continued rubbing the cream onto Midoriya's scars. The taller boy had his own scars, and he always set aside some time to massage them, softening the scars and decreasing scar tissue build up. If Midoriya couldn't put pressure on his back, then it made sense that he wasn't able to massage the scars on his back.

Throughout the process of helping the greenette apply the scar cream, kneading his back gently, Shinsou felt the boy relaxing, completely melting under his touch, letting out soft, content, purr-like vocalizations. He wasn't even sure that the boy was noticing what he was doing, but still, Shinsou continued putting pressure on Midoriya's back gently.

It took some time due to the sheer area of Midoriya's back covered in scars, but he was finally done, and Shinsou capped the tin securely. He placed the tin on his table, and went to wash his hands, before he went back to his bed. He half-expected Midoriya to have gotten up and pulled his hoodie back down, but the boy just lay there, as still as a rock, the only indication he was alive being the faint rising and falling of his back.

"Zuku?" Shinsou leaned over, and poked Midoriya gently in the cheek.

No response; the boy was already fast asleep. Shinsou really couldn't believe that Midoriya was already sleeping, but then again, with his breakdown in the afternoon, coupled with their training, it was no wonder that Midoriya was exhausted.

Shinsou pulled Midoriya's hoodie down, covering up his exposed back, before he yawned, and switched off the lights, the only illumination in the room being the light that managed to flit through the curtains. He settled down on the bed next to the sleeping greenette, and pulled the blanket over them both. It wasn't really that uncommon for them to be sleeping together, and they often just slept in whoever's room they were doing homework in, or whoever's room they just happened to stumble into after staying up with the class for movie nights.

Midoriya unconsciously turned over in his sleep, shifting so that he was lying on his side, resting his head on Shinsou's shoulder. The shorter boy let out a soft rumble, laying his arm down on Shinsou, and the taller boy just wrapped his arm around Midoriya's smaller frame, before he shut his eyes, relishing the warmth that Midoriya exuded like a heater.

He protectively tightened his grip on the smaller boy. It had taken so long for the boy to learn how to trust others, changing from the boy who just jolted awake whenever someone got too close to the point where he just fell asleep on his bed. And if he could help it, Shinsou wasn't going to let anyone hurt Midoriya again.


	152. Chapter 152 - It takes control

If there was one thing 1-A didn't know about Midoriya, it was just how ridiculously possessive the boy actually was.

Sure, some of the students were a little on edge, and weren't too keen to show their rooms off to the Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu students after only their second day of training together, but Midoriya absolutely refused to open his room door to let the other students even take a peak.

He did allow Utsushimi and Yoarashi into his room after the other students had gone off to the common room to do homework that their teachers had assigned them, but they had done internships with Midoriya before, and it was clear that Midoriya didn't mind them too much.

The greenette wasn't just possessive over his room. He was also super overprotective of his friends, especially Shinsou, always dragging them away from the other students and growling in their general direction, though after a couple of interactions, 1-A found that Midoriya didn't seem to mind Nakagame, Toteki, Makebe and Mora too much, and he was much kinder towards Shishikura than towards Shindo.

Some of the Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu students had popped over to the 1-A dorms to do some homework that had been assigned to them, claiming that it was too quiet in the building that had been assigned to them for the duration of their joint training sessions, and while Shishikura, Utsushimi, and Mora were trying to figure out their homework, Shindo was already done with his work, and was playing Mario Kart against Kaminari, Sero, and Awase.

All of a sudden, Midoriya entered the common room, and he looked around. Sero was sitting on one of the other chairs, while Awase was lying on the floor. Kaminari was sitting in the middle of the couch, while Shindo was comfortably sitting on the armrest.

Midoriya walked up to Kaminari, and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him to the other side of the couch, away from Shindo, not even bothered about the fact that he was disturbing Kaminari's driving.

"Hey!" Kaminari blinked surprised, before he turned to the green haired boy, and the black haired boy merely raised his eyebrow at Midoriya in confusion, "What's your problem? We're just playing."

Midoriya just snarled at Shindo, and Awase paused the game so that they could settle whatever the problem was.

"What's going on, Midoriya? He seems like a nice guy." Kaminari tried to reason with Midoriya, but the greenette just let out some low, threatening growls, glaring at Shindo.

"Don't tell me you're still pissed over that time." Shindo rolled his eyes, and Sero frowned, "You mean during the license exam? Sure... we were enemies back then, all fighting for the same spots... but that's all the past now..."

Midoriya let out another series of unintelligible growls, and Yaoyorozu turned to Iida, "Should we do something about this?"

"We should." Iida adjusted his glasses, "But I don't really want to intervene."

"That's not like you." Yaoyorozu whispered, and Iida muttered, "I know... I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say it... but Izuku had a bad encounter with Shindo..."

"Ah." Yaoyorozu nodded understandingly, before she turned back to the couches in the common room. Midoriya was still growling at the black haired Ketsubutsu student, as Kaminari, Sero, and Awase tried to calm him down, not knowing why the boy was being so hostile.

Shinsou popped his head into the dorms, "Zuku?"

Midoriya paused, and turned towards the door, tilting his head at the lavender haired boy. Shinsou waved him over, "Can you come with me for something?"

The greenette nodded, and he glared at Shindo, baring his teeth at the black haired boy, before Midoriya turned around and walked over to Shinsou, and the taller boy led him out of the dorms.

"Jeez, Midoriya's usually really chill." Sero turned to Shindo, "What did you even do? He's never that aggressive for no reason."

"And Shinsou." Kaminari piped up, "Usually, the only one giving nicknames around here is Bakugou... What on earth did you do to offend him to the point of calling you Demented Sprite Can?"

"I don't know." Shindo merely shrugged, and Iida just narrowed his eyes at the black haired boy, before he turned back to his homework. Whatever it was, until he had Midoriya's permission, he couldn't do anything about it. But as long as Shindo wasn't doing anything remotely close to teasing the others... he would tolerate the older boy.

* * *

"So... you're saying that you used your quirk on Izuku... and you don't Brainwash him? But you can hear his thoughts?" Nezu raised an eyebrow. Shinsou had brought Midoriya with him to find Aizawa and ask him about the new aspect of Brainwashing that seemingly just manifested during the group training exercise the previous day, and Aizawa had called Nezu and Shuzenji to talk about it in the infirmary.

Midoriya just blinked in confusion; Shinsou's quirk could do that? Since when?

"Yeah." Shinsou nodded, "I don't know why... it's more like... Izuku reacts to me non-verbally... and I activate my quirk."

"And you hear his... I don't know, "voice" in your head?" Shuzenji clarified, jotting some notes down on her notebook, and Shinsou nodded, "Come to think of it... I think the first time I used my quirk on Zuku... I did feel a small jolt, and relief. I was relieved that my quirk worked... but it was more like, a second wave of relief?"

Midoriya frowned slightly. Shinsou's quirk was a one-way connection, which only allowed him to order other people to do things without getting any feedback. But when Shinsou used his quirk on him... he was apparently able to get some feedback from him?

Based on Shinsou's description of his fight with Mind Break, he could also hear the villain's voice inside his head when Mind Break tried to order him to do something. That meant that it was now a two-way communication, and that he had to open the connection and allow his thoughts through -

Midoriya froze up. That time, he had felt a rush of emotions... but he hadn't been too sure where it came from. If Shinsou could hear his thoughts and feelings... then it only made sense that he could feel Shinsou's too.

"Looks like Midoriya figured something out." Aizawa muttered, and the greenette raised his head. Midoriya glanced at Shinsou briefly, before he signed, _"I think Mind Break might have activated something that allows for two-way communication using your quirk as a connection port. You either already had the ability and he just forced it open... of his quirk damaged yours and it just healed in such a way that you wouldn't be hurt again."_

Shinsou pondered over Midoriya's signing, as Shuzenji hummed, "I think it's the first option. If the quirk factor was damaged in any way and healed... it would have showed up in the medical reports. And if he did damage Shinsou's quirk to the point where it mutated... the stress from that would have most likely killed anyone with a mental quirk."

"So it's kind of like a locked door. Mind Break's quirk merely forcefully unlocked the door and barged it open and opened up a channel that allows for communication, instead of just creating a new door outright." Nezu stated, trying to get a better understanding of the whole situation.

"But he's not controlling them." Aizawa muttered. "That's the odd part."

"Shinsou stated that Izuku didn't reply verbally. Only through actions." Nezu countered, but Shinsou intervened, "The first time Izuku responded verbally, so I was able to brainwash him, alongside hearing his thoughts. The second time round was when Izuku attacked Shindo; he only reacted to my words instead of giving a verbal response, and I could only hear his thoughts."

"Hmm..." Aizawa puffed a cheek out as he thought deeply, "So verbal responses for regular brainwashing... and non-verbal responses for... mental and emotional feedback, I suppose?"

"Shinsou, have you used your quirk on anyone else?" Nezu asked, and Shinsou nodded, "Tenya, Shouto, Koji, and Ochako a couple of times... and then on Rin and... uh... the blonde girl from Ketsubutsu... her name is Nakagame, I think? Just those two, during the group fights."

"And I'm assuming you didn't hear any stray thoughts from them." Aizawa mused, and Shinsou shook his head, "Nope. Nothing."

Midoriya paused his train of thought. So the thoughts and feelings only worked with him? Come to think of it, the first time Shinsou had used his quirk on Midoriya... the greenette had opened his mind up to Shinsou's quirk... and if Shinsou wasn't able to access that ability on his own, despite practicing and figuring out everything about his quirk... then it only made sense that part of Shinsou's quirk could only be accessed on the other end.

"Hitoshi, use your quirk on me." Aizawa stated.

"Dad, you sure?" Shinsou asked, and Aizawa nodded, "Yes-"

The Erasure Hero promptly froze up, and Shuzenji, Midoriya, Nezu, and Shinsou just stared at Aizawa.

Suddenly, Shinsou felt a small click in his mind, before he felt a niggling sensation at the back of his head, _"Hitoshi?"_

Startled, Shinsou promptly released his quirk, and Aizawa blinked, "Judging by your reaction... I'm assuming that worked."

"What did you do?" Shinsou asked uncertainly, and Aizawa frowned slightly, "It seems like it's not something you can activate on your side. Whoever you're brainwashing has to trust you wholeheartedly to open up their mind for you to get any feedback. I don't think that ability would be viable in combat... unless you're trying to mentally communicate with another hero. But even then, we all know the stigma that Brainwashing has... As much as your friends trust you, even they might not be open to allowing another to hear their thoughts and feelings."

"But Izuku... it works on him-" Shinsou was cut off as Midoriya grabbed Shinsou's arm. The lavender haired boy glanced at him, and Midoriya just nodded; he's known Shinsou since they were nine, and sure, they were both vastly different people from who they used to be, but Midoriya knew that he wouldn't do anything to hurt him.

Aizawa nodded, "Midoriya trusts you. He purposefully allowed you to activate your quirk on him, and probably opened himself to it the first time you used it on him. It's an aspect of Brainwashing that would only be useful among allies, so try to not let other people catch wind of it. If villains somehow manage to find a way to exploit it... it could cause far more damage than what Mind Break did."

"Got it." Shinsou nodded, and Midoriya just growled at the mention of Mind Break. Sure, he had beaten the villain up, but for some reason, he felt like beating him up more. He had put Shinsou in the hospital and had made it harder for Shinsou to use his quirk. He deserved to be beaten up more.

"It's alright now." The lavender haired boy gently patted Midoriya on the shoulder, and the boy just huffed. He looked like he was pouting, and Shinsou just chuckled and poked Midoriya in the cheek before Shuzenji dismissed the two boys.

"Is it just me, or are they much closer now?" Aizawa asked, frowning slightly in confusion.

Nezu just shrugged, "I don't know, you tell me. You know I'm the worst person to ask when it comes to positive human emotions and stuff like that. I only understand the negative, traumatic side."

Shuzenji just shook her head at her colleagues. How the heck they managed to become pro heroes was beyond her.

* * *

_**A/N ALSO IT'S WORTHLESS NECESSITY'S BIRTHDAY**_

_**I've been working on this fic for year and I'm grateful you guys stuck around for so long. Thank you for all the support OwO**_


	153. Chapter 153 - I can't fight this forever

"Are you sure that this is a good time to do this?" Yamada frowned, "Wasn't Midoriya nearly shot in the head during his work studies? And didn't Shoji have his limbs shot off that one time? Like, he can regrow them... but even Jiro is unwilling to spar with Kaminari due to the villains who electrocuted her through her earlobes. They can't just ignore something like that."

"The kids are going to have to learn how to use other weapons sooner or later. They can't just be reliant on their quirks." Aizawa argued, "But still... isn't it a bit too early?"

"It would be much safer if we can deal with it in school, in a safe environment, and deal with the trauma and fear now rather than on a battlefield where one small issue could lead to a chain reaction of mistakes and injuries." Nezu replied, "I don't like this either; I'd rather give Izuku and Shoji a bit more time to heal before we tear open more mental wounds. But they're going to have to face their trauma someday."

"Better to address the issue sooner rather than later; the kids need to be ready." Snipe nodded, "While most heroes and villains focus on their quirks... guns are one of the most readily used weapons among villains. The students have already faced a rather large number of villains who use guns, or even have projectile-based quirks that act like guns. Plus... it's just paintball guns. Might sting a little, but no actual harmful projectiles. Just some target shooting, and maybe a free-for-all paintball fight."

"What if the pain gets in their eyes or mouth?" Kan asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Edible paint. And visors." Snipe merely replied, "Look, I know you guys are worried, but if anything happens to any of the students, you can just pull them out of the exercise. As much as I hate to say it, guns make up a vital part of the underground. Every day, there are tons of bullets and guns being transported. Not just air rifles, but revolvers, handguns... They need to know how to handle other weapons."

"I understand that." Aizawa sighed, before he looked away, "Why are we even doing this?"

"Doing what?" Ectoplasm asked, confused.

"Why are we even teaching them so much at this point in time?" Aizawa clenched his fists in frustration, "They're still kids. They just want to be heroes, to save people, and to protect others. And yet... we're pushing them to get used to weapons... and to do things that most adults would be uncomfortable with. They're not soldiers, so why are we training them like they are?"

"Shouta has a point." Kayama nodded, "Weaponry is only taught in the third year, and it's an extracurricular activity instead of mandatory lessons. They're only sixteen; they should be taught to use their quirks to the fullest potential before they even think about using weapons to complement their quirks. Sure, I know some like Hitoshi and Midoriya don't have many options for quirk usage... heck, Midoriya doesn't even have a quirk in the first place... but it's far too early for this."

"I agree; weapons should only be used more as a last resort. And that these kids aren't soldiers. But the Hero Commission has been awfully quiet lately, even more so than usual. I don't know if something large is going to pop up unexpectedly." Nezu nodded, his ears and tail drooping, "Plus... with the League of Villains still at large... who knows what else they are hiding up their sleeve."

Yagi nodded, adding in his two cents, "Sure, we've managed to capture All for One… but there have still been sightings of new Nomus since his arrest, and none of the regular members of the League seem to be advanced enough from a medical or scientific standpoint, nor do they have the ability to create Nomus. There is a high possibility that there is someone else working behind the scenes to manufacture and create these monstrosities, and we are unaware of their involvement. Not to mention we still have no idea what happened in Deika City; we don't even know if the League is involved in that. Our only proof is that the disintegration looks startling similar to the effects of Shigaraki's quirk, but it's far too widespread to say for certain."

The former number one hero dropped his head, before he looked out the window, "These kids aren't soldiers. At best, they'll be careless and we'll capture them before anything happens. But if worse comes to worst... we're going to have a war on our hands."

"And we're going to bring a bunch of sixteen year old students into this?" Yamada growled, but Yagi just sighed, "We're going to need all the help we can get if we want to just get out alive. We don't have a choice. Most of the heroes are well known, and if they have a single smart person on their team, there's no doubt that they would be doing all they can to analyze the weaknesses of our heroes. These kids are powerful unknowns; they're all wildcards that can change the tide of a battle."

"Shouldn't we tell the parents if something of this scale is going to happen?" Kan crossed his arms, and Nezu shook his head, "Everything we talked about is merely speculation. We don't have any concrete evidence that any of this would happen, and until we do... telling the parents would just be creating more problems than it solves."

Ectoplasm sighed, "Aren't we at least going to tell the kids? So they know what they're getting into?"

"Like I said... we need more concrete evidence before we do anything." Nezu flicked his tail about nervously, "If we tell them now... they may end up panicking over something that might not even happen. I wish I could tell you that we have a solution, but right now... none of us know what's going to happen in the future."

"What about Nighteye?" Aizawa asked, and Nezu scratched his neck, "He tried using his quirk on Togata... all he got were a couple glimpses of the boy fighting a bunch of no-name villains. It's not conclusive enough."

"What a nightmare." Inui took a deep breath, "I guess I should call Shoji and Midoriya to try and talk about it first..."

* * *

"Need help?" Yaoyorozu kindly asked, as Mora frowned slightly, scratching his head, "I can't figure out this math equation. They gave the answer to the question, but I just can't figure it out. But I don't think you can help me; this is third year stuff. Thanks for the offer though."

Jiro leaned over Mora's shoulder, staring at the worksheet, "Yeah... I don't get this."

Midoriya walked out of the kitchen, a can of coffee in one of his hands as he fiddled with his two-by-two-by-two Rubik's Cube in the other, doing his best to try and turn the sides by only using his fingers, despite the obvious fact that his hand was trembling and he was clearly struggling, and Jiro turned towards him, "Hey, Mido, come over here for a sec?"

The greenette blinked in confusion, before he walked over to Jiro's side. The indigo haired girl pointed at a question on Mora's paper, "Think you can figure it out?"

Midoriya peered at the piece of paper that Mora was holding up, as the Shiketsu third year muttered, "It's alright, you guys haven't learnt this yet, I can figure it out on my own-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the green haired boy just stuffed his Rubik's Cube in his pocket, grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper, before he started writing on it. Shishikura and Utsushimi both stopped writing, and turned to watch as Midoriya hastily made a couple of neat scribbles, before he placed the pencil down and pushed the paper back to Mora.

Blinking, the third year carefully read through the contents of Midoriya's writing, before his face lit up, "Oh! That's how you do it. Thank you!"

Midoriya just nodded slightly, before he took a sip of his coffee, and he headed to the common room, flopping down on his bean bag where Shinsou was already settled down, staring at his English comprehension homework. The greenette sat down, leaning against the taller boy, and glanced at the boy's worksheet as he continued to struggle with the Rubik's Cube.

"How does he even know that kind of stuff..." Shishikura muttered, staring at the incomprehensible scrawl of numbers and letters on the piece of paper Mora was staring at, and Jiro shrugged, "No idea. He's probably studied all this stuff before he entered UA. As far as I know, he's already completed quite a bit of college level material online, and he's only in UA because of the Hero Course."

"It seems like I may have underestimated him." Shishikura grunted, as Utsushimi hooked her arm over her grumpy schoolmate, "Yep, fam! He's really quiet and doesn't draw a lot of attention, but he's hecking smart! You know how I went to intern with Uwabami, right, right? So, for the first few days, he was also, you know, kind of there. Internship hopping or something or another. So basically..."

Yaoyorozu and Jiro just blinked as Utsushimi continued rambling on and on; they had no idea how her classmates at Shiketsu managed to tolerate her. They didn't even know how Midoriya of all people managed to tolerate her for his two days of work studies with her, but she definitely didn't seem malicious. Talkative, yes, but bad? Definitely not.

Midoriya placed his coffee down, and pointed at something on the passage Yamada had told them to read, and Shinsou's face lit up, before the boy scribbled down his answer on the worksheet.

The students went back to finishing their homework, when suddenly, they heard the sound of something falling to the ground, and Shinsou spoke up, "Relax. It's fine... just calm down..."

Jiro looked up, only to notice that Midoriya's Rubik's Cube was sitting on the ground, and the greenette was clutching his right hand, his arm shaking. Shinsou was gently cradling Midoriya's arm, pressing down on the palm of his hand lightly.

"With how scarred your hands are and how damaged they are, you need to be more careful." Shinsou muttered, gently kneading the muscles and joints as he tried his best to relieve the tension and pain in Midoriya's cramped hand, "You know how much you rely on your hands. You're straining the muscles too much."

Midoriya let out a low grumble as his head drooped, and Shinsou just gently ruffled Midoriya's hair, "It's fine. Just try to let it rest, okay?"

"I don't think a hero should be getting themselves injured over a Rubik's Cube, though..." Shishikura narrowed his eyes, but Jiro just sighed, "He's always overworking himself. There was once he's literally gotten sick and collapsed from exhaustion."

* * *

"Alright class, today, we'll be teaching you to use different kinds of firearms."

"Aizawa-sensei… why do we need to learn how to use guns?" Kaminari frowned slightly, raising his hand to grab Aizawa's attention.

"You can't be reliant on your quirks all the time." Aizawa replied, "If for some reason, you can't use your quirk, you still have to be able to defend yourself in some way. We'll be starting with the basics of how to use guns, and tomorrow, we'll be learning about knives."

"Correct me if I'm mistaken." Yaoyorozu spoke up, "But aren't the usage of weapons like guns and knives taught in the third year?"

"For previous cohorts, yes." Aizawa sighed, wondering what kind of excuse he could make without tipping the kids off about a potential war, "But we've decided to push things forward, considering how in previous cohorts, we didn't have first years getting involved in any major villain attacks, or for them to be assaulted by villains on their work studies. We're just making sure that you guys are well prepared."

"Ah. Understood." Yaoyorozu nodded.

Shoji just shifted his foot around nervously as he tugged on the hem of his UA gym uniform. He had grown additional limbs in an attempt to fight off a villain on his quirk studies, only to get them all shot off by a finger gun. Sure, it didn't leave any lasting damage... but he really didn't like the sensation of having limb after limb torn off, and seeing his own rutilated, bloody limbs littered all over the place.

Inui had told him about it during his counseling session, but that just made him feel sick for the entire day, waiting in dread for the lesson. But he did prefer to know about it ahead of time instead of it just being sprung on him unexpectedly; if he didn't steel himself, he was pretty sure he would have thrown up on the spot.

Snipe passed out several guns, and Shoji felt his stomach tighten as he was forced to hold onto the weapon. It wasn't as much the weapon that bothered him, but rather, the gunshot sound, and the pain that came with it.

Snipe quickly explained the mechanics of the gun and how to reload it, before he aimed the gun at a target on the wall, and fired.

Shoji felt his mind turn blank as the all-too-familiar sound of the gunshot rang out, before he felt a pat on his shoulder. He blinked, and shook himself out of his stupor, only to notice that Dark Shadow had a claw on his shoulder, and that Tokoyami had moved so that he was standing beside Shoji.

"I sensed some darkness within. Are you alright?" Tokoyami asked, before he gestured towards the target, that Snipe had shot at, "It's just a paintball gun. You good?"

Shoji averted his gaze, locking his eyes on the target that was splattered with bright, neon green pain, right at the bulls-eye.

And he let out a small, relieved laugh. It's just a paintball gun. Nothing harmful. Just colorful splatters of paint. No wonder they were just required to wear their gym uniforms for this exercise.

"I'm good." Shoji smiled slightly under his mask, "Thanks for checking up on me."

* * *

"How are things looking?" Fukukado asked, surveying the area as the students tried out some target practice with a couple of plastic dummies.

"Surprisingly good." Snipe admitted, "Your students are doing pretty well. Have they had weapon training before?"

"Nope. We do that in the third year." Fukukado shook her head, "They do like to head out to the arcade every now and then to play some shooting game, so I guess that helps. Mora, that kid from Shiketsu, has probably taken a couple of lessons; he seems to be doing well."

"Young Kaminari, Young Ashido, and Young Sero seem to be doing well." Yagi commented, "Young Awase and Young Tsuburaba too."

"Arcade games." Aizawa rolled his eyes.

"Midoriya is... surprisingly accurate. And deadly." Kan deadpanned, watching as Midoriya swiftly reloaded the gun and immediately shot another mannequin right in the head, and in the chest.

"Should we let them fool around with the paintballs a bit more before we let them fire at each other?" Snipe scratched his head, watching as Kaminari and Ashido accidentally emptied out a canister of ammo, and instead of reloading their guns, they just ended up throwing the paintballs directly.

"Let them fool around a bit more." Fukukado laughed, "They look like they're having fun."

* * *

_"You doing okay there, Izuku?"_

_"I'm fine... shift your aim a little to the left."_

_"Alright. Thanks."_

Shinsou adjusted his aim, feeling a small feeling of pride flow into him from Midoriya as he nailed the mannequin in the chest. During the entire exercise, he had been using his quirk on Midoriya; it wasn't like the boy minded, and Midoriya seemed to like being held under his quirk anyways.

They had figured out how to allow them to communicate mentally with all the ruckus going on, and it was good practice, given how many distractions there were in the area. Shinsou knew that this ability could be a gamechanger if it allowed him to communicate with anyone, but for the moment, it was only limited to people who trusted him wholeheartedly and was comfortable with him using his quirk on them.

Shinsou fired off another paintball at a mannequin before Snipe called out, "Alright. Now, you guys will be having a free-for-all fight. You can't use your quirks for offense, only the paintball guns. You are allowed to steal each other's weapons. The one with the cleanest uniform wins."

The lavender haired boy turned to Midoriya, a worried expression on his face as he reloaded his gun. He knew that Midoriya hated guns, especially since he had almost been shot at point blank range during his work studies had X-Less not saved him in time, and the boy literally had a panic attack when he saw the entire incident on the news.

He knew that the teachers were aware of that incident, and he had absolutely no idea what they were planning, but Shinsou knew that they wouldn't do anything to hurt the students. The teachers had a good reason to push them to use firearms, and if they weren't going to explain themselves, that meant that it was probably something serious.

But he was still worried about his boyfriend.

Midoriya glanced back at him.

_"You sure you'll be okay?"_

_"I'll be... fine... it's just paint."_

Snipe handed out a couple of visors so that they wouldn't get paint in their eyes, before he allowed them to start. The second the hero gave the signal, the air was filled with multicolored paintballs flying about, painting the surroundings in rainbow splashes of color, except for the sole exception of red.

Shinsou hastily dived behind a boulder as a cyan paintball flew overhead, spattering where he previously stood. The lavender haired boy peeked behind his cover, noticing that Yaoyorozu had created another paintball gun, and Tsuburaba had created his own Solid Air barrier to shield him from incoming blasts. Midoriya was rushing around, weaving through the storm of paint pellets that rained around him, before he fired off two paintballs, nailing Shindo in the back.

"Hey!" Shindo turned around, only to get another paintball to the face. Shindo hastily wiped the paint off, but Midoriya had already run to another section of the room, so the Ketsubutsu student was forced to find another target to shoot at.

Meanwhile, Dark Shadow was acting as a shield for Tokoyami, allowing the boy to shoot more paintballs at other students while the quirk prevented Tokoyami from getting hit, and while Shoji seemed rather put off by the loud sounds as the pellets were fired off, he seemed to be enjoying himself immensely despite his uniform being covered by colorful splashes of paint.

Shinsou shifted his attention and hastily dived to the side as Tokage's dismembered arm floated above him, the upper half of her head floating right next to it. Grinning playfully, Shinsou raised his paintball gun, and aimed it at Tokage's hands, before he fired off another paintball.

* * *

Midoriya vaulted over a couple of rocks, and aimed his gun at Mora. He wasn't about to shoot his classmates, or the two Shiketsu students he was familiar with, which only left him with Mora, Shishikura, Shindo, Nakagame, Toteki, and Makabe to target.

Mora felt the paintball make impact with his back, and he immediately turned around, firing off a couple of paintballs at him, but Midoriya danced through the rain of pellets, raising his gun and nailing another paint pellet on Mora's chest.

"Midoriya!" Monoma jumped down from a wall, smirking cheekily, and Midoriya took a step back, allowing Monoma to shoot Mora with more paint pellets as he landed on the ground.

Midoriya hastily moved as a paintball flew past him, and without even looking, he fired off another pellet. The yelp of indignation from Shishikura was a clear indication that Midoriya had managed to hit him.

"Nice shot!" Monoma cackled, as he ducked behind another boulder to avoid a couple of paint pellets, reloading his gun, before poking his head out to fire off another round of paintballs.

"Aha! Gotcha!" Tetsutetsu's voice rang out from behind him.

Midoriya whirled around, noticing that their gun was pointed at him, and before he could react, memories started flashing before his eyes. He remembered the light glinting off the barrel of the gun, the small, metallic bullet sitting in the very depths off the barrel, the villain slowly pressing his finger down and pulling the trigger.

His mind turned blank.

Tetsutetsu took a step back as Midoriya reached out, and yanked the gun out of his grasp, before he literally whacked him over the head with the gun. Tetsutetsu hastily activated his quirk as Midoriya let out a feral growl, and the boy smacked him in the head with the gun, breaking the firearm upon impact.

Before he could react, the greenette merely snarled, and lunged, hooking his leg around Tetsutetsu's neck and flipping him over completely. Monoma whirled around, and tried to jump out of the way before Midoriya could grab him, but he wasn't fast enough, and the freckled boy grabbed him by the arm and smacked him into a boulder.

Monoma groaned in pain, and tried to pick himself up, but Midoriya just growled and shot towards the next nearest person, who just happened to be Toteki, and completely knocked him over, before running off once again.

"I think we have a problem..." Monoma rubbed his head, and Tetsutetsu nodded, "I guess... I shouldn't have aimed at him?"

* * *

"I don't think a gun is supposed to be used like that..." Fukukado muttered, sweatdropping as she watched Midoriya whack the steel boy with the firearm.

"Snipe?" Kan raised an eyebrow, but Snipe merely shrugged, "Well... It works? I guess? It is effective..."

Aizawa just narrowed his eyes, focusing his gaze on the greenette, "We should stop him."

"Too early?" Snipe grimaced behind his mask, and Aizawa nodded, "He's attacking some of the students from 1-B. He's clearing freaking out if he's doing that, and now, he's literally attacking anything around him that moves."

"Where's Shinsou?" Kan gaze swept over the students, and Ishiyama pointed at the screen, "There. Looks like he's on the move already."

* * *

Shinsou aimed his gun at Iida, and was about to shoot when a wave of panic crashed into him, throwing him off balance. The lavender haired boy clutched his head and groaned lightly, hearing some thoughts jumping around in his skull.

_"Gun. There is gun. Gun, hurt, bullet, hurt -"_

Shinsou stumbled, and straightened out, looking around for Midoriya. The boy had run off quite some time ago, and he wasn't too sure where Midoriya was. He could tell which direction Midoriya was, due to his quirk, and he quickly made a beeline in that direction.

He gazed around, noticing that Monoma and Tetsutetsu were trying their best to stop Midoriya from advancing as Toteki lay on the ground, groaning. Midoriya lunged at Tetsutetsu, snarling viscously, but the boy just activated his quirk and managed to avoid most of the damage as Midoriya attempted to kick him.

_"Threat, gun, must attack, villain, hurt, attack-"_

Shinsou mentally focused, and tried to force a feeling of calmness through the mental connection of his quirk. He wasn't too sure if it worked, but he figured it did when Midoriya stumbled slightly, stopping his attack to look around in confusion, and Shinsou used that opportunity to lunge at Midoriya.

The both of them tumbled to the ground unceremoniously, and the panic stricken Midoriya flinched, before he hastily tried to push Shinsou off, but the taller boy quickly locked his thighs around Midoriya. Shinsou swiftly reached for Midoriya's arms, using one hand to lock them together and the other to push Midoriya onto his back, effectively pinning the boy to the ground.

"Hey, Izuku, it's alright. You're safe."

Midoriya didn't seem to hear him, and continued squirming under Shinsou's grasp, and the lavender haired boy tried his best to push more calming emotions through his quirk in an attempt to pacify Midoriya, keeping a gentle yet firm grip on the struggling boy so that he wouldn't injure himself by accident.

The smaller boy clenched his eyes shut and let out a panicked screech as he continued struggling, and the taller boy tightened his grip on Midoriya. Shinsou grit his teeth and leaned forward, trying to keep his center of gravity on top of Midoriya, "You're safe. There's no threat."

Much to his dismay, all Shinsou got was a feeling of panic and fear and anxiety crashing into him, before he paused, and tried to concentrate on his quirk.

_"Izuku."_

_"Hito...shi?"_

_"Can you hear me?"_

Shinsou got no response, but Midoriya's struggling gradually died down, before he just lay on the ground limply, his chest heaving up and down from his heavy breathing.

"It's alright. I'm here. We're in UA. No villains. You're safe." Shinsou murmured comfortingly, "Take a deep breath."

Shinsou felt Midoriya shakily take in a huge breath, before slowly exhaling, and the cycle repeated until he heard Midoriya breathing at a somewhat normal pace.

"Feeling better?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya tentatively nodded. Shinsou sighed in relief, before he spoke up again, "Can you open your eyes?"

Midoriya slowly peeled open his eyes, his gaze unfocused and hazy, before he locked onto the familiar face right in front of him, and he rasped out, "Hito?"

"Yeah, it's me." Shinsou muttered.

Midoriya tried to push himself up, before Shinsou realized that he was literally pinning Midoriya down. He released his grip on the smaller boy, and crawled off Midoriya, but the boy shot up, grabbing onto his paint stained uniform tightly as he pulled himself closer to the taller boy. The greenette let out a shaky breath, his entire body trembling as a chill ran down his spine, and Shinsou gently wrapped his arms around Midoriya, trying to comfort the greenette.

"I don't want to die." Midoriya whispered weakly, his voice cracking with emotion, "I don't want to die. Not anymore. I don't want to."

"I know." Shinsou murmured, nuzzling the smaller boy as he gently tightening his grip on Midoriya, "I know, Zuku. It's alright now."


	154. Chapter 154 - We are one in the same

Luckily for Midoriya, Aizawa allowed him to change out of his slightly paint-stained uniform and sit out for the rest of the training session, allowing him to analyze his classmates instead, so there weren't any other major problems that cropped up. However, Aizawa did insist that Midoriya talk about what had happened to Inui directly after the training session.

While Aizawa understood that Midoriya wasn't too acquainted with Inui, despite the counselor's many attempts at trying to talk to him after the League of Villain's attack on UA, the Kamino Incident, the second attack from the League during the Provisional Hero License Exam the raid on the Eight Precepts of Death, the lady who had insulted him in the mall, the time where Midoriya was nearly shot in the head during the internships, and Mind Break's attack that resulted in Shinsou being hospitalized, the Erasure Hero did feel that Midoriya needed to talk to someone about it.

As much as Midoriya preferred Nezu and Shinsou, Nezu experienced things very differently from them, given his older age, his enhanced intelligence, and his species; he just processed things differently than they did, and while Nezu tried his best to understand things, he wasn't too great with traumatic events and stuff like that.

On the other hand, Shinsou was far too inexperienced, and he wouldn't really be able to help Midoriya with anything at all. That wasn't to say that Shinsou didn't understand trauma, since he and the students had been involved in several of the attacks, but Midoriya was the only that always suffered the brunt of the damage, and Aizawa knew that they were just things that Shinsou wouldn't be able to understand at the moment.

Aizawa dismissed the students to change out of their gym uniforms and into proper clothes, and Midoriya stood up, waiting by the bench as the students slowly trickled into the changing rooms, laughing and chatting about what had transpired.

Shinsou wiped some cyan paint off his cheek, where Kaminari had hit him when he was trying to figure out which Utsushimi was real due to the usage of her quirk, before he looked up, noticing that Midoriya was looking at him, and he hastily jogged over to Midoriya.

Aizawa had been discussing the usage of firearms with the other teachers, before he noticed Shinsou's movements, and subtly ushered the other teachers away from the bench to give the duo some privacy.

"Hey, Zuku. You doing alright?" Shinsou asked, and Midoriya slowly nodded, before passing the lavender haired boy his water bottle.

"Thank you." Shinsou took a sip of water, as Midoriya stared at the ground, before raising his head and signing, _"Aizawa-sensei wants me to talk to Hound Dog."_

"Oh." Shinsou paused, and wiped his mouth, before capping his bottle, "You sure you'll be alright?"

_"I... don't know."_ Midoriya admitted, looking away as his hands continued to wave about,_ "I don't know Hound Dog that well. I don't... really want to talk to him..."_

"Well..." Shinsou scratched his head, "Maybe the Principal?"

Midoriya shook his head, _"No... I don't want to bother him... I'm sure he's busy dealing with much more important stuff... especially since he stopped the mandatory internships that were most likely started by the Hero Commission?"_

"Mandatory?" Shinsou frowned, before he nodded, "Yeah... I do remember thinking that it was weird, since it started out as something optional... how do you know that he stopped the internships?"

_"It only makes sense. You were in the hospital for a long time."_ Midoriya muttered, _"And I'm sure that he didn't want us to do internships in the first place, given what happened to us when we were on ours. And I looked at the data from other schools; a few days after UA stopped their internships, a lot of other hero schools also called their students back. It's clear that the Hero Commission wouldn't want to stop the internships since that would show weakness and give them a bad name... but for the Hero Schools, they would want to do anything to keep their students as safe as possible, especially after all the media coverage UA's gotten about the villain attacks."_

"Huh. I guess so." Shinsou sighed, "So, you don't want to talk to the Principal... maybe another teacher? Recovery Girl?"

_"Hound Dog's the counselor."_ Midoriya paused slightly to rub his arm, _"He's the first person I should talk to..."_

"Well... want me to sit in?"

Midoriya's head snapped up, and he glanced at Shinsou, _"Sit... in?"_

"Yeah. Recovery Girl said that if you were uncomfortable with talking to Hound Dog, I can sit in. Remember?" Shinsou stated.

Midoriya blinked.

_"But... then I would be a hindrance and just be wasting your time-"_ Midoriya silently protested, but Shinsou easily silenced him by a gentle poke to the nose, "Izuku, I want to help you. If I couldn't or didn't want to, I wouldn't have asked in the first place. And you aren't a hindrance, okay?"

It took a few seconds for Midoriya to register Shinsou's words, and he slowly, cautiously nodded, though the lavender haired boy could tell from his gaze that Midoriya didn't really believe that he wasn't being a hindrance.

"You mind waiting for a while? I need to change..." Shinsou looked down at the splatters of paint on his uniform. He hadn't been hit too much, but he did get hit by accident, when Jiro accidentally missed a couple of bullets aimed at Kodai, and he narrowly managed to dodge a couple of paint pellets that had splattered paint on him when they had impacted a wall.

Midoriya nodded slowly, his eyes still glued to the ground.

* * *

"Hey, it's alright."

The greenette shook his head, his hands shaking slightly as they walked back to the dorms. Despite Shinsou's reassuring presence in the room with him, no matter how hard he tried, Midoriya couldn't even bring himself to say a single word to Inui. Even when Inui allowed him to sign in an attempt to communicate, his palms just felt like jelly, and just kept shaking, preventing him from signing a single thing to Inui.

He didn't know why it was happening; it was just a stupid gun from a stupid villain fight. Why couldn't he say or sign anything about it?! Why couldn't he do anything? Why was he so useless that he couldn't just say "Hey, I nearly got shot in the head once, and I'm scared of having guns aimed at my my head!?"

_Because _the_ teachers won't help you.__ They'll never fix anything.__ Adults can never be trusted._

There was also another problem; he had completely wasted Inui and Shinsou's time. Inui had given him space and had been trying to coax him to talk, while Shinsou just sat next to him comfortingly. They had gone out of their way to try and communicate with him, but Midoriya just felt his brain shut down the moment the door to Inui's office closed.

Midoriya just lowered his head guiltily as he pushed the door to the dorms open, and before anyone could even greet them, the greenette had already disappeared down the hallway, heading to the stairs that led up to their rooms.

"Zuku?" Shinsou blankly called out, surprised, but the boy was already gone.

"What happened?" Uraraka looked up, confused, and Shinsou shook his head, scratching his head in confusion, "Not sure... I think he might be upset over something..."

"Give him some time for himself." Yaoyorozu suggested, flipping over her textbook, furiously making notes about the math content that Ectoplasm was going to be teaching the very next day, "I'll admit, I don't know him as well as you do... but he seems really stressed to me."

"I suppose..." Shinsou scratched the back of his head, "I've just never seen him so... insecure and jittery before."

"Yeah... with the paintballs... and during the other activities..." Jiro added, "He freaked out a bit, didn't he? You know how much he prefers normality. He's probably a bit put off by the other students coming here for the week. He should be back to normal in a few more days. We all need some peace and quiet sometimes."

Shinsou just mutely nodded. He knew personally how much he needed to recharge at night when he was forced to hang out with kids who he barely knew. Midoriya probably just needed time to think about some things, and maybe get some rest after getting several panic attacks during the week.

* * *

Midoriya trudged over to the bean bag, throwing his bag to the side and promptly plopped down in it, gloomily staring at the floor. He felt absolutely miserable, and the boy just curled up on his bean bag, shivering slightly, his usual routine of finishing off all the homework given during the day, regardless of the deadline, forgotten, and Midoriya just sighed in misery.

He felt absolutely useless. He wanted to melt into the ground and just disappear and die. The boy curled up into a smaller ball, as Reiko and Ryuto hopped down from his table to cuddle with him. Midoriya never really bothered with the heater in his room, since he's never operated one before in his entire life, and his entire room felt like a freezer, but Midoriya paid it no mind.

He didn't know how long he lay there, until a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

_"Zuku? You okay? Can I come in?"_

Midoriya raised his head slowly, gazing at the door tiredly. He didn't know what was going on, and it seems like the sun had set some time ago, given that there was no more light trickling into his room through the curtains. He didn't care what was going on; he was just one useless, quirkless person. The world wasn't going to stop moving if he just decided to give up. In the greater scheme of things, he was absolutely nothing.

He heard the doorknob jiggle slightly, "_Your door isn't locked. I'm going to come in, alright?"_

Midoriya just stared in front of him blankly, not making a single sound, not making a single move towards the door.

After waiting for a couple of seconds, the doorknob turned, and Shinsou pushed the door open gently with his back, letting some light into the dark room while holding up a bowl, with a pair of chopsticks perched on top of it.

"Hey." Shinsou flashed him a small smile, "We just finished dinner... Figured you'd want some alone time. I brought some udon up, want some?"

Getting no reply from the greenette, the lavender haired boy walked into the room, closing the door behind him with his foot, enclosing the room in darkness once again, and placed the bowl on Midoriya's table, before he rubbed his arms, despite wearing a warm hoodie, and looked around, "Your room's freezing. You're not cold?"

The smaller boy let out a small grunt, burrowing deeper into the bean bag, and Shinsou just sighed, before he settled down on the bean bag right by Midoriya's back. He lay down, and gently reached out, running his hands through Midoriya's fluffy curls, "What's wrong, Zuku?"

The greenette let out a soft rumble, pressing his cheek against the soft surface of his bed, feeling Shinsou drape an arm over him comfortingly.

"It's alright." Shinsou muttered, as Midoriya turned his head so that he could gaze at Shinsou, his eyes gleaming dimly in the darkened room, before the greenette flipped himself over completely so that he was facing Shinsou directly. He wiggled closer to Shinsou, before he rested his head on Shinsou's arm.

"Hitoshi... am I useless?"

Shinsou blinked at the question, noticing that Midoriya's gaze was desperate, tears starting to leak out of the corners of his eyes.

"I keep... messing up during classes... then you came with me to... try and help... with the counseling... and I still couldn't say anything... all I did was... waste your time... and -"

"Relax, Zuku." Reaching a hand out towards him, Shinsou gently wiped away Midoriya's tears, "You can't force yourself with things like this, and overthinking isn't going to help. Just give it some time, alright?"

Midoriya fell silent, sniffling softly, and Reiko gently licked Midoriya's chin.

"You know... when you first got me out of that house and I was officially adopted... my adoptive parents had also brought me to Hound Dog, since there was no one to look after me when they were teaching and Recovery Girl also suggested I try counseling. At first... I also couldn't say a single thing. I just sat in Hound Dog's office, and the both of us just sat there in awkward silence." Shinsou admitted, looking at Midoriya in the eye, "I was scared. It took me weeks to even be able to talk about how I was treated to Dad and Pops, let alone talking to a hero I saw for less than two hours a day."

The greenette just stared at Shinsou, dumbstruck, not knowing why Shinsou was talking about it, as the taller boy gently wrapped his arms around Midoriya and pulled him in for a hug, "I know how you feel. You don't have to rush things; just take it one step at a time. And you're not bothering anyone, alright. We all just want to help you."

Shinsou felt Midoriya relax slightly, and the smaller boy snuggled closer to him. There was complete silence, until Midoriya spoke up again softly.

"Do you think... I should talk to Nezu?"

"Yeah. I think he'll understand."


	155. Chapter 155 - Don't know the feeling

Shinsou finally managed to convince Midoriya to have some dinner before taking a shower, and he just lay stomach down on Midoriya's bed, trying to finish some homework as Midoriya popped into the bathroom.

He hastily scribbled some answers onto his worksheet, and it didn't take more than a few minutes for Midoriya to be finished with his shower, and the boy opened the bathroom door, fully clothed, his towel around his neck, with all his usually fluffy curls now pressed flat against his head, dripping with water.

The lavender haired boy let out a small laugh as Midoriya furiously rubbed his towel through his hair, soaking up most of the water, and the green haired boy looked up, glaring at Shinsou as his cheeks puffed out slightly.

With a huff, Midoriya stalked over to where Shinsou was sitting, before he plopped himself down on top of the taller boy. Shinsou let out a squeak as Midoriya sat on his back, before he continued to dry his hair.

"Well... Someone is grouchy." Shinsou muttered, and Midoriya paused again, looking at Shinsou with a completely unimpressed expression on his face.

Shinsou just let out another laugh, before he picked up his phone, "Oh, by the way, Dad just texted the group and told us that we'd only have two more days of lessons with the Ketsubutstu and Shiketsu students and -"

"Really?"

Shinsou turned his head to face Midoriya, and he found that Midoriya's face had completely lit up with a bright, hopeful expression at the mention that their joint training session with the other two schools would be ending soon.

"Yeah... but next time, the other schools would be hosting. We'd probably have to stay a week in both Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu at some point."

Midoriya's face visibly fell, as the smaller boy slouched, before he sluggishly continued to dry his hair.

"Well... I guess we've found the root of the problem." Shinsou sighed, "I know you're still wary around Mr. Demented Sprite Can... but you really don't like them so much?"

"I don't know. They're... not that bad... I know they're not bad." Midoriya admitted, hanging his towel around his neck again, "I... I don't know... I just don't trust them... I guess? At least... with our classmates and 1-B and _maybe_ Hatsume... I know they won't hurt us... but with the other schools..."

Midoriya's voice trailed off, and Shinsou thought for a second, "Maybe ask the principal? Maybe something's going to happen and you're just feeling it way ahead of time. You know you have a good premonition sense for that."

"Maybe." Midoriya sighed, and he scratched his head, before deciding to pull himself away from his useless thoughts that kept dragging him down, and focus on something useful. He peered over Shinsou's shoulder, and glared at the messy scribbles on Shinsou's paper in frustration.

"You can't plug in the numbers before doing integration! You have to solve for the integral first, then plug in the numbers and subtract it!"

"Wait, I can't?"

* * *

There was a knock on his door, and Nezu looked up, "Come in."

The door was pushed open, and Midoriya poked his head in. Nezu's face lit up, "Hello, Izuku!"

"Am I... uh... interrupting anything...?" Midoriya awkwardly asked, and Nezu shook his head, hopping off his chair, and moved to the couch. He was a bit surprised to see Midoriya there, especially since Hound Dog just had a counseling session with him the previous day that didn't really go anywhere, and Midoriya didn't really have a tendency to seek him out unless he really needed to.

"Nope, nothing important is going on now. Come on in and sit down."

Midoriya nodded slowly, gingerly entering the office and closing the door behind him gently. Nezu gestured to the bean bag, and Midoriya immediately walked towards it and settled down.

"So... what's on your mind?" Nezu asked, seeing that Midoriya seemed comfortable enough, and the greenette just raised his head, gazing at Nezu, before he looked away.

"I don't like the other schools being here."

Nezu blinked in surprise, "Come again?"

"I don't know... I talked with Hito yesterday... and then he said that Aizawa-sensei mentioned that the joint training session was ending and I seemed to... like that idea a lot? And then he said that we might have to stay in Shiketsu and Ketsubutsu and I don't know... I don't think it's a good idea..."

"You haven't interacted with them enough to get a good feel of their personality and thought process?" Nezu offered, "You've been in UA and interacted with your classmates for a much longer period of time, after all. You've spent such a long time analyzing your classmates, deciding who is trustworthy and who isn't. I'm sure that for the students in the other schools, that process would start all over again, even with those that you might have had internships with before, like Utsushimi and Yoarashi."

Midoriya thought about Nezu's words, before he nodded slowly. That seemed to make sense. He was just overthinking things.

"But we would still have to go to their schools?"

"Most likely. Since they came to UA, it's only fair if you go to their schools as well, so that each school puts in the same amount of effort." Nezu scratched his neck sheepishly, "It's not just for fairness, but also to build good relationships with other schools. In times like these... we need to gather as many people as we can trust so that we can share information and try to piece together everything that's going on. Things are a little messy... and we still don't see an end in sight."

"Oh." Midoriya paused, "Do you... need any help?"

"Not at the moment. It's just the calm before the storm." Nezu sighed, before he grinned, "But if I ever need help with quirk analysis, I'll call you."

Midoriya's eyes lit up instantly, and Nezu cheered internally. He had a feeling that Midoriya enjoyed quirk analysis, and this just proved it. Plus, it would be giving Midoriya something to do, and it would make him feel that he's being helpful, and if any analysis actually comes to fruition, it would also help to boost Midoriya's self-confidence and self-esteem. Even if nothing came out of it, Midoriya would still be helping out by eliminating some data from the entire situation, which would make things easier for all of them.

Midoriya proceeded to stand up, and straightened out his uniform, "I think... I'm good now."

"If you need to talk about anything else, come find me anytime, alright?" Nezu kindly smiled, and Midoriya nodded as he headed towards the door, before pulling on the metal handle and opening the door, "Thank you, Daaaaa-"

Midoriya's face twisted into an awkward expression as he immediately slammed his mouth shut, his teeth clacking together harshly with his lips pursed together tightly, and Nezu just blinked back at the green haired boy, still processing what the boy had said. Midoriya just stood there, seemingly stunned, before he flung the office door open completely and promptly ran out of the teacher's lounge, slamming the sliding door on the way out.

The teachers who happened to be in the marking papers or preparing school work all froze, staring in confusion at the door that the greenette had abruptly thrown open.

"Uh... did he just almost call Nezu "Dad"?" Yamada pointed at the open door.

The other teachers were about to say something, but they were immediately silenced when Shuzenji walked into the teacher's lounge, staring in the direction Midoriya had run off to, "What on earth did you do to set him off?!"

Shuzenji immediately averted her gaze to the animal principal, who was standing by his office door, "Nezu. We need to talk."

Shuzenji was almost never in the teacher's lounge. She was only there if she was called in for a meeting with some other teachers or the principal, and if Shuzenji wanted to talk about something, she would usually call the others over to the infirmary to talk, just in case some student got injured and she had to treat them during their talk, or she would just relay any information that she had over the phone.

If she was coming to talk to him directly, then this was serious.

"Yes? Don't mind me asking... who's in charge of taking over the infirmary right now?" Nezu asked, silently ushering Shuzenji into his office.

"An old friend of mine popped in, and she brought her intern over. She's taking care of the infirmary for the time being. I need to talk to you about something." Shuzenji replied, entering the office and closing the door behind her, a thick stack of papers in her hands.

"Alright." Nezu nodded. Shuzenji sat down, and Nezu poured out two cups of tea; he had a feeling this was going to be a long talk.

"What's going on?"

"Well... this might concern Midoriya." Shuzenji started, "You know the guy that presented the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory?"

"It was originally called the Paranormal Singularity Theory, wasn't it?" Nezu asked, "It stated that quirks would continue to grow stronger, which would result in quirks going rampant as the human body wouldn't be able to evolve fast enough to keep up. It was published by... someone called Garaki Kyudai, I believe?"

"Yes, that's correct. At that time, quirks had been a major factor in bringing peace to the formerly impoverished and conflicted world. No one wanted to believe that quirks would also bring about their demise, and thus, his theory was rejected. He was ostracized from society, and eventually, went missing." Shuzenji nodded, "However, that wasn't the first paper that Garaki published that brought about such an uproar."

"It isn't?" Nezu blinked, surprised, as Shuzenji passed over the thick stack of papers, "Look what we found. There was another paper written before the Paranormal Singularity Theory, and while it created an uproar, it wasn't as bad as the one that the Paranormal Singularity Theory caused. It's considered the basis of the Paranormal Singularity Theory."

Nezu gingerly took the papers from Shuzenji, and began flipping through them, skimming through the contents of the paper briefly, "Where did you find this?"

"My friend's intern was compiling some old reports from a really old database at one of those deserted hospitals before it was destroyed to build more housing units, trying to salvage any information he could to add to their new database when he accidentally stumbled upon that." Shuzenji sighed, "He passed it on to her, thinking it could be important, and when my friend realized that it was written by the same doctor who published the Paranormal Singularity Theory, she immediately cross-checked it to make sure it was legitimate, before passing it over to me."

"I assume she's aware of Midoriya?" Nezu asked, still reading through the paper, and Shuzenji replied, "Yes."

"In short... this theory states that quirkless people do, in fact, have quirks, just like any other person. However, these quirks have developed far past what the human body is capable of withstanding, similar to what is stated in the Paranormal Singularity Theory. It's just that it's occurring right now, instead of some time in the future." Shuzenji spoke up.

"It's theorized that for safety reasons, the quirk is deactivated to prevent the user from literally killing themselves with their own quirk." Nezu clarified, and Shuzenji nodded.

"It also gives reason as to why children with quirkless parents might have a much stronger quirk compared to their quirked parent; not just from the quirks evolution itself, but it could also be boosted from a much more powerful quirk that isn't activated." Shuzenji added, "In the past, there was a larger population of quirkless people, and while the discrimination against the quirkless wasn't so bad... it was still there at the time. But that's the presumed reason why this paper didn't create too many problems."

"I... see..." Nezu continued flipping through the paper, and Shuzenji pointed out, "The gene that creates that extra pinky toe joint also prevents the activation of a quirk. However, like any other gene... mutations can occur over the course of someone's life. If you flip somewhere to the back... yes, that page... you'll see that Garaki has written about several seemingly quirkless people who have suddenly gained a quirk, all due to near death experiences."

"These look familiar... didn't those other theories about people having trauma-induced quirks use these as evidence?" Nezu asked, scratching his ear as he tried to piece everything together, his tail flicking about anxiously.

"Yeah, they probably used this paper, or at least, the same sources." Shuzenji nodded in agreement, "Though Garaki stated that these quirks may not even be the full extent of their abilities, but, in fact, these quirks were only partially activated, and the activated parts of the quirk were only essential to the survival of the user. If the entirety of the quirk was suddenly activated... that could have very well killed the user instead of just aiding them in survival."

A thought suddenly struck Nezu, "Isn't this similar to Izuku's old quirk?"

"That's my point." Shuzenji sighed, "Midoriya's former quirk seems to match Garaki's paper to the letter. So far... all these "partially manifested" quirks have all been a result of some life-threatening event, and all the documented side effects were focused on survival. If Midoriya's quirk was indeed considered a "trauma-induced" quirk... and it was rewound out of his body by Overhaul's bullet, instead of just being erased, considering it is Eri's quirk that makes up the base of the bullet... what's to stop it from happening again?"

"You mean that Izuku's put in another stressful situation that makes him activate his quirk again?"

Shuzenji nodded, "Plus... we don't even know how the bullet might interact with a "trauma-induced" quirk; we don't know how far it even rewinds a quirk. Does the bullet rewind a quirk out of existence completely? Or does it only rewind a quirk to a non-activated state, since Overhaul was also developing a serum for it; you can't exactly treat something that no longer exists... there's just too many unknowns. I know that unlike the Paranormal Singularity Theory, there really isn't much evidence to support this... but still, it could be a risk."

"I get it." Nezu groaned, trying to process and properly sort out this new stack of information, "So... what do you think we should do now? I don't think we should tell Izuku... he's got enough on his hands as it is."

"Until we know what we're dealing with now, I don't think we should tell him yet." Shuzenji grumbled, "That boy doesn't need any more stress. I would suggest bringing it up with the Hero Commission... but they're definitely going to just ignore it in favor of other more pressing matters... and as much as I hate to admit it, this isn't our priority at the moment.

"It would be best if we can avoid getting the students involved in stressful situations altogether, and that would solve a lot of, if not, most of our problems." Nezu said.

The both of them sat in silence, pondering over the entire situation, before Nezu raised his head.

"For the moment, we should keep Izuku out of this." Nezu stated, "But once we feel that the situation might escalate into something further and this piece of information might be useful, we tell him. Everything. Every single detail. Can we come to that agreement?"

Shuzenji nodded, "Should we tell the teachers?"

"Yes. They should know. They're always keeping tabs on the kids to make sure they don't get into trouble. It's better if they know; they would also be able to react quickly if something were to happen." Nezu nodded.


	156. Chapter 156 - Run into the fear

Shinsou stared at the homework in his hands as he walked towards the teacher's lounge. Given the joint training session with Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu, and the prior problems with his quirk, Ectoplasm had given him quite a bit of extra time to complete the homework and assignments that were assigned during the week that he was hospitalized. Shinsou knew that he had more time to do his work, but he had already completed it, so there was no harm in handing it in early.

Plus, he had the feeling that something was going to happen. His parents just gave off that kind of mood when something serious was going on, and while Shinsou didn't know what it was, he wanted to complete his stuff in advance so that he had more time in the future.

He rounded the corner to the teacher's lounge, and blinked as a green blur very literally crashed into him like a bullet. The both of them tumbled to the ground, and Shinsou looked up to see what had crashed into him, only to notice Midoriya was lying on him, looking slightly shaken up.

The greenette blinked, and gazed at Shinsou, before he hastily jumped to his feet and pulled Shinsou up. The lavender haired boy briefly glanced over to Midoriya, noticing that he was trying to catch his breath as he panted.

"You okay, Zuku?" Shinsou asked worriedly, wondering just what on earth had happened. Midoriya wasn't the same stoic, emotionless boy he was when he first entered UA, but even now, he wasn't all that expressive. To see him so shaken up was, frankly speaking, rather terrifying. For something to have such a lasting impact on Midoriya, it must have been something major.

Midoriya raised his head, gazing right into Shinsou's eyes, "I almost called Nezu "Dad"."

Shinsou paused.

"You... nearly called the principal... "Dad"? And then you just ran out?" Shinsou asked, just to make sure he understood the entire situation correctly.

Midoriya nodded.

Shinsou heaved a sigh of relief. At least, it wasn't anything too serious. Nezu cared about Midoriya, and it was clear that Midoriya looked up to Nezu as a fatherly figure, it wasn't that far fetched to imagine that the word would just slip off Midoriya's tongue -

"Do you... think he'll hate me?" Midoriya looked up at him, shaking, and Shinsou blinked.

_You idiot, he lost his parents._

Shinsou nearly facepalmed. It was obvious that Midoriya had still not gotten over the loss of his parents, and that he would still be very hesitant to outright label someone as a parental figure.

The taller boy briefly glanced over his homework, making sure it wasn't too badly crumpled, before he gently patted Midoriya on the shoulder, "Hey... it's okay. It's not a huge mistake. Plus... I'm sure the principal wouldn't mind too much."

Midoriya just stared at the floor, and Shinsou sighed, "Look... Izuku, I've known the principal since I was adopted. Not as well as you do, but I know enough. Nezu is clearly fond of you, especially since he's taken you in and is registered as your guardian. I'm pretty certain that he'd be happier that you called him "Dad", rather than upset. Makes sense?"

The greenette slowly nodded, and was about to speak up when a door behind him slammed open. A familiar skinny blonde with cyan eyes and long bangs poked his head out of the room, surveying the hallway, before he noticed Midoriya.

"Young Midoriya!" Yagi called out, and Midoriya flinched when his name was called, before he turned around, noticing Yagi waving at him from one of the meeting rooms, where teachers usually held private conversations with students and parents.

"Young Midoriya... can you come over for something?"

"All Might-sensei is calling you..." Shinsou looked over at Yagi, and Midoriya frowned, before gesturing at Shinsou.

"I'm really sorry, Young Midoriya... I would really prefer to keep this between you and me." Yagi sheepishly laughed, and Shinsou raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Maybe Yagi had some secret and Midoriya had somehow stumbled upon it; the greenette had always been rather perceptive of things like that. Yagi probably just wanted his secret known to as few people as possible.

Midoriya glanced at Shinsou, and the taller boy nodded towards Yagi, "Hey, it's alright... if it's really that important. I need to talk to Ectoplasm and some of the other teachers about homework. We can continue discussing this when you're done."

The greenette nodded, and slowly walked towards Yagi, giving Shinsou a small wave, before Yagi ushered him into the small meeting room.

"Thank you." Yagi sighed, "I'm so sorry for interrupting your conversation with Young Shinsou, but this really is important, and I really need your help. Please, take a seat."

Midoriya awkwardly settled onto the couch on one side of the small table, and Yagi took the seat on the other side of the table.

"So... you know that Young Mirio has One for All... right?" Yagi asked, and Midoriya nodded. Yagi proceeded to take out a small notebook, and gently slid it over the table for Midoriya to read.

"Yesterday... Nighteye called him out for something. He didn't think that it would be too dangerous; they just needed to help catch a couple of suspects in the case they were investigating, and just requested for Young Mirio to help out. It... didn't go so well... and no one was injured, which was a huge relief... but Young Mirio... he ended up using another quirk."

Midoriya tilted his head, and Yagi nodded, "You know that piece of homework that you wrote... about One for All possibly stockpiling quirks? Well... it's correct... and there were seven other users before I received One for All, six if you don't count the original user. Right now, I believe Nighteye and Young Amajiki is currently helping Young Mirio out with learning to use Black Whip, due to the versatility of his Manifest quirk."

_"So... what do you need me for?"_ Midoriya signed, still confused over everything.

"At the moment... there are some things going on. I'm really sorry that I can't disclose any details... but it has come to my attention that if One for All has allowed Young Mirio to use one of the six possibly stockpiled quirks... the others might manifest." Yagi looked away guiltily, "Admittedly, when I first gave One for All to Young Mirio... I wasn't exactly the best mentor. I knew how to use One for All immediately, and I didn't really know how to teach anyone how to use it if they weren't able to handle the power. The only reason Young Mirio didn't end up breaking his body so many times in trying to use One for All was that Nighteye was there to advise him, with the help of Foresight, and even he couldn't help prevent all the injuries that Young Mirio's sustained in trying to master One for All."

The retired hero turned to face Midoriya, "I need to do my job properly. You're very good at research and analysis... and I was hoping that you could help me out in trying to do research on the past users of One for All. I was thinking that at least, if we do enough research, we would know what to expect if Young Mirio does end up manifesting the other quirks of past users, and it might make it easier and safer for him to train in using them."

Midoriya nodded subtly. That did make sense; Yagi used to be busy with being the Number One hero and holding up the illusion that he was invincible, but now that he was retired, he could finally focus on something other than bashing up villains, and properly mentor Togata in using One for All.

"I know you might not like me very much, and I may have been rash and have done things that have... inadvertently put you in danger... but please, work with me on this?" Yagi stood up, and bowed, leaving Midoriya stunned that the former Number One hero was bowing at him.

Midoriya shot up from his seat and waved his arms, trying to get Yagi's attention, struggling to find his voice, "It's fine... you don't have to..."

Yagi raised his head slightly, and Midoriya hastily signed, _"I can help you, please just stand up straight."_

The former Number One hero straightened up, and nodded, "Thank you. Do you have some time right now?"

The greenette nodded, before he asked, _"First... can I tell Hitoshi what's going on?"_

Yagi tried to decipher Midoriya's finger-spelling of Shinsou's name, before he scratched his arm, "I suppose you can, if he asks you about our meeting... and if you trust that he can keep the secret about Young Mirio having One for All. I know you're close to him... but I'd really... rather not have something like that spreading, even if it's within UA."

Midoriya nodded, _"So... where do we start?"_

* * *

"Hey! Midoriya!" Kirishima waved, as he took his eyes off the television, where the news reporter was talking about something about a recent increase in crimes. Midoriya nodded in acknowledgment and took his shoes off, placing them neatly on the shoe cupboard.

The students from the other schools have already left a couple of days ago, which was a huge relief to Midoriya, but given that the smaller boy was busy with helping Yagi, he really hadn't had any time to himself. The research on the past users of One for All shouldn't take more than another day or two, though, so Midoriya would just have to wait before he could truly relax.

"Did you know that Togata-senpai popped by several times when classes ended, looking for you?" Ashido added, and Midoriya shook his head.

"You've been pretty busy recently, huh?" Kirishima grinned, letting out a laugh, "You run off somewhere once classes end, and you're not back until dinner, and even after that, you just hole yourself up in your room."

Midoriya just shrugged. He had only asked for permission from Yagi to tell Shinsou about what he's doing, not for his other classmates, and Shinsou hasn't asked him about it yet. He would tell the taller boy if Shinsou was curious, but he was trying his best to do what Yagi had politely asked of him.

The greenette headed up to his room in order to put his school bag down, noticing that Shinsou was lying face first on his bean bag. Midoriya tilted his head, closing the door behind him, before he placed his bag on the floor, and proceeded to sit down next to Shinsou.

"Hito?"

Shinsou groaned, and turned his head, noticing the smaller boy, "Hey, Zuku."

Midoriya gazed down at Shinsou's tired expression, "Are you... okay...?"

"I'm... good." Shinsou sighed, but Midoriya could tell that Shinsou was very blatantly lying. They sat in silence for a couple of seconds, before Midoriya spoke up, "You... want to know what I've been doing after school... don't you?"

"Well... yeah, I kind of do." Shinsou admitted, "But I do know that you don't do things for no reason. Whatever you're doing... it's probably really important for you to be so busy."

There was more awkward silence.

"Whatever I tell you... you can't tell anyone else..." Midoriya suddenly spoke up, and Shinsou rolled over to his side, propping his head up with his arm, raising an eyebrow in complete and utter confusion, "Okay...?"

Midoriya took a deep breath, "You know... All Might-sensei was the former Number One hero, right?"

"Yeah?" Shinsou blinked, "What about it?"

"His quirk was given to him by someone else."

Shinsou just stared at Midoriya blankly for a solid minute in complete disbelief, trying to process the nine words the greenette had just said, before he spluttered, "Hold up, what?!"

Midoriya gave Shinsou a brief rundown about the background of One for All and the research he had been working on with Yagi, all the while, the taller boy just stared at Midoriya like he had grown a second head as he came to terms with everything Midoriya had just said.

The quirk that the former Number One hero used was from someone else? Togata had been given the quirk, and he could have very well kicked all of their butts during their very first introduction? The fact that apparently, Togata had manifested another quirk that was from a past user of One for All, and it was very possible that he could manifest five other quirks?!

It felt like his entire world view had just been turned upside down.

"Jeez..." Shinsou shook his head, "That's... really a lot to take in. No wonder All Might-sensei wanted to keep this a secret... he'd probably make everyone's head explode if everyone found out about this..."

He raised his head, "Are you sure it's okay for me to know?"

Midoriya nodded as he flopped down onto the bed, "I asked him. He said it was okay. I know you won't tell anyone."

The greenette shuffled closer to Shinsou, snuggling up to his chest, and the lavender haired boy smirked, "So... have you cleared that _thing_ up with the principal?"

Midoriya puffed his cheeks out, and turned away.

"I'm taking that as a no." Shinsou chuckled, and Midoriya just lightly pushed his palm against the taller boy's jaw, eliciting some laughter from the lavender haired boy.

* * *

_"Aizawa-sensei... please report to the faculty office!"_

Aizawa paused, and looked at the loudspeaker. His class had just entered the changing rooms, and after a couple days of practicing, he was going to get them to show off their Super Moves, or whatever those kids liked to call them, in order to help boost their confidence.

"Don't worry. Go." Yagi nodded down the hallway, "I can take over the students for this lesson."

Aizawa halfheartedly glared at the former Number One hero, "You better not do anything stupid, or disappear in the middle of the lesson."

Yagi chuckled, noticing that Aizawa was using a more humorous tone rather than the tone he used when he was harshly berating the newbie teacher, and grinned, "I won't. I'm not the Number One hero anymore. All of my attention is on the students."

"Good." Aizawa huffed, before he stalked off towards the faculty office. Yamada was already there, seated on the couch, his arms crossed, his feet tapping impatiently as he waited.

"Hey, Shou." Yamada greeted, and Aizawa just sighed, settling down next to the blonde loudspeaker, "What's going on now?"

"No idea." Yamada admitted, "My students have an English quiz next week. This better be important."

"Oh, but it is important." Nezu's voice rang out, and the two teachers turned, noticing that Nezu had a small folder tucked under his arm, a grim expression on his face.

"Let me just give you two a quick rundown of everything. You need to leave UA and reach Tartarus before they close the visiting period."

"Tartarus?" Yamada frowned, and Nezu nodded, "You guys know that one of the members of the League of Villains, Kurogiri, was captured some time ago?"

"Yes, what about him?" Aizawa asked, but he had a sneaking suspicion that both he and Yamada knew what was going on, especially after Midoriya had asked them about Shirakumo Oboro.

"You know what's going on already." Nezu stated, confirming Aizawa's inner thoughts, "Tsukauchi believes that Kurogiri quirk is a combination of multiple quirk factors, with the root of all those factors bears a resemblance to Shirakumo's quirk. Now get going; the drive to Tartarus is a long one. Tsukauchi and Gran Torino really don't want this to drag on for another day."

Yamada and Aizawa mutely nodded, before he exited the faculty office and headed to where their car was parked. Yamada hopped into the driver's seat, waiting until Aizawa had bucked his seat belt, before he drove off, the both of them sitting in complete and absolutely suffocating silence.

It was one thing for it to be a theory proposed by a student... it was another thing for it to be confirmed.

"Can't you go any faster?" Aizawa grumbled, his arms crossed as his finger tapped on his arm impatiently, as they waited at a crossroad for the lights to turn green.

"Shut up and calm down." Yamada growled back, "You try driving this rust bucket with the current traffic."

"I hate roads." Aizawa grumbled back, "That thing we fought at the USJ... that kind of behaviour... not in the very least... there's a limit to how bad your taste can be."

"I want to believe that it's all just a huge misunderstanding on Tsukauchi's part... but I think we both know that it's not the case, especially after Midoriya sought us out just to ask about Oboro." Yamada groaned.

"So... what are we going to do?" Aizawa asked, "If he really is a Nomu... what can we do? What's the use of calling us out? It's not like we can talk some sense into him just because the base of his quirk once belonged to our best friend. We don't even know if it's really his corpse, or that damned villain just grabbed his quirk from his cold, dead body."

There was more suffocating silence, before Yamada spoke up, "I don't know. We'd just have to get there and see."


	157. Chapter 157 - We run from

It didn't take too long for the students to exit the changing room after they were done changing into their hero costumes. Some of the students, like Uraraka, had made some alterations to their hero costumes, and the others were busy gushing over the changes as they walked out of the changing rooms.

"I am... making cotton candy!" Yagi yelled, holding up a pot as he stirred around some sugar inside of it.

"Huh? All Might-sensei?" Uraraka raised her eyebrow, and Iida looked around, "Where's Aizawa-sensei?"

"Hey... how are you guys just going to ignore my almighty gag like that? I was pretending to say "I am here"..." Yagi sighed, "Due to emergency reasons... Aizawa-sensei had to leave just a few moments ago. I'll be watching over you guys today!"

"Aw yeah!" Kaminari cheered, "Former Number One Hero for the win!"

"Alright then." Yagi nodded, grabbing a couple of wooden sticks and scooping up the thin, sweet strands of sugar, before he started handing them out, "So, today, you will be showing off your Super Moves. Whether it be a team move, or a personal move, just go wild. We have plenty of robots for you to use them on. And if your classmates have any ideas on how to alter or improve your moves, feel free to just say them as well. Right now, we're just striving for improving and polishing up your abilities!"

It had started off a bit slow, but once the 1-A students had started, they were on a roll. Aoyama fired off his Navel Saber, shaped like a sword, and Hagakure immediately used her diffraction abilities to change its direction and directed it right into a robot. Ashido had finally mastered her Acid Man Super move, turning up the viscosity of her acid to the very maximum, creating a gigantic glob of acid that completely destroyed a villain robot.

Sato and Ojiro were bashing through robots much more efficiently than before, while Shoji and Jiro were able to use their quirks much more efficiently in identifying where the villain bots were coming from and what kind of robots they had to deal with. Sero and Mineta had easily restrained several villain bots with tape and sticky orbs respectively, allowing Kaminari to easily short circuit them in a matter of seconds.

Somehow, Mizushima had gotten Iida to adopt a much more flexible and less rigid mindset, and he and Shinsou both destroyed a bunch of robots, with the lavender haired boy tangling them up and Iida kicking them apart with ease. Tokoyami and Koda were using their quirks much more efficiently, with proper and smooth communication expediting the process of the exchange of information.

Yaoyorozu was easily creating new items that would be most effective for combat, and Asui and Uraraka had improved their decision making skills, quickly deciding what to do and what course of action to take. Kirishima was bashing through villain robots with vigor, and the two powerhouses of 1-A, Todoroki and Bakugou, ended the entire session by completely destroying an entire hoard of villain robots with ease and efficiency.

Midoriya kept a close eye on everyone, hastily scribbling down on his notebook with his ridiculously neat, font-like handwriting, and Yagi leaned over his shoulder, taking a sneak peak at the boy's notes. Overall, Midoriya had written down the basics of his classmates' new skills, taking down additional notes where it might be improved or tweaked, but it seemed like the boy didn't have much to add in terms of improvements.

Yagi did hear about some of Midoriya's notes being passed around in the common room sometime after Christmas, and it wasn't a stretch to think that the improvements in the students were partly due to practical, hands on experience during the now-cancelled internship and training sessions, but also due to Midoriya's concise, and clear notes about their quirks.

"Yo! Bakugou! Did you finally conquer the winter?" Kirishima jokingly asked, and the hot-headed blonde just shot back, growling, "Wouldn't you, dumbass!? These are compression shots, you fucking idiot!"

"Todoroki finally became a quick hottie, huh?" Hagakure laughed, and Todoroki turned to her with a deadpan expression on his face, "No... I still can't hold a candle to Endeavor..."

Letting the other students chatter among themselves, Yagi turned back to Midoriya.

"Young Midoriya... do you have anything to add?" Yagi leaned down, softly asking, so as to not startle the green haired boy, but the greenette just looked up and shook his head. Yagi wasn't going to force the boy to do anything he didn't want to do, and Aizawa had also explicitly stated that if Midoriya didn't have anything to show off, he didn't have to participate.

Unlike his peers, Midoriya didn't have a quirk to show off. His choice in moves was very limited compared to his classmates, and Yagi knew that Midoriya knew as well as he did that there was a limit to what the boy was capable of. His ability to analyze and break down quirks, allies and enemies alike, combined with his adaptability and ability to easy come up with counterattacks, were his greatest strengths, and could be huge game changers, but he wouldn't be able to properly showcase it with classmates he was familiar with and robots that the students had fought countless of times.

"Alright then." Yagi nodded, before he turned to the students, "You all seem to have been educated well. I recorded it all and will pass it on to Aizawa! Keep going on and continue to work hard! And grow even more!"

His phone beeped, and Yagi waited until the students were dismissed and were heading back to the changing rooms before fishing his phone out of his pocket.

Much to his surprise, it wasn't Tsukauchi who messaged him, but it was some other person from the Hero Commission whose name he didn't really recognize. Though, to be honest, Nezu had already informed him that Tsukauchi was working with Gran Torino at the moment, and they were busy with something regarding Kurogiri.

But if it was the Hero Commission... he supposed that it had something to do with All for One. The text just told him that he had to visit Tartarus the very next day.

Yagi didn't want to talk to All for One. That man knew how to take facts and turn them from white to black, twisting every single word that came out of anyone's mouth to his own gain. He rambled on and on about things, and he never knew if he was actually being serious and was giving him somewhat useful information, or if he was spouting nonsense, just to waste his time, or to rile him up and piss him off.

He didn't really have a choice, though. He was the one with the most experience with All for One, and the only one that the villain was even remotely interested in talking to. He supposed he would just have to get there and see for himself just what All for One wanted this time.

* * *

Aizawa and Yamada stalked into the 1-A dorms, completely silent. The Erasure Hero plopped himself down in an armchair, while Yamada just flopped down onto the couch face-first.

Neither of them were in the mood to talk. Their best friend, who had died during their internships in their second year, was a Nomu. They did everything together, from studying, to breaking the rules in their second year and eating lunch on the school roof, where they had met Kayama, who was a year older than them.

They had even been planning on founding their own agency when they graduated. Heck, they had even found a kitten one day and had been taking care of it until it had eventually been adopted by Kayama. That bloody idiot had tried to feed the kitten Sushi, and had even decided to name it Sushi, much to Aizawa's disdain.

They were even called the "three stooges of Class A", though Aizawa really had no idea what on earth had transpired for them to acquire that title.

Then, Shirakumo was caught under a collapsing building, and died an all too early death. Gran Torino suspected that All for One had somehow managed to swap out the corpse before the cremation process, and turned him into a Nomu, and all the while, everyone in UA had assumed that he was dead.

After sitting in uncomfortable, suffocating silence for so long that they could hear a pin drop, Aizawa slowly raised his head, and asked, "What will you do?"

Yamada pressed his face further into the couch, grumbling, "We should probably eat something... maybe udon or-"

"Listen." Aizawa scowled, "They were always like that... even during our work studies... the Hero Commission clearly knows something."

"Probably..." Yamada muttered, and Aizawa sighed, "When we find out who manufactures the Nomus... what will you do?"

"I will head over there, and challenge them to a karaoke contest, and use that opportunity to blow their ears right off. I'm boiling with rage." Yamada pressed his cheek against the couch so that he could look up at Aizawa, but before he could say more, a loud shout rang out, "Sensei!"

Aizawa turned around, facing Amajiki and Togata, raising an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Sorry to interrupt your break..." Amajiki muttered, "Eraser... it's Eri."

"What's wrong?" Aizawa immediately shot to his feet, and Togata tried to explain the situation, "We were playing with her after training... and, you know... her horn's grown rather large now? And suddenly it started sparking with energy, and she started crying and we don't know what to do. Hado is taking care of her right now, and we came to find you."

It didn't take too long for the two third years to lead Aizawa to the room where Eri was. Hado was sitting on the ground, gently wrapping her arms around Eri, with small tears rolling down the smaller, horned girl's cheeks as her horn crackled with energy.

"My... horn tingles..." Eri squeaked out, and Aizawa hastily activated his quirk on her, erasing Rewind temporarily, as he gently patted Eri's head, "It's alright. This is UA High School. We'll find a way to help you handle Rewind, alright?"

Eri slowly looked up, and nodded slowly, letting Hado gently wipe her tears away. After patting her head one more time, Aizawa stood up, and turned to the students, "If this happens again... call me immediately. I'll find some time later on to try and help Eri with training Rewind."

"Gotcha!" Togata nodded, "But are you okay, sensei? It seems like we were interrupting your talk with Mic-sensei..."

"I'm fine. Just tired. The usual." Aizawa sighed, before trudging out of the room. He couldn't put his burden on them. They didn't deserve to know about how terrible some criminals could really be.

* * *

Aizawa and Yamada made it a point to leave the common room before the students came back, just so that 1-A wouldn't have to see them brooding. They already had enough things to worry about; it wasn't fair for two fully grown adults to inadvertently push their burdens onto a bunch of teenagers.

After returning to Heights Alliance, most of the students went back to their rooms to shower and do their homework. Shinsou was still behind for a day's worth of lessons, and Ashido and Kaminari were seemingly struggling with the exact same topic.

Ectoplasm had told them that they were going to have a mathematics test on that topic in a week's time, so Midoriya offered to tutor them, since Yaoyorozu, who was usually the one helping them with mathematics, had to go for a mandatory doctor's appointment. Yaoyorozu always had these appointments once every two months, so there were times where she had disappeared in the middle of lessons, and she was very open about the circumstances of her appointments.

She had explained before that, due to her quirk, she eats a lot of fatty foods, and while her quirk does use up most of those resources to create objects, there was still the usual health risks associated with eating too much fatty food, like high cholesterol or gallstones, or even heart disease, so she regularly had checkups in order to get these problems treated and eliminated before it got too late.

It didn't take too long for Shinsou to understand the topic at hand and finish up his homework, but it took a bit more time with Kaminari and Ashido. With Iida's help, after he had finished his evening jog, they had managed to get Ashido and Kaminari to understand the bare basics of the topic, and Iida was currently nagging at them to take some notes, or they wouldn't be able to remember any of it by the time the test rolled around.

By that time, the evening news had already started, so several students were already in the common room, lounging on the couches and watching as the news person droned on and on about some villain attack or another.

Sato poked his head out of the kitchen, and yelled, "Hey, it's time for dinner!"

Shinsou turned his head, facing the kitchen, as several other students started excitedly chattering about dinner. Sato and Bakugou were great cooks, and neither of them minded cooking once every two or three days, provided that they didn't have to wash the plates and utensils, as well as clean up the kitchen and the dining table.

The other students really didn't mean doing the cleaning up, especially if it meant that they could eat delicious home-cooked meals, so they did have a chart of who does what, and when, and Shinsou knew that it was his turn to go set the table.

He moved to get up, but noticed that Midoriya wasn't budging. Sitting up slightly, Shinsou leaned forward, and while he was assuming that Midoriya was just lying on him and watching the news after tutoring his classmates, he realized that the smaller boy was fast asleep, using his chest as a pillow.

"Oi! Eyebags! Set the fucking table, asshole!" Bakugou stomped out of the kitchen, waving a spoon around angrily, and Shinsou just looked at his classmates, "Can uh... someone switch shifts with me for today?"

"You okay?" Kirishima asked, moving to stand up, "I can set the table."

"As you can see... I'm kind of stuck." Shinsou just sighed, resigning himself to his fate as a pillow. He didn't mind anyways; Midoriya was light, and Shinsou felt like he was sleeping under a weighted, electric blanket. Needless to say, he was very nice, warm, and comfortable.

"Aww, how cute." Ashido laughed, and squatted down, almost coming face to face with Midoriya, only for the greenette to remain fast asleep, completely dead to the world. He didn't even flinch when Ashido got so close to him, and the pinkette frowned slightly, before standing up, "Huh. I guess he's really tired."

"I guess." Shinsou commented. He knew that Midoriya was up to; the boy had never been able to sleep properly for as long as the students from the other schools were in UA, and after Yagi had asked for his help in research, the boy had spent several nights searching things up on the internet and only getting a couple hours of sleep, sometimes not sleeping at all, just to do what Yagi asked of him.

His insomnia had decided to kick back in, and Shinsou was just lying in bed, watching as Midoriya worked while trying to fall asleep, or even trying to help Midoriya with his research, and the only reason he could still keep up with lessons was due to several cups of coffee in the morning, most of them drank before Iida was down in the common room to berate him for killing his liver.

Shinsou was pretty sure that the Number One Hero didn't mean for Midoriya to stay up so late and only intended for Midoriya to spend the afternoons with him to do research, but he couldn't help but feel a little irritated with Yagi.

Kirishima ran off to the kitchen with a loud, "Bakubro! I'm going to set the table!"

They heard some muffled shouting from the kitchen, presumably from Bakugou, but even that ruckus wasn't enough to wake Midoriya up. Yaoyorozu sweat dropped and sheepishly laughed, "Well... let him sleep. Midoriya doesn't usually sleep much, we all know how much he needs it."

Midoriya ended up sleeping all the way through dinner, and only woke up at around nine, well after most of the students had finished dinner, cleared up the dining table, and had gone back to their rooms to rest. Sato had been nice enough to keep some food for them and reheated them, but Midoriya had nearly fallen asleep halfway through eating again, only to be startled awake by a loud wailing shriek from Kaminari about dropping some music box and a "stupid teddy bear" jump scaring him and Bakugou's roaring laughter at him for being an idiot.

"You okay?" Shinsou asked, quietly picking his plate up, and moving to the kitchen to wash his dishes, only to notice that Midoriya was barely halfway done with his dinner.

"I'm fine... Not hungry..." Midoriya muttered, rubbing his eyes, as he poked his fork into a small potato wedge, but the taller boy could tell that Midoriya was exhausted, and maybe a little burned out.

"Just eat a little more, okay? Then you can go shower and sleep."

With a little more coaxing, Shinsou got him to eat another quarter of his meal, which wasn't a lot in the first place; Sato knew how little Midoriya ate, and had saved an appropriate amount of food for him. Shinsou had to send him back upstairs for a shower while he dealt with the dishes.

After he was done washing and drying the dishes, Shinsou headed up back to his own room to take a shower, before he decided to finish up the last of his English essay before going to sleep. He was nearly done when Midoriya entered his room, his hair completely dry after most likely rubbing the hell out of it with his towel. He had also brushed his teeth, since Shinsou could smell the mint on his breath as he leaned over the taller boy's shoulder to see what he was doing.

It wasn't long until Shinsou was done, but by the time he was done putting his homework back in his bag and brushing his teeth, Midoriya had fallen asleep once again by the kotatsu in a very awkward position. Shirou was snuggled up next to the boy, as were Reiko and Ryuto, but the lavender haired boy was somehow able to get Midoriya onto the bed without waking him or the animals up.

Shinsou flicked the lights off before going to bed, feeling Midoriya shifting slightly to snuggle up with him, and he could feel his eyelids shutting almost immediately, allowing him to drift off into a dark, dreamless sleep.


	158. Chapter 158 - Down in the dirt

Shinsou yawned and flipped over, before blinking in confusion, noticing the absence of something. Something felt different, but he wasn't too sure what it was. Blearily opening his eyes, Shinsou gazed around his room, bringing his arm up to rub his eyes, taking note of the disappearance of the green haired boy that he had gone to sleep with.

He did hear some sounds coming from the bathroom, so it was pretty likely that Midoriya had just gotten up to use the toilet. He didn't know what time it was, but Shinsou could see small beams of light peeking in through the gaps between his curtains, so it probably wasn't too early. Still, Shinsou really didn't want to get up, and groggily shifted around a little; it was cold, and he was nice and warm under the blankets.

The lavender haired boy heard the sound of the toilet being flushed, and water gushing out of the tap. There was more silence, before the tap was switched on again, and it wasn't long before the tap was switched off, and the bathroom door opened. Midoriya walked out, wiping his hands dry on the towel that Shinsou usually left hanging on the door knob, before he climbed back onto the bed and pulled the blankets over him, before snuggling closer to the taller boy.

"Morning." Shinsou murmured sleepily, and Midoriya opened his eyes slightly, glancing at Shinsou, "Sorry... did I... wake you?"

"Nah... I woke up a few minutes ago." The taller boy tiredly muttered, before he paused, processing that Midoriya had literally just pulled the blankets over himself; Midoriya had never liked blankets, and even Nezu had mentioned that when Midoriya was hospitalized.

"I thought you didn't like blankets." Shinsou muttered, gently pulling Midoriya closer, and the smaller boy admitted, "I... really don't. They're not safe."

"But you just pulled the blankets up?"

Midoriya looked up, noting the confused yet tired look the lavender haired boy was shooting him, before he wiggled closer, nuzzling Shinsou gently, "Yeah, but you're here. It's safer."

There was some silence as Shinsou tried to process what Midoriya had just said. Someone had probably tried to hurt him with a blanket, most likely while he was in foster care. While Shinsou wasn't _too_ sure how someone could be hurt with a soft and fluffy blanket, his main weapon of choice was a freaking _scarf_ with thin threads of metal weaved into it, so he really couldn't say that it was impossible.

"Want to talk about it?" The taller boy awkwardly asked.

Midoriya gazed up at him, before he pressed his cheek against the pillow, pressing his forehead against Shinsou's chest, before he softly spoke up, "I... while I was... still in foster care..."

He struggled to get some of the words out, and Shinsou gently ruffled his hair, "Relax. If you don't want to talk about it, don't force yourself."

"No... If I... don't say it now..." Midoriya shook his head, clenching his eyes shut, "...I'll never be able to say it."

Reiko must have sensed the boy's distress, and she jumped off the kotatsu, where the two felines and the one avian had been sleeping that night, and pulled the drawers under Shinsou's bed out quietly, before she used it as a foothold to climb up onto the bed. She pawed over to Midoriya, and settled down by his neck, gently licking his chin, and Ryuto fluttered up to join the cat, tugging on Midoriya's earlobe affectionately.

It took some time until Midoriya was able to talk, and the boy opened his eyes slowly. He exhaled, before he started, "I was... nearly suffocated with blankets."

Shinsou, Reiko, and Ryuto all froze, blinking in shock, not knowing how to react.

"How... long ago was that?" Shinsou managed to ask. Midoriya was shaking, tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes, "When I was... around eight."

The greenette made a grab for Shinsou's hoodie, before continuing, "I don't know... the woman I was with at the time... she said that someone... might be interested in adopting me, so she let the people visit... they were a nice couple. If I remember correctly... they ran some charity for the quirkless... but I've honestly never heard of it before."

Shinsou just waited patiently for the smaller boy to find his voice, gently tightening his grip on the boy reassuringly.

"I'm not too sure what... happened that day... I just remember that they complained that... I wasn't attached to them... or something like that. They wrapped me in a blanket, and they pushed me into the bed... told me to get out of the sheet. I... I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe... I tried to tell them I couldn't breathe... I even vomited from all the pressure on my stomach... they just ignored me... they just said... they..."

Midoriya shook even more violently, unable to speak, and the taller boy gently pulled Midoriya closer, rubbing circles onto his back, "Shh... It's okay... you're safe here..."

The smaller boy pressed himself closer to Shinsou, "They just said... _"Is that what you want? To just die in there, quitter?"_ I just... tried to get out... until I passed out... I woke up back in my foster home... the foster woman screamed at me that I was useless, that I had... gotten sick and... she had to waste money on me... and it would be much easier if I was stupid and was attached to people easily... and instead... I was still attached to my... parents..."

"Fuck..." Shinsou cursed, hugging Midoriya tightly, "Zuku... they nearly killed you, and they're just concerned about money?! That's blatant child abuse... you could have called the police on them."

"Who would ever believe me?" Midoriya replied gloomily, "I'm quirkless. The only way the police would be even remotely interested is if they really did kill me. Even then... it would most likely be swept under the rug after a few minutes."

The darkness of Midoriya's eyes, the belief that people would barely care if he died, and the way Midoriya spoke about it with such confidence gave Shinsou chills down his spine. And Shinsou knew that Midoriya was right; the police wouldn't care about a quirkless child. To them, his life was meaningless, and it would just be a "waste of police resources" if they were to look in a case regarding a quirkless kid.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. It must have brought up bad memories." Shinsou murmured, letting the smaller boy snuggle closer to him, "It's fine."

There was pure, suffocating silence as the two students lay there, with Reiko slipping under the blankets and into the space between them, purring, and Ryuto pressed himself against Midoriya's neck, chirping. Sunlight was flickering through the curtains, slowly lighting the room up, but the light mood was already ruined, tainted with truth about the unseen darkness that was rooted deep within the tangles of their society.

Midoriya slowly raised his head, bumping his head against Shinsou's chest gently, "Coffee?"

"You sure you're okay, Zuku?" Shinsou softly asked, but Midoriya just nodded, "It's safe here. I know it won't happen again."

* * *

"So..." Yagi settled into his seat. He knew that he had the entire day to talk to All for One, but he really didn't want to put this conversation off to the last minute. Without his quirks, All for One was a frail, dying old man. He couldn't hurt him even if the old potato turd wanted to.

"What on earth do you want to talk about, All for One?"

All for One just snickered, "So rude? I just wanted someone to talk to, you know. The guards don't respond to anything I say, and I'm rather lonely here, you see. Surely you can keep me company, especially when you don't have to uphold your "Number One" hero duties? We've known each other for so long, surely you can spare the time to chat with an old acquaintance."

"We aren't acquaintances. We only know each other through our quirks." Yagi snarled, "Surely you didn't call me here, just to waste my time!?"

All for One's laughter boomed inside the room, "You aren't curious about that child's abilities?"

Yagi raised an eyebrow, and leaned back into his seat, "I'm not sure which "boy" you're referring to. I doubt you came here to reveal all of Shigaraki Tomura's secrets, and you don't know One for All any better than I do."

"Of course not. I wouldn't out my little boy just like that. Plus... I don't care for that silly little protege of yours. A quirk like that complements One for All very well, but it takes years of training and dedication to master a quirk like that and use it to its fullest." All for One cackled, "No. Who else would I be talking about other than that little boy under UA's care? What was his name again... ah... let's see... Midoriya Izuku, wasn't it? Or was his name-"

Yagi seethed, "You just intend to waste time right now, aren't you? Stalling for something? "

"You've never changed. Always so... impatient, so eager to do something. You've kept this country on its feet for decades, fending me off, taking down other villains and criminals... coming down from that high is like a shock to your system, isn't it? Is that why you want to do something so badly? Or are you really that attached to your little students? Or maybe-"

"Just get to the point."

All for One merely smirked.

"Alright, alright, you youngsters nowadays... It's very pitiful indeed, don't you think? Always living in a hated existence, being discriminated against for absolutely nothing of his own doing. It really reminds me of the past, you know, when quirks were just popping up here and there? Although, it really was the exact opposite scenario in the past, where people were discriminated against for having quirks instead of being quirkless."

"What are you trying to get at?" Yagi growled.

"Patience. The poor boy is desperate for any sort of validation, but look past the surface, and you'd see that he's actually pretty greedy. Greedy for power. Like many others... he wants all that power from himself. Not to harm others or put himself in a position of power... but to prove that his own existence isn't a mistake. That's very pitiful indeed."

Yagi merely narrowed his eyes, and somehow, All for One seemed to catch onto that, "Admittedly, his determination to do so is admirable, though it will ultimately be his downfall. You two are pretty similar in that regard. You always put others in front of yourself, you wanted to become a pillar of hope, a hero that everyone could rely on anytime, and see where that brought you."

Yagi couldn't help but glance down at his skinny form, and felt the metallic tang of blood inside his mouth. He knew that he was just imagining it, but he knew that his years of being the Number One Hero, and taking on the physical and mental burden of One for All and all it represented was taking its toll on him.

"Heroes nowadays are all blinded by their society. What would happen when they see the ugly truth that you, the heroes of the old, are hiding? All the problems swept under the rug, all the needless violence against simple-minded criminals who just want to use the quirks they were born with, but had always been under tight scrutiny by the Hero Commission?"

Yagi growled, and stood up to leave. As much as he hated to admit it, All for One was right; there was a lot that was going on that the Hero Commission was not keen to reveal. Even he didn't know how much the Hero Commission was hiding, from both the staff, and the students. Did the parents even know that things might be getting complicated?

Did the Hero Commission even think that the parents deserve to know?

"Just remember. Even embers burn out eventually. You know that first hand. How do you think villains are made?"

"Are you trying to say that some of our students would become villains?" Yagi growled, but All for One laughed mockingly, "Maybe, maybe not. You know those students better than I do, don't you? Perhaps one of them is already a villain, and you just don't know it."

Yagi raised his head, standing up to his full height, before declaring, "Don't you dare try to do anything. They're all good kids. Even if they found out the truth, I believe that they would still do their best, becoming heroes that would truly fix our society. I bid you a good day ahead of you."

"The eternal fire that burns inside of him would eat him from the inside out." All for One smiled maliciously, "Things can't last forever. Everything is always continuously changing. "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master." Ever heard of that saying? Any tool that you use for good, can also be used for destruction."

Yagi glared at the villain one last time, before he trudged out. All for One was notorious for playing mind games. He wouldn't let him manipulate him, even if he didn't know what the villain's true goal was. But he did know that he really needed to talk to Togata and Nighteye about the quirks that resided within One for All.

* * *

Shinsou had gotten permission from Aizawa for him and Midoriya to visit the cafe that they had visited before. Aizawa had gone there a few times, and he was relatively sure that the cafe owner wouldn't give the two kids too much trouble. His only concern was that they might encounter a villain on the way there, or back, so he told Shinsou to make sure that they both brought their hero licences, just so that they could protect themselves in case anything happened.

Aizawa also wanted the students to update him whenever they changed locations, since he wanted to make sure he knew exactly where the kids were, in the event that something did happen.

Midoriya didn't seem to mind too much, and after they changed, they left the dorms and headed directly towards the cafe, with Shinsou sending Aizawa a quick text so that the teacher knew where they were. They left Reiko, Shirou, and Ryuto in the dorms; they seemed comfortable enough in Shinsou's warm room, and they were pretty sure neither of the animals would appreciate the cold weather outside.

Shinsou had gotten his regular order of a nice and warm espresso, while Midoriya seemed to like his previous order of a latte enough to order it a second time, once again not adding any cream or sugar.

The taller boy was about to pull his wallet out his pocket to pay, but Midoriya beat him to it. Shinsou blinked at the smaller boy in confusion, but Midoriya just glanced up at him, just as equally confused.

_"I thought last time, I said I was paying?"_

"I mean..." Shinsou scratched the back of his neck, "I guess?"

Despite being a weekend, it wasn't a busy day, and it wasn't long before their names were called so they could collect their drinks. They slipped the cardboard cup sleeves onto the cups, before they picked up their cups and exited the cafe. Shinsou sent Aizawa another text to notify him that they were starting to head back, and would be cutting through the park, since it was a shortcut back to UA, and Midoriya also wanted to visit the graveyard at the back of the park.

They had stopped by a small local flower shop, and Midoriya quickly picked out three flowers, much to Shinsou's confusion. The last time he had seen the boy buy flowers, Midoriya had only bought two. He really wasn't too sure what the boy wanted with three flowers. It didn't take too long for Midoriya to be done with his purchases, and they headed straight towards the park.

Shinsou just looked around, following Midoriya blindly, since he wasn't too familiar with that area, but Midoriya knew exactly where he was going, and made a beeline directly to the graveyard. Midoriya easily located the grave he was looking for, and carefully made his way towards it.

Midoriya gently crouched down, and placed two of the flowers by the grave, with Shinsou standing right behind him, gazing at the smaller boy, before he looked up at the headstone, idly reading the writing on the grave. With so many things going on, and the increase in villains, they didn't have many opportunities to leave UA on their own. He wasn't too sure what to do, but he would just give Midoriya all the time he needed.

Midoriya finally stood up, and looked around, noticing that the graveyard was empty, before he gently tugged on Shinsou's sleeve.

"You ready to go?" Shinsou softly asked, but Midoriya shook his head, before he made his way to the playground. Shinsou just followed behind quietly, watching as Midoriya paused, before he strayed off the path, and headed in the direction of the dense row of trees that lined the edge of the park, creating a soundproof barrier between the park and the road just on the other side of the trees and metal gates.

They entered the small, seclusive grove, and Shinsou looked around warily, before noticing that Midoriya was making his way towards a relatively small tree. Following behind him, Shinsou watched as Midoriya gently swept some twigs and dead leaves away, before he saw a small rock with words written on it with a permanent marker.

Midoriya placed his lone remaining flower down by the rock. He stood there for a good minute, before he stood up, "Let's go back to UA."

Wordlessly, Shinsou nodded, and Midoriya led him out of the grove, and they quickly cut through the park, and it wasn't long before they ended up at the bottom of the hill that UA resided upon. Midoriya had barely drank any of his coffee, and was just holding the cup, silently staring ahead, as they slowly trudged their way back up to UA.

Shinsou wasn't sure if he wanted to say anything, to try and make things less awkward between them. While he was curious about that last "grave" that had been located in the seclusive grove, but he was pretty sure it would be really insensitive for him to just ask about it.

He wasn't too sure if he wanted to break the silence, but almost as if he had read his mind, Midoriya spoke up, "Her name was Rikaru... I found her in a storm drain... on the same day I found Reiko."

"Oh."

That was all Shinsou could say. He didn't want to make Midoriya feel more miserable than he already felt. It was clear that Midoriya was affected by many things that happened in the past, but he didn't want to bring anything up. He would let Midoriya let it out if he wanted to talk about it, but he wouldn't force it out of him.

"She... I was going to bring them both home... and take care of them..." Midoriya paused, reaching up to scratch his neck, his fingers gently rubbing against his collar, "My foster mother... threw her out of the window. She... landed on some glass... She died."

Shinsou gently put an arm around Midoriya, not saying a single word, letting the smaller boy lean against him. His hands and the coffee cup were shaking, and Midoriya just closed his eyes, "I promised them I would take care of them..."

"You know it's not your fault, right? You did your best. It's just that other people are heartless and aren't as selfless as you." Shinsou murmured, looking around for UA's main gate. They passed under it, with the gate letting them through due to their student cards, and they quickly entered the main building. While it did take them a longer time to get into the dorms through the main building, instead of just taking the shortcuts outside, it was much warmer inside.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "Young Midoriya?"

Midoriya flinched, nearly spilling his latte over his hands if not for the cap that was securely placed on the cup, and the two boys turned around, noticing Yagi poking his head out of the teacher's lounge.

"I'm so sorry to bother you again, especially on a weekend, Young Midoriya..." Yagi stepped out and put his hands together, "But Nighteye just informed me that he will be coming over today to talk with Young Mirio about... _that_... and I was hoping you could join us...?"

Midoriya's head drooped, and he let out a small, barely audible whimper. He didn't want to talk about One for All or All for One or whatever. He just wanted to stay in the safety of the dorms and hang out with his friends and classmates. He just didn't want to think about all the shitty things in life, and for once, just focus on what was good.

But he also didn't want to waste Sasaki, Yagi, and Togata's time. Yagi also looked somewhat nervous and shaken, and while Midoriya had no idea what Yagi had been doing that morning, or where he even was, but he really didn't want to make things worse for the former Number One hero; that was just being selfish.

Sensing the smaller boy's distress, Shinsou gently pulled him closer towards him, "You okay?"

Midoriya let out a small rumble, pressing himself against the taller boy, and Shinsou looked up at Yagi, "Can I join?"

"I..." Yagi stared at Shinsou, before he not-so-subtly "whispered" at Midoriya, "Does he know?"

The greenette warily nodded, and Yagi heaved a small sigh of relief, "Alright then. You can join us, Young Shinsou. It shouldn't take more than half an hour. I'm so sorry to bother you with this... I just didn't want any miscommunication..."

"It's fine." Shinsou grunted, turning to the greenette, "Come on, Zuku. He said it wouldn't take long."

Midoriya just looked up, before he nodded.


	159. Chapter 159 - I'll drop the tiniest seed

Togata pushed open the door that Yagi had called him too, "Hey All Might-sensei!"

Amajiki trailed in shyly behind him, almost hiding behind the cheery blonde, as Sasaki walked into the room, looking around. His eyes caught onto Midoriya and Shinsou, sitting on one side of the couch, and he raised an eyebrow, "I understand Midoriya being here... as he's been helping you with some stuff... but what about the other... uh... Your name is Shinsou, I believe?"

Shinsou nodded, taking a long, awkward sip of his coffee, as Midoriya leaned forward, peering at the Pro Hero and the two members of the Big Three, cradling his coffee in his hands gently.

"Ah, welcome!" Yagi smiled, "Please, sit down! We have some things to discuss."

It took a few seconds for Sasaki to settle down into an armchair by the side of the room, and for Togata to sit down next to Shinsou, with Amajiki awkwardly wiggling between his friend and the armrest of the couch.

"First off, congrats on mastering Black Whip..." Yagi stated, as Togata scratched his neck, "Well... I wouldn't say I mastered it... especially in comparison to Permeation. I've only used it for about a week now... plus, I did have some help from Tamaki... did you know that he could turn his individual fingers into tentacles? He really did help me quite a lot with learning how to use Black Whip. I can only maintain it for a couple of seconds, but at my low level, it's already a pretty powerful supporting quirk!"

"That's very nice. The faster you learn the basics of how to use these new quirks... the more prepared you would be in the event that you would need to use them." Yagi nodded, and Sasaki spoke up, "So... you were trying to do some research into the other... _potential_ quirks that Mirio could end up developing due to One for All... right?"

Yagi nodded, "In the end, I couldn't find everything. Despite this, you must move forwards to the next step. I've compiled all the details I could find about One for All's previous users... Unfortunately... I couldn't find any leads on the second and third users. Young Midoriya's also been doing his best to try and help me with my research, but given the era back then, and the multi-faceted nature of One for All... there's nothing about them in the records. If the past users realized that One for All would pass their quirks down, they might have left something behind themselves. but we cannot do anything to change it at the moment."

"Ah, so that's where Midoriya's being disappearing too after lessons." Togata smacked his palm with his fist, "I was looking for him a couple of times to see if he could analyze Black Whip."

Sasaki frowned, "If Mirio can use the quirks of the past users... maybe something other than the quirks are also stored within All for One?"

"Nope!" Togata shook his head, and Yagi shrugged, "If there was some way to contact the pass users through One for All... I've definitely not experienced it. Given the fact that Black Whip didn't even manifest for me... it is very possible that Young Mirio is the only one who might have the potential to somehow contact them, if that is even possible in the first place."

"Alright. Let's get back on track." Sasaki nodded.

Amajiki cautiously picked up the notebook, and started flipping through it, "So, forgive me if I'm wrong... but the fifth user was... Lariat?"

"Real Name: Banjo Daigoro. Quirk: Black Whip. Because of the strings of energy he could shoot out, he was well suited for binding enemies and maneuvering in midair." Yagi nodded.

"Not to be insulting... I know that there are some abilities that may seem powerful, but are really difficult to execute, just like Permeation..." Togata looked through the notebook over Amajiki's shoulder, "But I have a feeling that if these quirks were used in our time... on their own, they would be overshadowed pretty easily."

"You're not wrong in that regard. Your generation focuses on quirks way too much, and only consider sheer power, as opposed to how creative a quirk can be used. It's not their fault for thinking that way... given the past... but it's resulted in a lot of problems." Yagi sighed, glancing at Midoriya, promptly shutting up as the greenette lowered his head subtly, "All for One was obsessed with One for All. It was an age when evil wielded a degree of power that's hard for us to imagine nowadays. All for One went around crushing the strong because there was nobody who could defy his sheer malice and control. He went around stealing powerful quirks for himself. It was much easier to pass the quirk on to someone with a less flashy and obviously powerful quirk, someone that would fly under All for One's radar for a bit of time."

"That does make sense." Amajiki turned away, "And if used properly... any quirk can be strong."

"But based on his description, I don't think All for One would be interested in quirks that involved experience and training." Togata stated, "If he has so many quirks, it would literally take forever to train using each quirk individually to refinement."

"But obviously, once All for One did pinpoint who ended up with One for All... he would chase after them relentlessly. Writhing in that hellscape, as they lay down to die.. the past users made sure the power would reach the future. They weren't really chosen ones. They were just looking to pass down the quirk until it got powerful enough for someone to defeat All for One." Yagi admitted, "Through all those battles... all they could do was receive the quirk and then entrust it to another. They all died young."

"So... which quirk do you think would appear next?" Togata tilted his head, "Blackwhip kind of appeared out of the blue... but it was actually pretty useful in that fight. Sure, I could have phased through all the debris thrown my way, but using Blackwhip to just grab onto everything was a much better solution, and helped to prevent casualties and more damage along the road."

"I'm not too sure, to be honest." Yagi sat back, sighing, "It seems like a quirk may only manifest when it is needed. Why Blackwhip didn't manifest with your fight with Overhaul is also a mystery; I heard that there was a lot of falling debris, and there was a lot of damage done. Blackwhip would have be very useful. Why did it only manifest now?"

"Well... it seems like One for All is hiding many secrets than we don't know about, and it is more sentient than it seems." Sasaki pushed his glasses up, "It is possible that the quirk feels that something is going to happen, and it's trying to prepare for it somehow."

"Uh... what could possibly happen that would cause a two century old quirk to panic?" Shinsou suddenly spoke up, sitting up straight, "Don't you think that... it's something that we should be worried about."

Sasaki turned to Shinsou, "We know that something is going to happen. I know a lot of you can feel it. We just do not know what... and to what extent. We do not have any concrete evidence, though, and one wrong move by the Hero Commission could send everyone into a frenzy. At such a crucial time, we cannot afford to turn civilians against us; that never turns out well, and especially now, that would just result in more casualties. Once we have concrete evidence and a proper game plan, then the Hero Commission would make the necessary arrangements and announcements."

"What about our parents?" Amajiki shakily spoke up.

"I don't know. It is unlikely that the Hero Commission would get kids involved in this. I don't believe that they'll be that dumb. As strong as you kids are, you're not ready for something like this yet, not even you third years. They might ask you to help with evacuations, but that's probably the bare minimum that you would be involved in." Sasaki replied.

Midoriya let out a small shudder, and Shinsou gently patted his back.

"I think that's enough for today. You guys can go." Yagi sighed, "If there's anything weird going on with One for All, or if some other quirk appears... just call us."

* * *

The second that they were allowed to leave, Midoriya instantly returned to the dorms with his coffee.

"Heya!" Kaminari waved, wiping tears out of his eyes as he clicked away at his laptop. He had connected it to the television, and was playing some game that had stickmen for people, and his character seemed to be trying to steal something from a museum. The stickman had a gun, and he shot some cyan circle beneath a huge gem, before shooting an orange portal right above him.

The gem was somehow fell out of the portal on top of him, but it was most likely too heavy, and when the stick figure tried to catch the gem, both the stick figure and the gem began falling into the cyan portal and out of the orange one in a continuous, never-ending loop, making Kaminari burst out laughing again, until the word "Fail" appeared on the screen.

There was a huge paragraph under it, but Shinsou wasn't bothered to read it.

Jiro was sitting on the couch, tapping away on her phone, but it was obvious that she was also watching Kaminari play from the small giggles that escaped from her whenever Kaminari made a stupid choice.

"What are you playing?" Shinsou asked, peering over Kaminari's shoulder to look at his computer screen.

"Henry Stickmin Collection." Kaminari laughed, "It's so stupid that it's hilarious!"

"Says you!" Jiro smirked, and Kaminari just turned around, pouting, "Jiro, stop making fun of me!"

Midoriya used that opportunity to slink off to his room, not even bothered to close his door, placing his coffee on his table before flopping into his bean bag. Reiko and Ryuto had somehow managed to get into his room, and when they noticed Midoriya flop onto his bed, they immediately shot towards him, cuddling up with the greenette.

He was tired, very tired, but his brain was running at a hundred miles an hour.

Kurogiri might have been captured, but it didn't matter if they lost their teleporter if they literally didn't even know where the League of Villains were located. That, coupled with that Nomu that took almost everything Hawks and Enji had to defeat, and the fact that the quirk that had been passed down for centuries seemed to sense that something was going on and was revealing more of its quirks to Togata, didn't make things any better.

Midoriya already thought that All for One was bad enough. All for One was practically an overpowered sentient Nomu; he had the ability to think for himself, and was able to effectively utilize a huge variety of quirks in several devastating combinations.

From the bits and pieces that he managed to gather from the heroes when he heard them talking while they assumed he was asleep, All for One had been easily able to defeat Hakamata, Takeyama, Sakamata, and Nishiya. He was also almost able to defeat Yagi, had Aizawa not been there to occasionally erase his quirk to give Yagi a breather. He was pretty sure that Blackwhip would have been insanely helpful in defeating All for One during the Kamino Incident.

And there was something worse to come? Something even more powerful than All for One and his overpowered quirk?

Needless to say, Midoriya was getting worried.

"Looks like you're got the same thought process."

Midoriya looked up, and noticed Shinsou pushing his door open.

"Don't worry about it too much, alright?" Shinsou sat down next to Midoriya, "I don't think there's anything we can do now. Don't overthink it. You know that's not good for you."

Midoriya just groaned, and flipped onto his back, "Yeah... but... what can be worse than All for One?"

"I don't know. I know it sounds bad... but I seriously doubt that the Hero Commission would put a bunch of kids on the front line. If not from the lack of experience, but from the backlash from the general public if they ever found out. And if it is that serious that they do have to end up getting mere students to help... then I don't think we'd have much of a choice anyways. We'd have to fight, or we would risk losing everything." Shinsou admitted, "But for now, we'd just have to wait until the heroes get more information on what's going on."

The greenette let out a grumble, and Shinsou reached out, gently scratching Midoriya's head, eliciting a purr from the boy.

He just really hoped things wouldn't be so bad, but based on the information they had... the future looked bleak.

* * *

"There you are." Aizawa grumbled, "What are you doing out in the cold? The kids are inside playing games. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you joined them. It's warmer inside."

"Uh... I'm not doing that much... But it's fine. I needed a bit of peace." Yagi admitted, "How's Eri?"

"Fast asleep. I'm going to start training her next week. Midoriya's analysis abilities might prove to be useful, since he's seen Rewind in action from close up. Stop stealing him away."

Yagi chuckled, "I can help too, you know?"

"Much appreciated." Aizawa grumbled, huddling down into his jumpsuit, before Yagi sighed.

"What is it?" Aizawa groaned.

"I've decided to keep on living."

"...What?" Aizawa raised an eyebrow.

"I've decided to keep on living." Yagi replied, "But it's like... how do I put this... This feeling... like I'm powerless... it keeps bubbling up inside of me. Whenever the students grow and learn, I end up feeling frustrated that I can't do anything for them. It's torture."

Aizawa rolled his eyes, "Can't cure a workaholic, I guess."

"Worka... what?" Yagi turned to Aizawa, bewildered, and Aizawa sighed, "You've kept this country on its feet for decades. Coming down from that high is like a shock to you."

"As direct as usual..." Yagi let out a chuckle, and Aizawa merely grunted, "You can do plenty for them. You can live. You can be here... For a lot of people... that's all the push that they'll need to grow and improve."

"I know..." Yagi sighed, "But I can't help but think that I'm doing things wrongly."

"How so?"

"You know about my quirk... right? And Young Mirio?" Yagi scratched his neck, and Aizawa nodded, "I mean... we didn't really have a choice, after the Kamino Incident. And that thing about Togata using another quirk?"

Yagi sighed again, "I got Young Midoriya's help in doing research with me... and called him in for the meeting with Nighteye, but with all the information he's got... He's smart, and he's going to come to his own conclusions. I'm afraid he's going to start overthinking things again. He's always been so focused on helping others... and after everything he's been through, I forget that he's just a child. I think that I'm placing too much of a mental burden on him."

"You were the Number One hero. You valued your work over your own emotions." Aizawa dryly stated, "You're a completely insensitive idiot when it comes to reading the feelings of other people, and with someone like Midoriya, who doesn't openly show his emotions, it's even harder for you to sense when you're crossing the line. Now you know what you've done wrong, so don't do it again."

Yagi just blinked at Aizawa, before he closed his eyes, and let out a chuckle, "I guess you're right."

Aizawa turned around to walk back into the dorms, "Don't stay out too long. We don't need the former Number One hero to catch a cold."

* * *

After they had finished dinner, Kaminari had continued playing that game, and since Midoriya had nothing to do, he just sat in his bean bag, watching Kaminari play. It was supposed to be a distraction from All for One and Nomus and villains and the sort, but really, Midoriya had absolutely no idea what was going on. Kaminari's character seemed to be standing on some red thing in the middle of the air. He clicked on something, which seemed to be acid or something like that, and his character instantly dissolved himself.

He didn't know how long he had been watching Kaminari play, but his brain was fried; he could _not_ understand what on earth was going on in the game. Reiko was settled on his lap, and Ryuto was snuggled up in the crook of his arm, and at some point, Kinu had raced over to cuddle with him.

"Hey, Midoriya, how you liking the game so far?" Ashido grinned, and turned away from the television screen, where Kaminari was spamming "Dance Off" despite the fact that it got Henry killed every single time, and laughing like a maniac the entire time.

She got no response, and the pinkette turned her head towards the green haired boy.

Midoriya's eyes were glued onto the television, his mouth slightly open, and Ashido was pretty darn sure that Midoriya had absolutely no idea what was going on in the game. Sure, Midoriya was a logical person, and while the game didn't necessarily follow all the rules of science, it was supposed to be a funny game.

She could almost see the cogs turning in his head as he tried to make sense of what was going on, his fingers twitching slightly.

"Mido?" Ashido waved her hand in front of Midoriya's face as Kaminari selected "Dance Off" again, which resulted in the main stick figure character of the game getting whacked in the face by a metal hand for the umpteenth time that day, and still got no reaction from the greenette.

Ashido promptly turned towards the kitchen, where Shinsou was getting himself a nice warm cup of coffee. He didn't care that it was night time; he wanted his coffee.

"SHINSOU! HELP! I THINK WE BROKE MIDORIYA!"

Even her shout wasn't enough to snap Midoriya out of his stupor, and Shinsou poked his head out of the kitchen, "What?"

Ashido gestured wildly at Midoriya, who was still staring at the screen, looking like he had just fried his brain, "I...don't know?! Help?!"

With a fresh cup of coffee in hand, Shinsou stalked over to Midoriya, and sat down next to him, "Zuku?"

There was still no response, but they could hear an odd sound that was gradually growing louder and louder. It sounded like an indistinct grumbling sound, but they really couldn't make out where the noise was coming from.

"Are the lights broken?" Kaminari looked up, but the lights didn't flicker, so Kaminari just turned back to the game.

After looking around the room, Shinsou realized that the sound was coming from Midoriya, and he leaned in closer. Midoriya's voice was so soft that he was barely able to hear anything, but he was able to make out any words.

_"... shouldn't be able to do that, the magnet shouldn't be able to pull the airship in. The magnet can't be strong enough to do that... and Henry is very light compared to the airship... and even if the magnet was strong enough, it won't be the airship that's being pulled in... and how do you even turn into a shadow, a shadow doesn't even have matter, how do you just make matter disappear like that? It's not like that device can create a black hole or something like that... How do you even print yourself onto a piece of paper and turn something that's three-dimensional into something two-dimensional, and then pop back out as a three-dimensional being? How does that not kill you in the first place? How can a force gun give you enough propulsion to blast you back into a helicopter?... How is bashing the helicopter into someone a good idea?... Why is dancing even an option when it's clearly not going to work? How do you just make blocks appear out of thin air? How does dancing as a distraction even work? How -"_

"Zuku? You still there?" Shinsou reached out, gently poking Midoriya in the nose. Midoriya blinked, before he looked to the side, noticing that Shinsou was sitting next to him, though he didn't seem to realize that he had been mumbling under his breath.

"Hito?"

"Don't overthink it." Shinsou smirked, and Midoriya just huffed softly.

"Are you sure he's okay?" Ashido asked, and Shinsou and Midoriya just shared a look; they weren't going to tell the others about what they knew. They weren't going to throw this burden on the others, not yet.

"Yeah. He's fine." Shinsou just nodded, before he moved to sit next to Midoriya.

He took a sip of his coffee as Kaminari clicked "Dance Off", and it was only a matter of seconds until Henry got smacked in the face again.

Shinsou nearly spit out his coffee, and choked, "Excuse me, what the fuck was that?!"

Ashido and Kaminari burst out into hysterical laughter, and Midoriya glanced at Shinsou with a knowing look that practically screamed, _"See?"_

Shinsou just glared back, and puffed out a cheek in indignation.


End file.
